The long, slow tale of Kris, Paul, Berto and Mirando, four people who live in the same creaky old house, but don't know each other. New chapter updates every 2 months.
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
Devil's Candy
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A lush fantasy about boy genius Kazu Decker, the girl he constructed for his 9th grade science project, and the world of devils and monsters they live in.
Monster Pulse
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Four kids run afoul of a creepy secret organization's experiments, which turn their body parts into fighting monsters. Part sentimental coming-of-age story, part monster-training shonen manga, with just a bit of sci-fi body horror.
Little Red & Wolf
Aoi Maneki
Delve into the daily lives of two famous fairytale characters, and their adventures in this big weird world we all live in.
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things
Kelly Turnbull
A weekly comic celebrating the finer things in life. Like manly men, lumberjacks, and time traveling special ops agents.
Demon Street
Aliza Layne
Two kids explore a world full of monsters and magic trying to find their way home again. But when home has been stolen from you, where do you go to get it back?
Heroes of Thantopolis
Izzy Strontium Hall
A living boy fights to save the City of the Dead.
Demon's Mirror
Harry Bogosian
Based loosely off of "The Snow Queen", a story by Hans Christian Andersen, we see things take a different turn as the demons become central characters, and the side characters stick around. Yup, that's the only differences. Enjoy!
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
Starhammer
J.N. Monk, Harry Bogosian
A teen girl inherits a powerful alien artifact and proceeds to make a series of increasingly poor decisions
Never Satisfied
Taylor Robin
Lucy Marlowe, a magician's apprentice, competes against other apprentices for an important, magical, Goverment Job.
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
Helvetica
J.N. Wiedle
This story follows Helvetica's quest to uncover who he was in life, his existential crises, and his struggle to to make death worth living.
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
Sufficiently Remarkable
Maki Naro
Two young women living in Brooklyn discover that you're always coming of age.
Tove
Severin
The end of the world is coming, and Tove doesn't want to be a hero, but SOMEONE has to look after her little brother.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
The Hunter of Insania
Aoi Maneki
Wiol Alkko sells fake magical objects to those desperate for cures. When he tries to scam a real witch, she curses him: within a year, Wiol must learn and respect magic, or succumb to corruption of body and mind.
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
Jailbird
Charlie Davis
An all-ages comic about a recently escaped prisoner's struggle to understand the outside world, and vice-versa. Also, a magic cape!
Anarchy Dreamers
Emily Ree
Sparkly undead kids fight society's worst Nightmares in this pastel-punk urban fantasy coming-of-age!
Go Get a Roomie
Clover
Experience the queer journey of an upbeat hippie and the friendships she makes along the way! A tale of self-discovery and love of many forms.
The Glass Scientists
Sage (S.H.) Cotugno
A gaslamp fantasy comic about the life and times of a ragtag group of mad scientists and their enigmatic leader, Dr. Henry Jekyll.
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Wychwood
Varethane
When Tiara's pyrokinesis is finally noticed, she is captured by a magical research organization for study. If she cooperates, she could be helping to save humanity from a dire threat - but can she trust them?
Between Failures
Jackie Wohlenhaus
The low stakes adventures of an assorted group of 20 somethings trapped in the declining years of American retail. They are naughty and say lots of swears.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
The Din
Karin (Karrey)
The Din changed the world, mankind & its technology. Gregg Emilio dreams of flying in a sky that hasn't carried airplanes in a century.
Ghost Junk Sickness
Studio CARTRIDGE, Laura Lee
Two hunters try to survive and end up being pushed to pursue a deadly bounty dubbed "The Ghost".
Witchy
Ariel Slamet Ries
In the witch kingdom Hyalin, the strength of your magic is determined by the length of your hair.
MASKLESS
kickingshoes
In a world where people can wield the magic of elemental Masks, all Ashe wants to do is help. Maskless and useless, with dreams of fire and smoke on the back of his tongue, he finds himself on a strange, dangerous path to uncovering the secrets of these incredible objects, and the source of the monsters plaguing his home.
Ozzie the Vampire
Eric Lide
Ozzie and her best friend Kimmy are your average everyday normal art students – except one is an immortal vampire with superpowers and the other possesses a magic talking grimoire. Also they have to save their town from a demonic invasion.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
Laws and Sausages
Zach Weinersmith
Your cartoon guide to the American governement!
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
Peritale
Mari Costa
A fairy godmother with no magic tries her best to successfully fulfill a Fairytale and win the respect of her peers.
No Need for Bushido
Suburban Samurai, J W Kovell
The flash of a blade, the clash of steel! A runaway princess and her samurai companion navigate a fractured country on the brink of war.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Spinnerette
Krazy Krow, Rocio Zucchi, Pablo Rey
When a lab accident gives Heather Brown spider powers and six arms, she does what any midwest comic geek would do: Become Ohio's #3 superhero!
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Awkward Zombie
Katie Tiedrich
Gags and goofs about videogames and the things that happen in them.
Girl Genius
Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
The Mash
L.F. Garcia, Danigami
In a world shrouded in mystery and threatened by great evil,a young mummy prince will use his new life to unite with other monster children to save it.
Novae
KaiJu
A historical romance with a touch magic and a dash of astronomy. It chronicles the romantic adventures of Sulvain, a sweet tempered necromancer and Raziol, a passionate 17th century astronomer.
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
Parisa
Ellen K
Two friends, Nolan and Gwen, take it upon themselves to escort the amnesiac spirit Lelief across the world of Parisa.
The Sanity Circus
Windy
Magic, monsters and mysteries await in the odd city of Sanity. It's up to Attley and a colorful group of characters to find out just what is going on.
Sam & Fuzzy
Sam Logan
Troubled by gangster rodents, lovesick vampire stalkers, or confused ninja assassins? Don't panic! Sam and Fuzzy are here to help. (For a reasonable fee.)
Awaken
Koti Saavedra/Flipfloppery
Superpowers, monsters and conspiracies. Piras, the spoiled Dameschi heir, fights to recover his identity after becoming a terrorist!
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
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I want to think that’s what any decent person would do. He trusts AG not to hurt him, or I imagine he does, and he recognizes that she’s taking this too far. I don’t think a random passerby would do this because they don’t know that AG wouldn’t turn on them, but Danny has reason to believe he’d be safe even if he pulls her off. I know people give him flack, but in this comic so far he really hasn’t made utterly unreasonable mistakes and he generally tries to do the right thing.
I imagine he was conflicted about whether or not to interfere before he went down, but once Blaine’s no longer an immediate threat there isn’t as much grey area. Blaine deserves a lot of things, but Amber doesn’t deserve to become a murderer.
Thank goodness Danny was there. Blaine totally deserves whatever Amber does to him, but murder is a much more serious charge than assault if this gets out.
Pummeling somebody who’s already down is never self-defense (assuming no guns present). You are not defending if you are attacking.
“Prevention” of some imagined future threats also isn’t self-defense. The threat has to be imminent.
Dogg, I don’t know how many fights you’ve been in… But just because someone is on the ground does not mean the fight is over. Yes, according to the law that is the end (in many states). But in real life? Hell no – I’ve seen a man get shot FOUR TIMES in the chest and keep coming without even slowing down.
Please, she’s a masked vigilante; they’d have to figure out her identity before they could pin any charges on her, and we all know the Campus Police version of Commissioner Gordon would deny any knowledge.
Sadly, I guess about half the vanilla hard core porn videos would qualify for that moniker. Most of the other half is advertised as “amateur” or similar.
No wonder she never takes off her gloves! Still, kind of makes you wonder how she doesn’t recognize Amber considering that Amber shish-kebabed her hand.
Not a single person has recognised Amber. It’s getting really silly every single comic “wow how didn’t (Danny/Dorothy/Blaine/Sal) recognise it was her they must be stupid” when this is obviously a Clark-Kent type universe.
You misunderstand. In this case Jordan isn’t asking “why didn’t Sal recognise Amazi-Girl is Amber,” the question is “why didn’t Sal recognise ‘Amber the fellow student Sal dismissed as a weirdo’ as ‘Amber the girl who stabbed Sal with a knife’.”
It might be a reasonable slip on Sal’s part (years ago, only saw her briefly both times, etc) but it’s a different question.
Yeah, but her hair, body language, and glasses (not to mention the difference in ages) is so different that *I* barely recognize Amber as Amber, and I wasn’t full of adrenaline when I first laid eyes on her.
One time I was at the mall when I was supposed to be in school, when who should come down the corridor but my dad. I took off my glasses and put them in my pocket and brushed my bangs back and he didn’t even look twice when he passed right by us. Going in the opposite direction, too, so we were briefly face-to-face.
It’s surprising how much we rely on very broad cues to recognize even people we know quite well; change your body language, change something as fundamental to your face as glasses, and meet them somewhere they aren’t expecting you, and if you don’t do anything to attract their attention they will skip right over you. Once avoided a girl who’d been actively *looking* for me by taking off my perpetual hat and, again, my glasses; she sat right beside me with her friends as I was reading for about five minutes, and again, didn’t even notice me.
Frankly, I’d be surprised, given how much Amber’s changed, and the difference in the two scenarios under which they’ve met, if Sal *did* recognize her. Mind you, if she ever happens to see Amber crying and borderline-hysterical at a gas station, there might be a sudden realization of why Amber had looked vaguely familiar.
And yet Sal, who is taller, older, more composed, and now with straighter hair, was easily recognised all of these years later by Amber, in spite of so many cues changed. Why is this a one-way street?
Oh gee, I dunno, I could guess it’s either one of two things: Amber has a better memory, or Amber was much more mentally scarred by the event that she has the memory of the person who used her only friend as a hostage. Sal was stabbed in her hand, and seems like much more the kind of person who can move on from something like that. She’s Sal after all.
“The day you stabbed me in the hand because I took your friend hostage in a misguided attempt to get my parents’ attention was the most important day of your life.
I would say that Amber was much more deeply traumatized by the initial encounter. Kinda like the scene from the (god-awful) Street Fighter movie when Bison is talking to Chun-Li. I paraphrase: “For you, the day I destroyed your village and murdered your father was the defining moment in your life. For me, it was Tuesday…”
Aye. This is why the basic trick for changing one’s identity (as a man, at least) is to shave and get a hair cut. Instantly, one looks completely different.
Never underestimate the importance of context when speculating on whether someone would recognize someone else. I know I’ve always had an issue with not immediately recognizing people when I see them in a different setting than I’m used to. Obviously, it’s not a problem with close friends, but if I run into someone from work outside the office, there’s a pretty good chance I won’t know them right away.
Eh, she was a little brunette girl at the time; now she’s a young brunette woman. People have a hard enough time remembering faces/physical traits of assailants shortly after an attack, as adults, when describing them to police- expecting someone to immediately recognize a person ten years after the fact when it happened in her own youth and her attacker has…. y’know, grown up, is expecting a bit much, I’d think.
She didn’t twist the blade, looked like it went in between the bones of her hand. Should be fine. well as fine as a stab wound that can imbed the blade into hood of a cop car could be.
Feeling unstoppable murderous rage? Eyes red and dry with hate? Clear up quick with Visine! Visine sold at stores near you, not an acceptable replacement for treatment for unstoppable rages.
I will admit though, that the first time I read through that part, I did think something looked wrong with her hand, but just attributed it to a weird art angle on Willis’ part.
Evilpenguin thought it was true that her (gender arbitrarily assigned via gravitar bias) next door neighbors are not her true parents. We now know this is a lie.
Actually, there are a lot of true parents out there. I wish luck finding them all.
That makes a disturbing amount of sense. Sal’s description of the police seems to imply that she remembers more about the incident than just what it was; she’s either pointing out how incompetent the cop holding the knife was or she knows what happened to Amber (but doesn’t recognize her anymore).
It’d also be risky for Blaine: Amber would have an emotional resource/influence other than Blaine, to whom she might mention the abuse and domestic violence.
None of the girls there would question it. Heck, WALKY wouldn’t question it. Anywhere else, for the sake of hiding it so people don’t ask questions, or by chance meeting ‘that crazy chick’ again, it’s needed. Plus, of course, all that sweet biking she does.
I don’t think he would qualify for either– Not broody enough to be Robin, not goofball enough to be BB. He’s more like Floyd Belkin, if anyone. Comes right apart when the chips are down.
Why would she mention it? Do people in your area make a habit of blathering the details of past trauma to anyone that will listen? (Note: If they don’t, you’d never know.)
Yeah it seems strange that Sal didn’t recognize her, but maybe her eyes were closed and full of tears the whole time Amber was being pulled away. You would definitely think you would try to get a look at whoever stabbed your hand though.
She probably remembers it, just doesn’t like to talk about it. (Also, don’t think she’s ever gotten a good look at Amber, so probably won’t recognize her around the school)
I don’t know about that, I manage to bring up the fact that I was dead several times a year. I mean how many other dead people have you had conversations with?
Geeze, must be happy fun times talking to you. But possibly important distinction: Was the time that you were dead explicitly tied to a time that you committed a felony as an act of rebellion against dismissive parents? If you had that much baggage attached to the story, would you be as eager to recount it? Now imagine that you’re a girl in a world where women are held to crazy standards of beauty, and the event gave you a disfiguring scar on the back of your hand. Hell, I know people who would never bring it up specifcally to avoid drawing attention to the scar.
Yes but if Amber killed Blaine she would go to jail. Blaine is a horrible, despicable person, but as far as we know he hasnt killed anyone. And I think things are better with Amber not incarcerated.
Aaron McGruder’s mashup parody of Tyler Perry and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Needless to say, Tyler Perry was not happy when that episode of The Boondocks aired.
Ya. although he still seems hopelessly confused, i was impressed he is physically restraining Amber, who despite being his girlfriend, is a superhero as well as being way tougher than he is.
Alternately, his spleen could have burst! It happened to a kid I went to school with. He got punched twice in precisely the wrong spot and his spleen ruptured and had to be removed. I think he made it nearly half an hour before going to the nurse’s office, but whenever he went to the nurse, he passed out almost immediately after entering her office. He had to get an emergency splenectomy, but in the end, he was fine. He has to be extra careful about his health now though– removing the spleen increases a person’s risk of infection. (the wiki page describes the spleen as essentially a huge lymph node)
personally, I vote that for Blaine. not only is it painful until treated, but it will be an inconvenience for the rest of his life.
My guess is that Blaine began his entire “she’s so troubled, but I’m doing the best a good dad can do with a horrible child like her” speech, and he probably said she was already in therapy or some other lie to keep her away from anyone who could take her side against him.
I’m not sure he’d recognize her, anyway. “Hey, Amazi-Girl, has anyone ever told you that you look just like my friend Amber except she has glasses instead of DEMONIC RED EYES?”
Could be that her right hand suffered nerve or tendon damage as a result of this and she had to switch her dominant hand, but Sal was holding the knife in her left hand at the start of the robbery flashback.
Her eyes are shut tight in pain, and I’m betting Amber would have been given a deal by the prosecutor to drop charges in exchange for an affidavit against Sal (and maybe some therapy or something). They wouldn’t have seen each other in court. This goes double if this version of Blaine also has ties to organized crime.
after some time in the hospital, Blaine goes home, and then Faz kills him with a sword. “That’s for leaving me tied up. Nobody abandons the Great Faz!”
Poor Amber. No wonder she’s so furious with Blaine, among her many other reasons. He goaded her when she was already traumatized into hurting someone, which she’s had to live with on her conscience all this time. No wonder she wants to be Amazi-Girl. She wants to atone for her guilty conscience and her feelings of being powerless for so long.
Considering when she saw Sal again earlier that day she flipped out and went to attack her AGAIN her conscious doesn’t seem to have entered into the equation.
It seems like she responds to feelings of powerlessness with anger. The fact that this behavior is inspired by Blaine could make her conflicted thus resulting in two identities.
I don’t know where you’re getting that from. http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/weirdo/
She didn’t go to attack her. She went to get the hell out of there. she then compartmentalized it by changing into her Amazi-Girl clothes until she got ahold of herself(she said she wouldn’t even be Amazi-Girl right then except she lost her shoe, remember?)
You mean be generally awesome and put jerks in their place with bizarre imunity? Yes, she Ambered it up good (since you’re speaking about current events).
Still curious how Willis explains her not getting in trouble for violent assault though. I mean, Sal’s hand could have been ruined, and she was already in police custody.
how the hell has Amber not gotten therapy, I mean even considering that Blaine is Blaine, surely her mother would have done something after hearing about this
Mom was abused by Blaine too, so even if she had thought of therapy for Amber, Blaine would have struck that down, not to make a bad pun.
I also think that Stacy is none too bright and not very emotionally available for Amber. Remember how she went off with Dr. Rosenthal on parents’ weekend and really failed to show up.
Also, bear in mind that therapy only works if you’re open to it working. Amber could have gone and just refused to talk or avoided anything of substance.
Draga Noche, I don’t think Ambers mother could do anything. I think Blaine beat her more than he abused Amber verbally. I could be wrong, but think this was ‘brought up in a storyline” ?
What were all those red panels about? And why is Amazi-girl having flashbacks for Amber? Amazi-Girl isn’t even in the tags anymore! What’s going on!!!!?
Chekhov’s Gloves. Notice, even in her school uniform, Sal hides her right hand. Well played, Willis. Unfortunately you know this means I have to uncover your other Chekhov accessories in the story thus far.
I said it yesterday, but I REALLY hope something happened to Amber for this! You can’t just go around stabbing people after the threat is gone. She deserves to be detained almost as much as Sal does if not JUST as much.
It’s assault with a deadly weapon, committed directly in front of two police officers and probably on tape. I don’t see how she could have gotten out of being punished by the law in some considerable way.
An assault committed by an already emotionally traumatized minor against the very person who caused the trauma will probably result in some court mandated therapy. Odds are that Amber saying that Blaine egged her on will help her case, and quite possibly lead to the divorce once her mom doesn’t have the luxury of pretending Blaine isn’t a complete monster any more.
I’m not saying you can. Just saying that if someone DOES do that and they are a minor they aren’t going to get the full brunt of the law the way an adult would. Also, Amber is demonstrably traumatized and unhinged right now, which might also mitigate things somewhat.
You seem to be forgetting that amber is white and middle to upper middle class and Sal is black and just tried to rob a convenience store.
None of that actually means Amber shouldn’t face consequences for stabbing someone, but when combined with the other stuff, there are probably more than a few cops and judges willing to go very easy on her. This would also go a ways to explaining Sal’s views on race.
Sal literally grabbed Ethan and held a knife to his throat. Depending on the jurisdiction, the charges from that would be a hell of a lot more severe than Amber’s battery. And, I’m sorry, are you really using the word ‘deserves’, here? Amber was literally in the physical and neurological state of shock, in diminished capacity, when her abusive father excoriated her, denounced her, and aimed her at Sal like a bullet in a gun. It’s unquestionably wrong that Amber injured Sal, but the idea that she ‘deserves’ to be imprisoned or detained as much as Sal seems ludicrous, to me.
Considering Blaine is a compulsive liar, chances are he’d just say that Amber just flipped out for no reason, and depending on how out of it Amber is at the moment she might not be able to correct him.
Therapy for her shouldn’t really be avoided at this point though, even if Blaine says she’s seeing someone already, SOMEONE would probably check just to make sure.
I seriously doubt any court would punish a kid for being driven wild after a hostage situation. I certainly wouldn’t. It’d be adding insult to injury.
Also was Sal even punished by the law? I don’t think the law sends you to Catholic boarding school. That was her parents. Who also sent her enough pocket money she saved up and bought a pretty sweet looking bike and leathers.
Well, dunno how I feel about Amber stabbing an unarmed woman. Definitely a underhanded tactics on her part. A wrist-y business all around. If I was Sal I would definitely gives her the finger, though she’ll still be punished by the long arm of the law. This might have been a really thumb decision on Amber’s part, even if it inspired the seemingly unopposable persona of Amazigirl.
To quote the late Owen Hart: I tried to be a nice guy, I tried to play by the rules…You turned your backs on me! I snap! I was a victim! Well, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Now, let’s examine Amber/Amazi-Girl saying “Never again” in the last panel. Is she saying “never again” as in “never again will I be helpless” or “never again will you have this kind of power over me” (like she did before she went all medieval on Blaine a few days ago), or is she saying “never again” as in “I will never need to be (or can’t risk being) Amazi-Girl again”?
You can take my boyfriend hostage. You can try to manipulate and extort me for your own abusive ends. But if you so much as try to order that terrible food, I WILL END YOU!
Oh, I know there are other possibilities; I just didn’t want to take the time and space to try to list them all. I *DID* want to toss out the idea that because of this loss of control beatdown she delivered Amber might come to the realization that being Amazi-Girl merely allows her to be an asshole herself. Hence, I was positing that “never again” could be interpreted as a clue that this may be one of the last times we see Amazi-Girl … and her absence in the tag cloud the past couple of days would seem to be a confirmation of that conclusion.
Although the absence of Amazi-Girl in the tags could also be taken that it was Amber that opened up this can of whoop-ass and she was just wearing Amazi-Girl’s costume. I’ve read enough of this strip to know that Willis’ mind has more curves and twists than a macaroni factory and nothing is for certain until we either see it for ourselves or Willis says so.
Wait are you saying it’s not “never again will I be helpless”? Because that’s the one I thought she was going for. She will “never again” stand by while someone important to her is threatened and be helpless to do something.
I read this as (at least) three separate meanings / emotional contexts:
Your interpretation is the first, I think – the one Amber consciously meant when she started saying it in Amazi-Girl’s voice. But that didn’t last long, and I read the second – when she dropped the voice – as the point where Amber lost control and her rage at Blaine takes over. Now it’s more like “Never again will I let you bully me” – and notice that Amber’s seemingly triggered by Sal saying “just give me what I fucking want” (it’s important enough to say twice, so I’m pretty sure Willis meant us to notice it). I’ll bet heavily that Amber’s heard exactly that kind of “look what you made me do” emotional/physical abuse combo from Blaine: “This is your fault, why can’t you just give me what I want, I wouldn’t have to do this.”
Then in today’s strip, there are just so many implications packed into the two words: first, I think Amber’s somewhat in shock, and is numbly repeating the one thing she’s been focussed on for the last few seconds. There’s conscious recognition, I think, of the second meaning above; that she was talking directly to Blaine about her own situation. And then there’s all the stuff that we as readers are supposed to draw from it even if Amber herself doesn’t consciously recognise them yet – that this isn’t healthy behaviour, that Amber’s coping mechanism is destructive to herself and others, that Amazi-Girl must stop. I would like to think that Amber’s acknowledging here that she lost control and became the thing she hates – “I must never do this again, I must never again give in to my rage, I must never again violently lose control” or even “never again must I let myself be goaded into violence” – but only time will tell, and I don’t think she recognises that on a conscious level yet. The wavy balloon tail indicates her physical exhaustion, but I think it’s pointing to her mental exhaustion and brokenness too.
Incidentally, this also makes sense of Blaine calling her a “spaz” in the flashbacks. I don’t know how that insult is used in the US, but here in the UK it wouldn’t be used for a docile, withdrawn person but for someone who violently lost control – usually a bullied kid who occasionally “flipped”, and not just as a one-off. I doubt the flashback scene was the first time Blaine’s seen Amber lose it like that, though it was probably the most serious; and as today’s strip proves, it certainly wasn’t the last.
Wall of text to say: Damn, Willis is good at this.
From Wikipedia: “In American slang, the term “spaz” is largely inoffensive, and is generally understood as a casual word for clumsiness, sometimes associated with overexcitability, excessive startle response (“jumpiness”), excessive energy, or hyperactivity.”
Yeah, that’s why I was confused that Blaine was using it as such a threat. I mean, being a spaz isn’t exactly a GOOD thing, but on a scale of one to ten, I’d rather be a spaz than a bongo. ‘Psycho’ or ‘nutjob’ comes closer to the UK definition of ‘spaz’ than…well….spaz.
And just like that, the question changes from “Should Amber be doing this to Blaine?” to “Is this going to happen again the next time she gets triggered?”
Which is why I think that Blaine really won this one. Blaine can still play her like a puppet, now that he’s figuring out what each string does.
And what’s stopping him from throwing her under the bus for assaulting him? If he’s smart enough, he’d know how to use authority figures in his favor, and Amber has given him more than enough ammo.
Yeah, I’m not really thinking that getting the crap kicked out of him was all part of his master plan, especially since he didn’t seem to realize that it was Amber he was talking to.
That still banks on him knowing that Amber was the one who assaulted him, though. Given how stubbornly determined Blaine seems to view his daughter as pathetic and weak–even in the face of, as we now know, multiple counts of her proving herself to be exactly the opposite, so powerful she is potentially incredibly dangerous–I don’t think it’s likely he’ll realize it’s Amber behind that mask at all. At least, he won’t if she comes to her senses quickly, and books it the hell out of there before Blaine gets back up.
Of course, I could be completely wrong. Maybe Blaine did recognize Amber, or will at some point in the aftermath of this mess. But if I had to guess at what’s going to happen next, I’d say that what Blaine will likely take away from this is that (1) the girl who beat him up and ruined his plans for Amber was some weirdo dressed up in a costume, and (2) said girl seems to care an awful lot about Danny Wilcox.
I really don’t think Amber’s the only one who ought to be worried about what Blaine could be planning after this.
For one, we don’t know if he’s worked out who Amazi-Girl is yet. He didn’t know when she showed up, and while it’s not a huge leap in logic we’ll have to wait till he wakes up to know if he made it.
For two, let’s consider what happened here. Amber’s abusive father came onto a campus he is not allowed to enter to lure another student off alone so he could use him to get to Amber. When Amber did show up, she tried to get Danny away from a dangerous man, and Blaine physically assaulted him to keep him from leaving. Amber attacked Blaine in Danny’s defense–violently, yes, but after all Blaine is considerably older and bigger than she is. And Danny stopped her from hitting him once he was down.
I honestly don’t know what the official response to this would be, especially once you throw in the costumed vigilante. For sure Amber would be looking at mandatory therapy, and I don’t know what IU would do about assaulting fellow students. But Danny is witness that Blaine attacked him–and you could maybe make a kidnapping charge stick–and Amber was defending him, and unless Blaine’s record is squeaky clean I don’t see that going well for him. He might well not want official attention brought to this.
I don’t think the point is about official attention. I think Amber is off the hook regardless. I think the point is that if Blaine ever figures out that Amber did this, HE KNOWS HE CAN MAKE HER DO IT AGAIN. And he can, if he figures out how, use that AGAINST her. And he’s such a douche that he probably will.
……….Probably in about ten years, given how long it takes Willis to get through one day, but still. IT MAY HAPPEN. XD
While it’s possible that Blaine can come up with something, what with being a supervillain and all, I still feel like the ability to manipulate somebody into beating you to a pulp is of limited utility.
I’m sorry to say this, but if Blaine can cause this kind of reaction in Amber, even on the losing end, Blaine still has full control of Amber. It might not have been the reaction he wanted, but he’s still pulling Amber’s strings. Nothing good will come of this whole thing. Even beaten to a pulp on the ground, Blaine has won. All Amber did was give him more ammunition to use against her.
Blaine may not know its Amber, but Amber is still REACTING to Blaine. Is beating him to a pulp going to help her? Is revenge? What I’d like is if she can get FREE of him — both the external/real him AND the ‘him’ that she carries around inside her. She went to tell him to leave Danny alone & get out of town, cool, but during the interaction she LOST CONTROL OF HERSELF, didn’t she? I don’t care what Blaine deserved, I care about where Amber goes from here. (Though if this makes Blaine less Blaine-ish or less effectively Blaine-ish, then cool.)
I disagree. You forget that Blaine then physically accosted Danny, making anything that followed on his head. Amber/Amazi-Girl is at the very least ethically justified in doing anything short of murder and possible crippling to remove Blaine as a threat to her or Danny’s lives.
But now I raise a far more controversial point: how does Amber beating up Blaine give Blaine the victory? Is your idea of the high road really all that important?
I was unclear.
(1) Blaine used violence on Danny, she was right to use violence back. I’m even open to her using more than minimum necessary violence to try to convince Blaine to stay away. My point was she lost control of herself.
(2) I said nothing about “the high road.” I said she was reacting to Blaine.
She’s been living in reaction to Blaine. She’s not gotten free of Blaine and chosen her own life.
1) Even good therapy cannot completely undo years of abuse, as well as likely PTSD from the robbery. Who knows? Maybe Amber received therapy and is merely fucked up instead of catatonic.
2) Sal not recognizing Amber I’ll believe. Sal was focusing on Ethan and the store clerk, not the other kid. She never saw the person who wielded the knife. Some people’s faces change a lot when they mature. Mine didn’t, but I know friends who “grew into” their faces between 13 and 18. Glasses especially can alter a person’s face.
Out of curiosity, as I haven’t been able to keep up with comments on this part of the story, has anyone in the comments actually asked how bad Amber’s PTSD is and whether she’s ever had therapy for it?
Sad to say, the mental health system is kind of fucked up. So, even if she did get some court-mandated therapy, there’s really no guarantee that it did any good, or that some therapist didn’t actually inadvertantly contribute to Amazi-Girl’s creation by telling Amber to channel her anger in a more constructive direction.
Woo! Nice beat down, Amazi-Girl. Now get it together and scram before somebody calls the po-po’s and you get busted. No one will believe clueless Danny when he tells what happened and her old man won’t admit a girl kicked his ass, so she’s home free.
You’re saying killing is good, and stopping from killing (or at least brutally maiming) is evil? Such violent hatred never solves any more problems than it creates.
Have you considered that there is no such thing as Justice? It is all an idea we keep in our head. It is a social convenience, so that when people go around killing innocent people like Danny, society works together to stop them from such deranged actions.
Your idea of “justice” seems to be “if a person does something I don’t like, kill them. Kill Blaine for being an abusive asshole. Kill Danny for trying to stop me from killing Blaine.” This is evil, being unable to see that you aren’t the most important thing in the universe, and wanting to inflict yourself on the lives of others. This is why we say Blaine is evil, and from where I’m standing, your motivations aren’t any different from Blaine’s.
If you’re a Christian, you probably see no problem with thinking everyone is hopelessly wicked. Your response will be “you’re right, I’m no different from Blaine, and I deserve to be punished for eternity in Hellfire.” But nobody deserves that. There is nothing that anyone can do that is so evil in this short life that they deserve eternal torture. And God, the one who is doing the torturing, is no different from Blaine. He’s an abusive, jealous, divorcee who demands control, respect, worship even. He is not Love, He is not He is not unknowable, or perfect, He is the product of human minds. Punishing you because you are bad, then turning around and saying “I only do this because I love you.”
Tomorrow’s strip: The next day. Danny goes to see Amber.
Danny: “Uh, hey, Amber. OK, yesterday, I ran into Amazi-girl, and, well… it turns out she’s kind of crazy. I mean, I thought she was cool, but… she had this burst of rage and… well, she was doing all sorts of terrible things to your dad and I couldn’t really stop her. So, uh… I hate to have to tell you, but your dad’s in the hospital. And I’ve dumped Amazi-Girl, because she’s absolutely insane.
So did Amber go to juvenile hall for this or get some sort of recognition from the law that “Hey, stabbing ladies ain’t cool”, or did they just send her home with a strict lecture?
Wouldn’t it be a kick in the ass if it wasn’t actually Sal that robbed that particular store, but just Amber’s emotional state then and now, combined with the distance of time causing her brain to “fill in the blanks” when she sees a somewhat similar looking dark-skinned girl talking with her sorta-boyfriend?
The jail, sure. The stabbing’s a bit over-the-top. The two together lead to “Right, you’ve been stabbed, gone to jail, and spent year in Catholic boarding school. And since as far as we’ve know you’re not gay and this isn’t a porno, that probably wasn’t all that fun. So how are you, honey”
Okay, the first time you wrote this was okay, because I assumed you were kidding. Now, while I still assume you’re kidding, it’s become kinda creepy. Settle down your bloodlust, buddy.
Officer Friendly really should be worrying more about Amber’s other arm.
But I suppose I shouldn’t expect too much from the crack team that let a forteen year old girl disarm an officer and attack a subject in custody.
(Maybe that’s how Amber got out of this without time in juvie. “Now. We could charge the girl and testify, or–and hear me out on this one–we can let her with the glasses go and never speak of this again.”
He just never expected her to grab the knife that he was holding in his open, upturned palms, within easy arm’s-reach of the original perp, who hadn’t been cuffed yet.
Maybe I should change my earlier statement of “nothing good happens across the street from a mcdonalds” to “nothing good happens outside a convenience store”
Sal is people now, because she has apparently served her punishment and somewhat changed. Back then, she was just someone who had violently assaulted Amber’s friend. Mind you, she was in custody, which really nullifies the need to retaliate at that point. (tho I also think Amber was metaphorically / subconsciously stabbing Blaine at that point, in the only way her cracking mind could.)
Likely to reinforce his dominance. In any form of an abusive relationship, be it romantic, familial or otherwise, the abuser will go to great lengths to keep the abused submissive. I assume he was going to use Danny as a means to show in spite of her attitude at him when she was at school, when she was outside of her safe zone without others to help her she was still completely weak and helpless to protect those she cared about.
Granted as seen here, it doesn’t always end well for the abuser
It’s funny but this happens sometimes that abusers get shocked when they realize that everything they taught the person every little thing is used to put them in their place.
“You shouldn’t let people hurt your friends and do nothing about it you failure” (fast forward) “I am going to hurt your friend….oh shit”
Holy crap, she stabbed her! *Gasp* That’s why Sal wears gloves all the time! Also, Danny STILL doesn’t know?! How many pennies have to drop for him to see it’s Amber? I mean, she’s talking in her Amber voice!
Well, we can see that her mask is slipping (figuratively and litteraly), and Amazi-Girl/Amber beat up Blaine thoroughly. At this point, even Danny has to put two and two together.
Don’t forget she didn’t put on the AG voice until well after she met Danny and was worried he might cotton on… Danny has heard AG talk in ambers voice, and still didn’t put it together, never underestimate the power of Danny’s ignorance.
This one gave me a legit panic attack nightmare.
I imagined my dad was trying to shoot my family and even after all the shit he pulled on me and how I just let him do it because I was small and scared all the time, I pull the gun from him and just -bludgeoned- him to death.
30 times I hit him. It was like in a video game. I got a combo. And then I just got carted off to jail, laughing hysterically.
This just gave me a fucking nightmare and it’s fantastic and scary how well you portray the absolute fury that abusive people can get in meek people like me when we’ve HAD ENOUGH.
soooo….. white girl stabs brown girl…. brown girl gets indicted …. white girl gets pat in the head from her dad: “l’il brown b**** got what she deserved” … ” rekon that” says the cops with a smile and a wink.
“She hurt herself to play victim” says the prosecutor.. “Obviously…” says the court honor.
five years later.
Sal looks at Amber: “meh…all white girls with glasses look the same…”
Amber half glances at Sal: “this brown girl with STRAIGHT hair MUST BE that black curly girl from back then!”
Drakkin the alien’s family:white mother, black dad, two white siblings, two brown ones. I used to see myself as beige when i was young…. i got the super straight hair at birth… i swear.
Maybe. But this subplot , it strikes close to home, with the mixed marriage of my parents. Me, being raised in a Church of Scotia sponsored school, right in the middle of a strongly catholic country, makes a funny mirror.
Prejudice, like racism, rises its ugly head everywhere, and It is funny that I only came to understand it as an adult. In the school, it was a great thing to see kids from 5 o 6 countries’ heritage in a single classroom. There were not minorities, there was not a superior race at sight. Sometimes some white boy would be the Head Boy, and the next year a brown boy or a yellow one. The very idea of one race being superior to other was an abhorrent thought for the scotish teachers (long live the Queen, longer live to Scotland!). One school, were nobody would ever use a racial derogative and get away with it!. We were just proud of being alumni.
The problem came to hit me, once school was over and i found out how most everybody else would look at you and clasify your skills, knowledge and aptitudes based on your color. It was easier! The cholos exagerate their smarts! They are obviously dumb! Otherwise, how come the spanish conquered them and their country! And when I say most everybody else, I mean that sadly some of my fellow brown countrymen also think and say out loud that the other browns are dumb and inferior. The prejudice permeates the souls.
My first job: “Have you figured it out off the pictures?”, said my boss, once when i commented something i have read in a foreign magazine i had at hand. I didnt understand the question at first. It fell in place latter on. Obviously I wouldn’t be able to read english. I was brown! He had never read my Resumé.
My first appartment: “How come the robbers got into the building so easily? Have you noticed the new tennant?”
you got the idea. It happens. My nick is like that for “a reason”.
one serious question thou’.
why go the distance to the far away hand? why the right hand and not the left arm wich was closer? what was in her mind? is that a religious thing about punishment? what about “an eye for an eye”? is the Amazi-Girl an attonement thing? Is she only allowed to become enraged when she is her role of vigilante? Do that means that Amber is not allowed to be angry? Wich personality is repressing the other?
so in five panels, Amazi-Girl (or present Amber) went on a PTSD rampage, flashback Amber went insane, Danny did something that wasn’t naive or misguided and we figured out Amber has a more violent history than previously thought with Sal.
willis what the hell how did you even come up with this
There is no AG in this strip, just Amber, according to the tags. I think AG left at some point and this is all Amber. Amber who can’t stop hitting Blaine until she is totally exhausted.
Plus, were Sal’s gloves planned to hid a scar two years ago? Or just a happy fashion accessory?
Sal’s been wearing gloves all the time a whole lot longer than DoA has been a thing.
I’m finding it really interesting how fifteen-year-old quirks of Sal’s character design – her long, straight hair, wearing gloves all the time – are suddenly stealth plot points in DoA.
My guess is that Blaine was one punch away from being completely subdued, and now he’s had the time to get back up and blindside Amber with a boot to the face. Things go downhill from there.
Sal finds Blaine, and assumes he is innocent. Blaine then says”This weird bongo in a superhero costume was beating me up”. Sal recognizes her as the girl who stalked her. Sal and Blaine then work together to find Amazi-Girl.
I checked the other strips. We NEVER see Sal’s right hand. When she’s not wearing her glove it’s always behind her back or conspicuously just off-panel. Damn you, Willis, you are a crafty one.
Ok.. now she needs to rip off the mask and yell “Oh, and I’m Amber by the way you STUPID FUCKING MUPPIT! WE LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME except for this mask! What are you a character from a superman comic?!”
You mean just like every single other character in the comic can’t recognize her? Like Blaine can’t recognize his own daughter? Willis has pretty clearly (or as clearly as Willis gets about these things) that as far as Amazi-Girl goes, everyone *is* a character from a Superman comic. They can’t recognize her because she wears a mask.
Since Faz and Blaine were originally together when they showed up in Amber’s room, am I the only one who is wondering where Faz is throughout all this? Or is he going to become the Chuck Cunningham of DoA?
I don’t she got what she deserved and it could have gone a lot worse for her, cashier pulls a gun or maybe her knife slips across Ethans throat etc etc
I figured it was just the follow-through on a two-handed uppercut. But it does fit nicely with the image of her with the knife upraised in the flashback…
Am I the only one who realized she just did her normal Amber voice and Danny is visibly shocked?
Although he could not be visibly shocked. It’s hard to tell when his eyes are black dots.
Hm. My prediction would be that he doesn’t figure it out from this, because otherwise I don’t know what the point was of Billie misleading him into thinking that Sal was Amazi-Girl. Unless Sal keeping Danny’s DS is going to be a huge plot point in a future storyline, I feel like we still have some personal drama that can milked from the identity mix-up.
Willis has been hinting on Twitter that both Blaine and Danny still have no idea that Amber is Amazi-Girl, regardless her voice being unchanged at this point. Disguise level: Clark Kent.
Danny just witnessed a felony assault–granted it couldn’t have happened to a better guy than Blaine, but Danny’s now in a helluva pickle. Does he tell the truth about what he’s just seen and to who? Dorothy? The police?
Really stretching here, but I think Danny knows that Amazi-Girl is Amber, but blurting that stuff out with Blaine around would be a very very bad idea. Not that he wouldn’t Dan it up, of course.
yeah I think so too, at this point he is going to know, and/or amber is just about to tell him and to unload on him. question is, is your typical fairly well-adjusted, pretty essentially healthy-home 18 year old boy ready for this shit, at all?
I’m glad he stepped in, and I hope she comes clean that it’s her. Or at least give him some sort of clue, because with Ethan off playing your local Hetero (though I know he loves her more than anyone, but with his own scrambled up feelings about himself, and the events of what happened that day finally being revealed, she probably doesn’t want to burden him), Dina still trying to understand social and emotional behavior, and Mike being Mike, Danny is all she got. And even though he Danny’d this up really bad, hopefully he can be there for the fall out because once that asshole wakes up I’m sure he’s going to want the last word. Though I wonder what he’s going to do, seeing as he can’t go to the cops. As far as we know Amazi-girl has only been seen around campus (and I’m sure wherever they are in town there are no witnesses. Even though that was a glorious beating, SOMEBODY would have stepped in earlier) so if he reports a blue and yellow costumed girl assaulting him he’ll end up giving himself away because then campus security will know he was on school grounds and I’m sure they’ll report him, and before we know it Amber’s mother will show up etc, etc. I don’t know but knowing this asshole he’s going to have the last word.
So why is this comic completely realistic EXCEPT for people’s abilities to see through masks? It’s hard for me to understand this incongruity. I see how it enables us to have this sort of intriguing storyline but it also tugs on my suspension of disbelief because EVERYTHING else is normal so it stands out like a sore thumb.
the only conceit is to let go the mask. please let it go. it does not have to be 100% realistic. everything else is normal? a masked vigilante having the opportunity to pay it back to her abusive father and understanding, really understanding that it’s all him? really? remember distinction between normal and believable.
Normal meaning stuff that actually occurs irl as opposed to in this universe.
And no, I won’t let it go, it’s disconcerting, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. It’s like this facet of the strip pushes things into the uncanny valley of believability.
Although in Danny’s case it is highly unlikely that he hasn’t made the Amber/Amazi-Girl connection, it is still completely realistic that no one else has. Amazi-Girl doesn’t go around handing out business cards (“In trouble? Call 555-AMAZING”) and only Danny has been close enough to her in both personas frequently enough to have reasonably gotten a clue.
As for Sal and Amber not recognizing each other, remember that the robbery/stabbing happened something like five years ago and took perhaps ten highly stressful minutes for the entire incident to go down; they have most likely had no contact during that intervening period. Now put glasses on one of the participants, completely change the hairstyle of the other, let ’em age from 13 to 18, and voila!
Finally remember that this whole incident got started when Amber was already stressed out over Ethan hanging out with Joyce (“You’ll fake it with her but not with me”) when she saw Sal with Danny — and now, in hindsight, it appears that she may have recognized Sal as the person she stabbed — and that’s when Amber’s train went completely off the rails.
Well I’m thinking of Blaine and Danny, primarily. It seems no one finds her sufficiently familiar to identify her, in general. It bugs me. I’m still reading this webcomic and enjoying it, but it’s not without what I consider flaws.
Its a real problem for me. People without glasses (going for contacts or such) or with radical differente hairdos are different people for me. Say, James Marsden (cyclops) without the googles. In other movies out of the franchise, I only find out after the credits roll. Used to happen to me with Samuel Jackson in most his ’00s movies. I have tried to rationalizate this issue, and came empty handed. Maybe I’m wired funny.
Oh, finally, Amber did something I don’t like, besides liking Danny- stabbing someone already apprehended who is also messed up and has issues of their own.
Oh come on, she didn’t know that! How was she suppose to know that Sal has her own personal turmoil? All she knows is that Sal hurt Ethan and made Amber feel weaker than she already feels. Amber was not in the right state of mind either. I am not saying that what she did is right, but you have to think about it in Amber’s perspective.
(past the expiration date on this comment, but I happened past and can’t not respond here.)
Cyan could’ve stopped at “stabbing someone” and I would’ve still been nodding my head vigorously. I feel sympathy for Amber, but as an act, this is pretty indefensible.
I’m reading through the archives for the second time and I’ve been keeping an eye on her hands. Sleeping with her gloves on should maybe have tipped me off the first time around that something was off (it didn’t), but the second time around I noticed that she always kept her right hand out of sight when she was wearing the schoolgirl uniform. Impressive, Willis!
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She got him. Indeed.
Looking at that hand in panel one, he seems to be begging her to stop.
Is anyone else actually…kinda proud danny stepped in there? instead of just staring at the fight with a dumbstruck expression?
I am. It fits Danny’s personality that he would step in rather than watch someone be killed.
I’m proud he stepped in only because he’s an idiot and completely unaware that’s Amber.
I’d like to think he’d help pound the bastard into the ground if he knew it was her.
I want to think that’s what any decent person would do. He trusts AG not to hurt him, or I imagine he does, and he recognizes that she’s taking this too far. I don’t think a random passerby would do this because they don’t know that AG wouldn’t turn on them, but Danny has reason to believe he’d be safe even if he pulls her off. I know people give him flack, but in this comic so far he really hasn’t made utterly unreasonable mistakes and he generally tries to do the right thing.
I imagine he was conflicted about whether or not to interfere before he went down, but once Blaine’s no longer an immediate threat there isn’t as much grey area. Blaine deserves a lot of things, but Amber doesn’t deserve to become a murderer.
Thank goodness Danny was there. Blaine totally deserves whatever Amber does to him, but murder is a much more serious charge than assault if this gets out.
Given how Blaine had grabbed Danny they could argue it was self-defense.
Pummeling somebody who’s already down is never self-defense (assuming no guns present). You are not defending if you are attacking.
“Prevention” of some imagined future threats also isn’t self-defense. The threat has to be imminent.
Dogg, I don’t know how many fights you’ve been in… But just because someone is on the ground does not mean the fight is over. Yes, according to the law that is the end (in many states). But in real life? Hell no – I’ve seen a man get shot FOUR TIMES in the chest and keep coming without even slowing down.
Not self-defense in relation to him grabbing Danny–it would be defense of another person.
Please, she’s a masked vigilante; they’d have to figure out her identity before they could pin any charges on her, and we all know the Campus Police version of Commissioner Gordon would deny any knowledge.
Well that definitely has to sting. Surprised Sal can use her hand after that.
I hope it wasn’t her masturbating hand.
My heart goes out to her if it is. Takes a long time to get that other hand into masturbating shape.
There is no better Gravitar for that comment.
I didn’t even notice. Thanks for making my day that much better
No, it really doesn’t. It just takes proper motivation.
It really isn’t a problem if you’ll just switch off regularly. Then you’ll be prepared in the event of a crisis, or a ‘two-fer’.
You have to master a technique commonly referred to as “speed-shifting.”
What does she masturbate to?
Guys with fancy British accents, so… Stephen Fry perhaps?
I’m straight but I’d whack off to Stephen Fry
Hate-fuck videos, maybe? Is that a thing?
Yes, that is a thing.
The next logical step would be Stephen Fry hate-fucking.
Sadly, I guess about half the vanilla hard core porn videos would qualify for that moniker. Most of the other half is advertised as “amateur” or similar.
“The Most Interesting Man in the World” commercials.
(I can neither confirm nor deny myself having been the inspiration for those commercials.)
And suddenly I have an entirely different explanation for Sal’s general level of bongoiness.
I might be cranky too if I couldn’t use both hands ‘stoke my fires’.
Meh, that’s toys are for.
Dude, some things not even transformers can cure.
…..oh, wait, you meant THOSE kind of….
TMNT toys can’t solve it either.
Or did you mean…
I believe they’re talking about My “Little Pony”.
Pokey Puppy is talking about the playthings from Pixar’s “Toy Story”.
You know, Mom’s toys …. Buzz and Woody.
You guys are all awesome.
Wasn’t even trying to make a call back, but here we are anyhow:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/03-answers-in-hennessy/noises/
Transformers can cure a wider variety of ‘ailments’ than you might think. See: Tumblr. XD
If you don’t have them both yet, just play with your Woody until you get a Buzz…
They work better if you let Joyce make the noises.
Seeing as Sal is left-handed, it most likely was. Poor girl.
Good thing she got stabbed in the right hand then.
Methinks the implications there are that she wasn’t BORN left-handed
She was wielding the knife left-handed earlier.
She’s a lefty so she’ll be fine
No wonder she never takes off her gloves! Still, kind of makes you wonder how she doesn’t recognize Amber considering that Amber shish-kebabed her hand.
Maybe she didn’t see her? Her eyes are closed from the pain, maybe the cops got Amber out of sight.
Not a single person has recognised Amber. It’s getting really silly every single comic “wow how didn’t (Danny/Dorothy/Blaine/Sal) recognise it was her they must be stupid” when this is obviously a Clark-Kent type universe.
As a brunette with glasses, I don’t have a terribly hard time believing Amber blends in.
No, I think Jordan meant he was surprised that Sal didn’t recognize Amber when she was out of costume.
You misunderstand. In this case Jordan isn’t asking “why didn’t Sal recognise Amazi-Girl is Amber,” the question is “why didn’t Sal recognise ‘Amber the fellow student Sal dismissed as a weirdo’ as ‘Amber the girl who stabbed Sal with a knife’.”
It might be a reasonable slip on Sal’s part (years ago, only saw her briefly both times, etc) but it’s a different question.
Yeah, but her hair, body language, and glasses (not to mention the difference in ages) is so different that *I* barely recognize Amber as Amber, and I wasn’t full of adrenaline when I first laid eyes on her.
One time I was at the mall when I was supposed to be in school, when who should come down the corridor but my dad. I took off my glasses and put them in my pocket and brushed my bangs back and he didn’t even look twice when he passed right by us. Going in the opposite direction, too, so we were briefly face-to-face.
It’s surprising how much we rely on very broad cues to recognize even people we know quite well; change your body language, change something as fundamental to your face as glasses, and meet them somewhere they aren’t expecting you, and if you don’t do anything to attract their attention they will skip right over you. Once avoided a girl who’d been actively *looking* for me by taking off my perpetual hat and, again, my glasses; she sat right beside me with her friends as I was reading for about five minutes, and again, didn’t even notice me.
Frankly, I’d be surprised, given how much Amber’s changed, and the difference in the two scenarios under which they’ve met, if Sal *did* recognize her. Mind you, if she ever happens to see Amber crying and borderline-hysterical at a gas station, there might be a sudden realization of why Amber had looked vaguely familiar.
And yet Sal, who is taller, older, more composed, and now with straighter hair, was easily recognised all of these years later by Amber, in spite of so many cues changed. Why is this a one-way street?
Some people just have an eye for faces. (I know because I don’t.)
Oh gee, I dunno, I could guess it’s either one of two things: Amber has a better memory, or Amber was much more mentally scarred by the event that she has the memory of the person who used her only friend as a hostage. Sal was stabbed in her hand, and seems like much more the kind of person who can move on from something like that. She’s Sal after all.
memory of the person who used her only friend as a hostage burned into her mind.*
Sorry, was trying to word that better and forgot to actually finish it. It’s late.
Add to that, Amber was focused on Sal, whereas Sal wasn’t really paying real attention to Amber OR Ethan as individuals.
Sal was wearing the same clothes!
“The day you stabbed me in the hand because I took your friend hostage in a misguided attempt to get my parents’ attention was the most important day of your life.
“To me… It was Tuesday.”
WIN
I was starting to think I’d have to post that
“Yes… YESSSSS.”
Amber was traumatised, Sal was rabid. One had the details etched in, the other seems to be trying to forget them.
I would say that Amber was much more deeply traumatized by the initial encounter. Kinda like the scene from the (god-awful) Street Fighter movie when Bison is talking to Chun-Li. I paraphrase: “For you, the day I destroyed your village and murdered your father was the defining moment in your life. For me, it was Tuesday…”
I’d just like to note, for one of the worst movies ever, that was nevertheless one of the best quotes ever.
A simple and biting deconstruction of how different people’s (and characters) perceptions can be, even at the same place and time.
I’m not saying it’s impossible or even implausible. Just that it’s a different question than the one Ace thought Jordan was asking.
Aye. This is why the basic trick for changing one’s identity (as a man, at least) is to shave and get a hair cut. Instantly, one looks completely different.
Never underestimate the importance of context when speculating on whether someone would recognize someone else. I know I’ve always had an issue with not immediately recognizing people when I see them in a different setting than I’m used to. Obviously, it’s not a problem with close friends, but if I run into someone from work outside the office, there’s a pretty good chance I won’t know them right away.
My guess is that she was on all the drugs.
Eh, she was a little brunette girl at the time; now she’s a young brunette woman. People have a hard enough time remembering faces/physical traits of assailants shortly after an attack, as adults, when describing them to police- expecting someone to immediately recognize a person ten years after the fact when it happened in her own youth and her attacker has…. y’know, grown up, is expecting a bit much, I’d think.
Ohhhh shit. Good point about the gloves! That hadn’t clicked yet. Damn, Willis is fucking brilliant with these long-running details. Dang.
My thoughts exactly. But it was dark, and she probably didn’t get to take a good look at her.
This might be while sal wears gloves all the time, to hide her stab scar.
She didn’t twist the blade, looked like it went in between the bones of her hand. Should be fine. well as fine as a stab wound that can imbed the blade into hood of a cop car could be.
Red eyes? You can get that out in photoshop right?
This comment had me laughing so hard
<3
Is there a filter that takes out murderous rage?
I think it’s standard in the “family photo” package.
Well played.
+1 for your comment, KingMabel!
and another +1 from me.
No Visine joke?
Feeling unstoppable murderous rage? Eyes red and dry with hate? Clear up quick with Visine! Visine sold at stores near you, not an acceptable replacement for treatment for unstoppable rages.
Woooooow
For dry, red eyes try Clear Eyes. Clear Eyes removes redness and has an ingredient to calm you the fuck down.
Never noticed Sal having a scar on her hand. Or did it heal?
She wears gloves all the time. Like Mickey Mouse or Sonic the Hedgehog.
Not always. Her hand looks more or less fine in this panel, although it’s tough to tell.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/law/
That’s probably too old to be relevant at this point.
Or she healed really well.
No it doesn’t—look, she only has three fingers and her thumb. She wouldn’t hide a scar so much, but a missing finger would draw attention.
I will admit though, that the first time I read through that part, I did think something looked wrong with her hand, but just attributed it to a weird art angle on Willis’ part.
She always wears gloves.
Except when she was doing her schoolgirl thing. And in all of those panels she had her right hand hidden. Damn Willis, you crazy.
How long ago did he have this all planned out? As a Dungeon Master, I can only DREAM of that sort of long-term planning…
There are a few strips in November 2011 where you can see the back of Sal’s right hand gloveless. Those may have been from before Willis planned this.
That is, you see her hand gloveless and there’s no visible scar.
yep he can’t just give away the big reveal
Holy crap, didn’t think of that. Wow, dude has his shit worked out real well.
Correction! She isn’t wearing gloves here:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/disperse/
or here:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/law/
EVERYTHING I THOUGHT WAS TRUE WAS A LIE
That’s right, Evilpenguin. Everything. I wish luck finding out who your true parents are.
That’s EASY!!
Evilpenguin thought it was true that her (gender arbitrarily assigned via gravitar bias) next door neighbors are not her true parents. We now know this is a lie.
Actually, there are a lot of true parents out there. I wish luck finding them all.
This is starting to sound like a demented version of pokemon. Parent-mon! Gotta catch this all.
Seems like the point of view of the panels aren’t close-ups? Maybe that is why there is not visible scar? (maybe)
Hey, Joyce’s hand healed ridiculously quickly and hasn’t left a scar…
Yeah that’s my theory / probably Willis’s explanation
Clearly there’s no scar because it had to be amputated and she’s got a Star Wars robot hand.
That makes a disturbing amount of sense. Sal’s description of the police seems to imply that she remembers more about the incident than just what it was; she’s either pointing out how incompetent the cop holding the knife was or she knows what happened to Amber (but doesn’t recognize her anymore).
Surgery? Surgeries?
whoa what
fuuuuuuuck . . . . .
Have you considered counseling.
Like Blaine would ever actually pay to get Amber counseling
It’d also be risky for Blaine: Amber would have an emotional resource/influence other than Blaine, to whom she might mention the abuse and domestic violence.
Jesus Christ.
Sal’s always worn her gloves, hasn’t she?
I was just about to point this out.
fuck.
And this, kids is why Sal always wears gloves.
Oh… oh jeez… she HAS worn gloves this entire time…
Not always, as pointed out yesterday.
Then again, the examples I cited (1, 2) were over two years old, and in a recent example she goes out of her way to hide that right hand.
None of the girls there would question it. Heck, WALKY wouldn’t question it. Anywhere else, for the sake of hiding it so people don’t ask questions, or by chance meeting ‘that crazy chick’ again, it’s needed. Plus, of course, all that sweet biking she does.
Welp.
Wow…I never noticed that Sal’s glove had a red circle in the middle!
Then the distracting “sexy Mickey Mouse” look did its job.
I guess these hovertexts were wrote when willis was having big issues with the amazi-girl joke.
Also, that’s why Sal wears gloves!!!
I think that while the comics are made ahead of time, the hovertext is written around the time the comics are posted. I could be wrong.
I write the hovertext as I upload the comics once they’re finished, though this one wasn’t written with the “amazi-girl joke” comments in mind.
Amber should get her retinas checked too.
She’s part demon.
Blaine is a demon? That explains so much…
So Blaine is Trigon and that makes Amber Raven?
Well…she IS Blaine’s daughter.
This also explains why she has ‘superhuman’ abilities.
If Amber is Raven, does that make Danny Gar/Beast Boy or Robin?
I don’t think he would qualify for either– Not broody enough to be Robin, not goofball enough to be BB. He’s more like Floyd Belkin, if anyone. Comes right apart when the chips are down.
Sal doesn’t remember this, or ever mention it?
Maybe she does but Amber has changed visually enough that Sal didn’t immediately recognize her.
To who?
If you were Sal, would you talk about the time you had your hand stabbed during an attempted robbery you were commiting?
I mean…yeah…In hopes it would give me a lesser sentence.
A lesser sentence?? From people around her?
Well she was attacked out of nowhere following her detainment. And she’s a minor. The court could take pity on her.
Umm OK but I wasn’t talking about the time she would have been in court, I was talking about after she served whatever sentence she might have served.
Why would she mention it? Do people in your area make a habit of blathering the details of past trauma to anyone that will listen? (Note: If they don’t, you’d never know.)
Yeah it seems strange that Sal didn’t recognize her, but maybe her eyes were closed and full of tears the whole time Amber was being pulled away. You would definitely think you would try to get a look at whoever stabbed your hand though.
“An when ah looked up, all ah could see through the… rain… was her red eyes…
How would it come up? She doesn’t talk much to her many fawning admirers. Hell, she managed to avoid her own roommate for weeks.
She probably remembers it, just doesn’t like to talk about it. (Also, don’t think she’s ever gotten a good look at Amber, so probably won’t recognize her around the school)
Do you try and work that time you bled back when you were twelve into every conversation?
I don’t know about that, I manage to bring up the fact that I was dead several times a year. I mean how many other dead people have you had conversations with?
Geeze, must be happy fun times talking to you. But possibly important distinction: Was the time that you were dead explicitly tied to a time that you committed a felony as an act of rebellion against dismissive parents? If you had that much baggage attached to the story, would you be as eager to recount it? Now imagine that you’re a girl in a world where women are held to crazy standards of beauty, and the event gave you a disfiguring scar on the back of your hand. Hell, I know people who would never bring it up specifcally to avoid drawing attention to the scar.
No wonder Joyce idolizes Sal she’s got the stigmata.
YES, again, people have called it concerning Sal’s hand.
I think Dan did something good here.
*Spreads arms for crucifixion”
No he didn’t, he let Blaine live. He’s worse than Hitler.
Yes but if Amber killed Blaine she would go to jail. Blaine is a horrible, despicable person, but as far as we know he hasnt killed anyone. And I think things are better with Amber not incarcerated.
I know, that was just a joke.
Well, I wouldnt be surprised if some people actually wanted Blaine to be beaten to death.
Oh, it would certainly be satisfying on a certain, visceral level, before the whole dreary business of “consequences” came into play.
Which is why its better to always act without thinking about consequences, eh?
^^^This^^^
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/93/Boondocks5.img_assist_custom.jpg
What the hell did I just look at? O_O
Aaron McGruder’s mashup parody of Tyler Perry and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Needless to say, Tyler Perry was not happy when that episode of The Boondocks aired.
That wasn’t disturbing at all {shudder}.
The scene that picture is from.
I want to say that helps, but sometimes context only makes it worse.
You did good Danny…You did good.
That’ll do Danny, That’ll do.
You win.
Ya. although he still seems hopelessly confused, i was impressed he is physically restraining Amber, who despite being his girlfriend, is a superhero as well as being way tougher than he is.
If some part of Amber didn’t want to be held back, I’m pretty sure Danny couldn’t do it.
I agree with you there
i was impressed that he actually tried! although the concern for others fits his character, it was still a pretty bold move for him overall
That’s true. Nicely done, Danny! Preventing your girlfriend from murdering people = good idea.
I hope Blaine broke his neck. Or lost other vital organs.
A man, forgot my Kidney’s again, sigh -__-
I hope his appendix burst. Cuz he can live without it, but it’s still dangerous.
and hopefully excruciatingly painful.
abusive son of a bongo…
Alternately, his spleen could have burst! It happened to a kid I went to school with. He got punched twice in precisely the wrong spot and his spleen ruptured and had to be removed. I think he made it nearly half an hour before going to the nurse’s office, but whenever he went to the nurse, he passed out almost immediately after entering her office. He had to get an emergency splenectomy, but in the end, he was fine. He has to be extra careful about his health now though– removing the spleen increases a person’s risk of infection. (the wiki page describes the spleen as essentially a huge lymph node)
personally, I vote that for Blaine. not only is it painful until treated, but it will be an inconvenience for the rest of his life.
She hit him so hard he got cancer!
Funky funky cancer cancer
No! Blaine doesn’t deserve funky cancer. He just gets a regular sucky cancer. Preferably dick cancer. That’s a thing, right?
Oh, probably. You can’t blink your eyes without a new kind of cancer showing up on someone somewhere. So don’t blink, kids!
Anyway, testicular cancer is definitely a thing. Maybe go with the low-hanging fruit.
Are you sure Blaine’s fruits are hanging low? (sorry, too obvious)
So she experienced a robbery, stabbed someone and still didn’t get therapy?
You know, on top of the abusive asshole father but the other people wouldn’t have known about that.
Do you really think Blaine would pay for therapy?
Well, somebody had to notice, given that it happened in public.
Court ordered therapy is a thing. And she did commit assault.
Yeah, I didn’t think of that. Too stunned by the comic at the moment.
Legally, it’s battery and not assault.
Depends on the state. Some states just group assualt and battery together, like New York.
Turns out that Indiana defines this as battery. It doesn’t look like the threat of harm (“assault” in legal terms) is defined in that state.
Like Blaine wouldn’t be beyond lying about getting her therapy.
This. Blaine would risk a lot by sending his abused daughter to a therapist.
Maybe it’s something else she doesn’t really talk about a lot?
My guess is that Blaine began his entire “she’s so troubled, but I’m doing the best a good dad can do with a horrible child like her” speech, and he probably said she was already in therapy or some other lie to keep her away from anyone who could take her side against him.
We don’t know she didn’t. She does seem to be in a very different state since then.
It could have been family counseling or something, and Blaine only made it worse?
Ooh her mask slipped!
Too bad Danny’s behind her.
I’m not sure he’d recognize her, anyway. “Hey, Amazi-Girl, has anyone ever told you that you look just like my friend Amber except she has glasses instead of DEMONIC RED EYES?”
We might need an Exorcist!!!
Literally and metaphorically.
Someone called it yesterday and I applaud him!
Called it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDajqW561KM
You know, I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic or sincere.
Mostly sincere, since I myself have no predictive powers when it comes to webcomic plots. That clip is a bit much, but that’s half the fun of it.
Ouch. Really hoping Sal never recognizes her, or Amber’s going to have tire treads on her face.
Have you met Amazi-Girl? This will be a battle of epic proportions.
Sal’s a badass rebel motorcycle loner who’s settled into a role that she initially took up as a desperate cry for attention.
Amber is prone to outbursts of violence to the point that she runs around at night trying to find justifiable targets.
I may harbor PSL for Sal, but I wouldn’t bet my rent money on her.
Hear, hear!
No, you did it wrong. Here:
Sal’s a badass rebel motorcycle loner who’s settled into a role that she initially took up as a desperate cry for attention.
Amber is prone to outbursts of violence to the point that she runs around at night trying to find justifiable targets.
THEY FIGHT CRIME.
I’d watch it.
I’m pretty sure that describes at least one combination in the Bat family.
She did get Sal’s hand … her right hand.
Worth noting that Sal is apparently left-handed.
WELL SHE DEFINITELY IS NOW.
Could be that her right hand suffered nerve or tendon damage as a result of this and she had to switch her dominant hand, but Sal was holding the knife in her left hand at the start of the robbery flashback.
Gloves.
Called it. … That is really all I’m emotionally capable of saying for this strip.
NM. That explains the gloves as pointed out. Doh!
Oh please let the mask fall off. I think it’s time.
Wow, Danny did something good here. I’m glad and it seems Amber is, too.
Suddenly Sal’s love of gloves makes a lot more sense…
…And Sal doesn’t recognize the girl who stabbed her?
Five years older with a completely different haircut and glasses? It’s more likely than you think.
The first two didn’t stop Amber from recognizing Sal. I see your point though.
Though I do kind of like the image of Sal going, “Yeah, I got stabbed. Wasn’t that big of a deal”.
Ah, yes, but both 13!Sal and 18!Sal don’t have glasses, whereas Amber’s replaced hers.
The glasses are very important.
That’s true.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/03-men-are-from-beck-women-are-from-clark/glasses/
Very true, indeed.
She probably barely noticed Amber at all until she got stabbed and then was too distracted by the pain.
Her eyes are shut tight in pain, and I’m betting Amber would have been given a deal by the prosecutor to drop charges in exchange for an affidavit against Sal (and maybe some therapy or something). They wouldn’t have seen each other in court. This goes double if this version of Blaine also has ties to organized crime.
It’s amazing (no pun intended) how different someone can look with age and a very different hairstyle.
Oh.
And Blaine has reaped the seeds he sowed. Will he learn from it?
after some time in the hospital, Blaine goes home, and then Faz kills him with a sword. “That’s for leaving me tied up. Nobody abandons the Great Faz!”
He then kisses his girlfriend dina and rides off into the night in his Fazmobile.
Then Faz wakes up.
And he’s a millionaire married to Dina. Amber’s his maid, and he owns half the country.
Best fanfic ever.
The country lost a lot of value …
If Blaine has to die by Faz’s hands, it’s in the hospital as Faz smothers him with an Amber body pillow.
Poor Amber. No wonder she’s so furious with Blaine, among her many other reasons. He goaded her when she was already traumatized into hurting someone, which she’s had to live with on her conscience all this time. No wonder she wants to be Amazi-Girl. She wants to atone for her guilty conscience and her feelings of being powerless for so long.
Considering when she saw Sal again earlier that day she flipped out and went to attack her AGAIN her conscious doesn’t seem to have entered into the equation.
Maybe she wanted to anonymously apologize.
It seems like she responds to feelings of powerlessness with anger. The fact that this behavior is inspired by Blaine could make her conflicted thus resulting in two identities.
I don’t know where you’re getting that from.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/weirdo/
She didn’t go to attack her. She went to get the hell out of there. she then compartmentalized it by changing into her Amazi-Girl clothes until she got ahold of herself(she said she wouldn’t even be Amazi-Girl right then except she lost her shoe, remember?)
nevermind, “take her from behind,” got it
Where does that get said?
3 strips later.
I think it’s possible Amber feels guilty for stabbing Sal, while still seeing her as a dangerous criminal.
Is he alive to learn from it?
Wow.
For once, Danny didn’t Dan it up.
I’m, not sure what to say.
I know! I’m impressed. I can’t believe I’m saying this but, “Good job Danny on not Danning it up”.
Oh, give him time. It’s early days yet.
Amber is starting to Amb it up though.
You mean be generally awesome and put jerks in their place with bizarre imunity? Yes, she Ambered it up good (since you’re speaking about current events).
Still curious how Willis explains her not getting in trouble for violent assault though. I mean, Sal’s hand could have been ruined, and she was already in police custody.
The explanation for that may tie in with Sal’s low opinion of the police.
how the hell has Amber not gotten therapy, I mean even considering that Blaine is Blaine, surely her mother would have done something after hearing about this
Mom was abused by Blaine too, so even if she had thought of therapy for Amber, Blaine would have struck that down, not to make a bad pun.
I also think that Stacy is none too bright and not very emotionally available for Amber. Remember how she went off with Dr. Rosenthal on parents’ weekend and really failed to show up.
Also, bear in mind that therapy only works if you’re open to it working. Amber could have gone and just refused to talk or avoided anything of substance.
Her mother gets easily distracted.
…By anything that happens to pop up.
This made me realize that Blaine and Stacy banged at least once. I really didn’t want to think about that.
Also, still wondering if Stacy and Dr. Dick were previously acquainted.
Also also, the first comments on that page are pretty funny in retrospect, given recent developments on the David Willis, Porn Lord front.
Also, she may indeed have gotten some therapy. Frankly, what’s TRULY Amazi about her is that she can normally function as well as she can.
My brother stabbed a kid in the hand with scissors once, but I don’t think that guy wore gloves after…. clearly he was nowhere near Sal’s level.
Notice how Amber uses in her normal voice in the final panel. Also notice the expression on Danny’s face.
Wow, just when I thought I saw the whole picture, a wild puzzle piece gets thrown into the mix.
That is some amazing juxtaposition of past and present panels. Very deep.
OH MY GOD THE GLOVES.
Draga Noche, I don’t think Ambers mother could do anything. I think Blaine beat her more than he abused Amber verbally. I could be wrong, but think this was ‘brought up in a storyline” ?
Laying the smackdown is supposed to be fun. Not actually conflicting and loaded with emotional baggage.
YOU LIED TO ME ROCK.
She’s not wearing gloves here:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/law/
and OH MY GOD ONLY FOUR FINGERS ON HER RIGHT HAND
Check this strip; now the right hand has four fingers and a thumb and her *LEFT* hand only shows three fingers.
Yeah, but that’s early enough that the hands are still a bit wonkily drawn (not that I could do even half as well).
Also, I think we’ve seen her right hand with 5 fingers when wearing gloves.
Well obviously Sal gained a genetic mutation were she grows and loses fingers at will.
I love how Danny still looks clueless.
Way to go Danny boy.
What were all those red panels about? And why is Amazi-girl having flashbacks for Amber? Amazi-Girl isn’t even in the tags anymore! What’s going on!!!!?
Chekhov’s Gloves. Notice, even in her school uniform, Sal hides her right hand. Well played, Willis. Unfortunately you know this means I have to uncover your other Chekhov accessories in the story thus far.
Marcie doesn’t have eyes.
Nah, Marcie doesn’t actually exist. She’s a complete figment of Sal’s imagination.
Are you telling me that mutes aren’t real people?
To all who thought otherwise…
OH GOD, THE KNIFE WAS REAL!!!!
Too bad we don’t get to see Amber turn the knife.
Never again shall I know peace, never again shall I let my loved ones come to harm.
I said it yesterday, but I REALLY hope something happened to Amber for this! You can’t just go around stabbing people after the threat is gone. She deserves to be detained almost as much as Sal does if not JUST as much.
It’s assault with a deadly weapon, committed directly in front of two police officers and probably on tape. I don’t see how she could have gotten out of being punished by the law in some considerable way.
Exactly. And if she doesn’t I will be very upset >:T.
An assault committed by an already emotionally traumatized minor against the very person who caused the trauma will probably result in some court mandated therapy. Odds are that Amber saying that Blaine egged her on will help her case, and quite possibly lead to the divorce once her mom doesn’t have the luxury of pretending Blaine isn’t a complete monster any more.
Yeah – I had that thought, too – that this event is going to have been a significant part of what led up to the divorce.
They’re all minors right now. I’m not up on local laws, but that will probably limit what they can do to Sal or Amber.
You can’t just stab people in front of police.
I’m not saying you can. Just saying that if someone DOES do that and they are a minor they aren’t going to get the full brunt of the law the way an adult would. Also, Amber is demonstrably traumatized and unhinged right now, which might also mitigate things somewhat.
Yeah, but SOMETHING has to happen. Throw her in a psychiatrist office. Or behind some sort of bars, idk.
Mars bars.
There are no bars on mars, because when the men from mars are through with cars they’ll start eating bars. And soon he’ll be eating Guitars!!!
You seem to be forgetting that amber is white and middle to upper middle class and Sal is black and just tried to rob a convenience store.
None of that actually means Amber shouldn’t face consequences for stabbing someone, but when combined with the other stuff, there are probably more than a few cops and judges willing to go very easy on her. This would also go a ways to explaining Sal’s views on race.
Police have to be embarrassed by that …
It’s battery.
Felony battery to be specific.
I should’ve switched to a Jacob or Sarah avatar before posting this.
Sal literally grabbed Ethan and held a knife to his throat. Depending on the jurisdiction, the charges from that would be a hell of a lot more severe than Amber’s battery. And, I’m sorry, are you really using the word ‘deserves’, here? Amber was literally in the physical and neurological state of shock, in diminished capacity, when her abusive father excoriated her, denounced her, and aimed her at Sal like a bullet in a gun. It’s unquestionably wrong that Amber injured Sal, but the idea that she ‘deserves’ to be imprisoned or detained as much as Sal seems ludicrous, to me.
Considering Blaine is a compulsive liar, chances are he’d just say that Amber just flipped out for no reason, and depending on how out of it Amber is at the moment she might not be able to correct him.
Therapy for her shouldn’t really be avoided at this point though, even if Blaine says she’s seeing someone already, SOMEONE would probably check just to make sure.
I hope she stops directing her rage at Sal.
I seriously doubt any court would punish a kid for being driven wild after a hostage situation. I certainly wouldn’t. It’d be adding insult to injury.
Also was Sal even punished by the law? I don’t think the law sends you to Catholic boarding school. That was her parents. Who also sent her enough pocket money she saved up and bought a pretty sweet looking bike and leathers.
Full time jobs struggle to pay that much.
So are we missing the Amazi-girl tag because she lost control?
She’s not Amazi-Girl right now. She’s Amber wearing silly clothes.
~Shao Kahn voice~ Amazi-girl wins. Flawless Victory. Mercy.
Mercy is for the weak!
Oh dear.
Quick, get in Blaine’s car and drive away before he comes to his senses!
107 comments inside of thirteen minutes. Willis must be ecstatic to have a fandom so engaged in his comics.
Indeed. The fandom is a very active one, I must say.
Well, dunno how I feel about Amber stabbing an unarmed woman. Definitely a underhanded tactics on her part. A wrist-y business all around. If I was Sal I would definitely gives her the finger, though she’ll still be punished by the long arm of the law. This might have been a really thumb decision on Amber’s part, even if it inspired the seemingly unopposable persona of Amazigirl.
I was about to yell at you, but then I palmed myself and reread your post.
You really have to hand it to them.
Thank you for pointing that out.
Your puns are so tight, they march in like a phalanx.
I was a little concerned I might annoy people, but I’ve never been one to knuckle under in these situations.
Gotta hand it to you, that was some Grade A punnage. Two thumbs up.
High five? Brofist?
Yup, they really nailed it.
NO MORE!
To quote the late Owen Hart: I tried to be a nice guy, I tried to play by the rules…You turned your backs on me! I snap! I was a victim! Well, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
I sense a big reveal! Or else a flight into the night.
Now, let’s examine Amber/Amazi-Girl saying “Never again” in the last panel. Is she saying “never again” as in “never again will I be helpless” or “never again will you have this kind of power over me” (like she did before she went all medieval on Blaine a few days ago), or is she saying “never again” as in “I will never need to be (or can’t risk being) Amazi-Girl again”?
You are missing a few other possibilities.
Never again will I let Anger take control of me?
Never again will I let AMBER take control of me!
(and then she’s Amazi-girl forever)
My guess is she stopped at McDonald’s on the way. That sort of mistake would make anyone regret.
You can take my boyfriend hostage. You can try to manipulate and extort me for your own abusive ends. But if you so much as try to order that terrible food, I WILL END YOU!
Gotta have your priorities.
Yeah, don’t eat Mickey D’s before a fight. Just a bad idea all around.
Oh, I know there are other possibilities; I just didn’t want to take the time and space to try to list them all. I *DID* want to toss out the idea that because of this loss of control beatdown she delivered Amber might come to the realization that being Amazi-Girl merely allows her to be an asshole herself. Hence, I was positing that “never again” could be interpreted as a clue that this may be one of the last times we see Amazi-Girl … and her absence in the tag cloud the past couple of days would seem to be a confirmation of that conclusion.
Although the absence of Amazi-Girl in the tags could also be taken that it was Amber that opened up this can of whoop-ass and she was just wearing Amazi-Girl’s costume. I’ve read enough of this strip to know that Willis’ mind has more curves and twists than a macaroni factory and nothing is for certain until we either see it for ourselves or Willis says so.
Wait are you saying it’s not “never again will I be helpless”? Because that’s the one I thought she was going for. She will “never again” stand by while someone important to her is threatened and be helpless to do something.
I read this as (at least) three separate meanings / emotional contexts:
Your interpretation is the first, I think – the one Amber consciously meant when she started saying it in Amazi-Girl’s voice. But that didn’t last long, and I read the second – when she dropped the voice – as the point where Amber lost control and her rage at Blaine takes over. Now it’s more like “Never again will I let you bully me” – and notice that Amber’s seemingly triggered by Sal saying “just give me what I fucking want” (it’s important enough to say twice, so I’m pretty sure Willis meant us to notice it). I’ll bet heavily that Amber’s heard exactly that kind of “look what you made me do” emotional/physical abuse combo from Blaine: “This is your fault, why can’t you just give me what I want, I wouldn’t have to do this.”
Then in today’s strip, there are just so many implications packed into the two words: first, I think Amber’s somewhat in shock, and is numbly repeating the one thing she’s been focussed on for the last few seconds. There’s conscious recognition, I think, of the second meaning above; that she was talking directly to Blaine about her own situation. And then there’s all the stuff that we as readers are supposed to draw from it even if Amber herself doesn’t consciously recognise them yet – that this isn’t healthy behaviour, that Amber’s coping mechanism is destructive to herself and others, that Amazi-Girl must stop. I would like to think that Amber’s acknowledging here that she lost control and became the thing she hates – “I must never do this again, I must never again give in to my rage, I must never again violently lose control” or even “never again must I let myself be goaded into violence” – but only time will tell, and I don’t think she recognises that on a conscious level yet. The wavy balloon tail indicates her physical exhaustion, but I think it’s pointing to her mental exhaustion and brokenness too.
Incidentally, this also makes sense of Blaine calling her a “spaz” in the flashbacks. I don’t know how that insult is used in the US, but here in the UK it wouldn’t be used for a docile, withdrawn person but for someone who violently lost control – usually a bullied kid who occasionally “flipped”, and not just as a one-off. I doubt the flashback scene was the first time Blaine’s seen Amber lose it like that, though it was probably the most serious; and as today’s strip proves, it certainly wasn’t the last.
Wall of text to say: Damn, Willis is good at this.
Oh yeah, and I suppose it’s redundant to point out Willis’ deconstruction of the Batman trope of the traumatised vigilante. Bravo sir, bravo.
From Wikipedia: “In American slang, the term “spaz” is largely inoffensive, and is generally understood as a casual word for clumsiness, sometimes associated with overexcitability, excessive startle response (“jumpiness”), excessive energy, or hyperactivity.”
That’s how I always understood the term.
Yeah, that’s why I was confused that Blaine was using it as such a threat. I mean, being a spaz isn’t exactly a GOOD thing, but on a scale of one to ten, I’d rather be a spaz than a bongo. ‘Psycho’ or ‘nutjob’ comes closer to the UK definition of ‘spaz’ than…well….spaz.
Except that this is set in the US. So, what?
In America, a “spaz” is someone who is awkward in a nerd-type way who is prone to tantrums or fits when under stress.
Did Blaine beat up a friend of Amber’s in this verse too?
Never again will I let someone I care about and who cares about me be held hostage or threatened without me helping.
…….Without you helping them be held hostage?
Sorry, I know what you mean, but grammar.
“Never again will I stand by, helpless, while somebody I care about is threatened.”
“Never again will I let the boy I like get used as a hostage without laying the smackdown on the hostage-taker” seems like an obvious one.
Never again will I trust my gaydar. I mean seriously, I can’t handle another gay boy.
Never again will I be Amazigirl?
Or never again will I miss the face.
Never again will I FAAAAAAAACE.
Ok. 50:7 chance Blaine crapped his pants.
But how could you tell it apart from the pile of excrement that is Blaine?
Freshness.
Wait….. Does this also ties in with Sal’s distrust of authority? Seeing on how they let a rampant teen stab her hand?
Well, you know what they say “Once you become a criminal, there is a possibility that you are going to get stabbed eventually”
Doesn’t speak well of Sal if it did.
“How dare someone fight back! And how dare the cops slip up for one moment!”
Duta duh duh duh, I’m lovin’ it.
Wow… no wonder Amazi-Girl was seeing red. Lookit them peepers.
NO DANNY! You let her keep beating him till the squishy noises stop. UNTIL THE SQUISHY NOISES STOP! and not a moment before!
And here is the explanation of her sleeping with gloves on
Oh. Oh, Amber.
And just like that, the question changes from “Should Amber be doing this to Blaine?” to “Is this going to happen again the next time she gets triggered?”
Which is why I think that Blaine really won this one. Blaine can still play her like a puppet, now that he’s figuring out what each string does.
And what’s stopping him from throwing her under the bus for assaulting him? If he’s smart enough, he’d know how to use authority figures in his favor, and Amber has given him more than enough ammo.
Yeah, I’m not really thinking that getting the crap kicked out of him was all part of his master plan, especially since he didn’t seem to realize that it was Amber he was talking to.
That still banks on him knowing that Amber was the one who assaulted him, though. Given how stubbornly determined Blaine seems to view his daughter as pathetic and weak–even in the face of, as we now know, multiple counts of her proving herself to be exactly the opposite, so powerful she is potentially incredibly dangerous–I don’t think it’s likely he’ll realize it’s Amber behind that mask at all. At least, he won’t if she comes to her senses quickly, and books it the hell out of there before Blaine gets back up.
Of course, I could be completely wrong. Maybe Blaine did recognize Amber, or will at some point in the aftermath of this mess. But if I had to guess at what’s going to happen next, I’d say that what Blaine will likely take away from this is that (1) the girl who beat him up and ruined his plans for Amber was some weirdo dressed up in a costume, and (2) said girl seems to care an awful lot about Danny Wilcox.
I really don’t think Amber’s the only one who ought to be worried about what Blaine could be planning after this.
For one, we don’t know if he’s worked out who Amazi-Girl is yet. He didn’t know when she showed up, and while it’s not a huge leap in logic we’ll have to wait till he wakes up to know if he made it.
For two, let’s consider what happened here. Amber’s abusive father came onto a campus he is not allowed to enter to lure another student off alone so he could use him to get to Amber. When Amber did show up, she tried to get Danny away from a dangerous man, and Blaine physically assaulted him to keep him from leaving. Amber attacked Blaine in Danny’s defense–violently, yes, but after all Blaine is considerably older and bigger than she is. And Danny stopped her from hitting him once he was down.
I honestly don’t know what the official response to this would be, especially once you throw in the costumed vigilante. For sure Amber would be looking at mandatory therapy, and I don’t know what IU would do about assaulting fellow students. But Danny is witness that Blaine attacked him–and you could maybe make a kidnapping charge stick–and Amber was defending him, and unless Blaine’s record is squeaky clean I don’t see that going well for him. He might well not want official attention brought to this.
I don’t think the point is about official attention. I think Amber is off the hook regardless. I think the point is that if Blaine ever figures out that Amber did this, HE KNOWS HE CAN MAKE HER DO IT AGAIN. And he can, if he figures out how, use that AGAINST her. And he’s such a douche that he probably will.
……….Probably in about ten years, given how long it takes Willis to get through one day, but still. IT MAY HAPPEN. XD
While it’s possible that Blaine can come up with something, what with being a supervillain and all, I still feel like the ability to manipulate somebody into beating you to a pulp is of limited utility.
My guess, assuming he doesn’t do it in the future is as follows:
– Blaine is a career criminal and has likely spent time inside prison. Accusations from such men are not take seriously
– Likewise, career criminals rarely make complaints to the cops and especially about being beaten up by “little girls”
– He was holding Danny hostage, itself a crime. It also means the only witness is on the other side
– Earlier that day he was throw out of the university by security after screaming through the halls, shouting threats and attempting to assault Ruth
Again, this comic has pulled me deeper into its characters than most novels can.
[muffled “I see Red” playing in the background]
I’m sorry to say this, but if Blaine can cause this kind of reaction in Amber, even on the losing end, Blaine still has full control of Amber. It might not have been the reaction he wanted, but he’s still pulling Amber’s strings. Nothing good will come of this whole thing. Even beaten to a pulp on the ground, Blaine has won. All Amber did was give him more ammunition to use against her.
Well, that was very wise. Except that there’s no indication he knows it’s Amber who’s beating him up.
Blaine may not know its Amber, but Amber is still REACTING to Blaine. Is beating him to a pulp going to help her? Is revenge? What I’d like is if she can get FREE of him — both the external/real him AND the ‘him’ that she carries around inside her. She went to tell him to leave Danny alone & get out of town, cool, but during the interaction she LOST CONTROL OF HERSELF, didn’t she? I don’t care what Blaine deserved, I care about where Amber goes from here. (Though if this makes Blaine less Blaine-ish or less effectively Blaine-ish, then cool.)
I disagree. You forget that Blaine then physically accosted Danny, making anything that followed on his head. Amber/Amazi-Girl is at the very least ethically justified in doing anything short of murder and possible crippling to remove Blaine as a threat to her or Danny’s lives.
But now I raise a far more controversial point: how does Amber beating up Blaine give Blaine the victory? Is your idea of the high road really all that important?
I was unclear.
(1) Blaine used violence on Danny, she was right to use violence back. I’m even open to her using more than minimum necessary violence to try to convince Blaine to stay away. My point was she lost control of herself.
(2) I said nothing about “the high road.” I said she was reacting to Blaine.
She’s been living in reaction to Blaine. She’s not gotten free of Blaine and chosen her own life.
Phrasing is everything, not just the afterthought.
*ghasp* now we know why sal always wears gloves!!!
1) Even good therapy cannot completely undo years of abuse, as well as likely PTSD from the robbery. Who knows? Maybe Amber received therapy and is merely fucked up instead of catatonic.
2) Sal not recognizing Amber I’ll believe. Sal was focusing on Ethan and the store clerk, not the other kid. She never saw the person who wielded the knife. Some people’s faces change a lot when they mature. Mine didn’t, but I know friends who “grew into” their faces between 13 and 18. Glasses especially can alter a person’s face.
Out of curiosity, as I haven’t been able to keep up with comments on this part of the story, has anyone in the comments actually asked how bad Amber’s PTSD is and whether she’s ever had therapy for it?
My guess is that even if the idea was brought up to get therapy for the occurence, blaine would shoot it down because money and because 2tough
Sad to say, the mental health system is kind of fucked up. So, even if she did get some court-mandated therapy, there’s really no guarantee that it did any good, or that some therapist didn’t actually inadvertantly contribute to Amazi-Girl’s creation by telling Amber to channel her anger in a more constructive direction.
Plus, she’s been continually exposed to Blaine, who’s continued to inflict traumatic stress on her — she may have PTSD, but the TS isn’t only P.
Berserker rage.
To this day, Amber is still awful at five finger fillet.
Holy shit.
…
She is going to be in serious trouble. She must have some sort of criminal record after doing that to Sal, and now this.
A record could still get sealed down the road.
Juvenile records usually are.
Woo! Nice beat down, Amazi-Girl. Now get it together and scram before somebody calls the po-po’s and you get busted. No one will believe clueless Danny when he tells what happened and her old man won’t admit a girl kicked his ass, so she’s home free.
NOOOO! Now’s your chance! Kill Danny! Kill Danny! I can’t believe Danny is being so evil.
You’re saying killing is good, and stopping from killing (or at least brutally maiming) is evil? Such violent hatred never solves any more problems than it creates.
Have you considered that there is no such thing as Justice? It is all an idea we keep in our head. It is a social convenience, so that when people go around killing innocent people like Danny, society works together to stop them from such deranged actions.
Your idea of “justice” seems to be “if a person does something I don’t like, kill them. Kill Blaine for being an abusive asshole. Kill Danny for trying to stop me from killing Blaine.” This is evil, being unable to see that you aren’t the most important thing in the universe, and wanting to inflict yourself on the lives of others. This is why we say Blaine is evil, and from where I’m standing, your motivations aren’t any different from Blaine’s.
If you’re a Christian, you probably see no problem with thinking everyone is hopelessly wicked. Your response will be “you’re right, I’m no different from Blaine, and I deserve to be punished for eternity in Hellfire.” But nobody deserves that. There is nothing that anyone can do that is so evil in this short life that they deserve eternal torture. And God, the one who is doing the torturing, is no different from Blaine. He’s an abusive, jealous, divorcee who demands control, respect, worship even. He is not Love, He is not He is not unknowable, or perfect, He is the product of human minds. Punishing you because you are bad, then turning around and saying “I only do this because I love you.”
Tomorrow’s strip: The next day. Danny goes to see Amber.
Danny: “Uh, hey, Amber. OK, yesterday, I ran into Amazi-girl, and, well… it turns out she’s kind of crazy. I mean, I thought she was cool, but… she had this burst of rage and… well, she was doing all sorts of terrible things to your dad and I couldn’t really stop her. So, uh… I hate to have to tell you, but your dad’s in the hospital. And I’ve dumped Amazi-Girl, because she’s absolutely insane.
“So, wanna go get pizza?”
And then they go to Galasso’s and he tells her she’s funny and pretty.
Sounds like a good plan! I can hardly believe that Danny thought of it!
Until he gets stabbed in the hand while she’s cutting her pizza…
She does that sort of thing, you know.
Well, he did dump her alter-ego. She doesn’t handle rejection all that well.
Plausible. Probable even.
When I first glanced at the first panel I thought it was present-day AmaziGirl with the knife in her hands. That would’ve been crazy confusing
So did Amber go to juvenile hall for this or get some sort of recognition from the law that “Hey, stabbing ladies ain’t cool”, or did they just send her home with a strict lecture?
Wouldn’t it be a kick in the ass if it wasn’t actually Sal that robbed that particular store, but just Amber’s emotional state then and now, combined with the distance of time causing her brain to “fill in the blanks” when she sees a somewhat similar looking dark-skinned girl talking with her sorta-boyfriend?
It was actually Walky in a wig.
It is a hell of a coincidence that the girl whose robbed the store and Amber ended up in the same collage.
No, dammit. Don’t even go there.
Sal is tagged.
That’d be really cheap writing
Jesus Chirst Blaine, I’m kind of dissapointed he didn’t even put up a fight. He got dropped like a bad habit.
He got dropped like a sheet of acid at a music festival.
Like a sack of potatoes in the hands of a narcoleptic.
Like a local comedian after Dane Cook hijacked his time slot at the last minute.
Like a military drone over Afghanistan.
Like a celebrity’s sponsorship deals after a scandal.
Real fights are like that. Over quick.
Well, this has been a fun and heartwarming ramble down memory lane.
Holeeshit
Also, may I just point out that now knowing that their daughter not only went to jail, but also got stabbed through the hand…
Man. The Walkertons really are assholes when it comes to their daughter.
(Also, I trust this will put an end to everyone who wanted Amazi-Girl to go beat Sal up.)
Yeah, the Walkertons suck, but I fail to see what one has to do with the other. She pretty much brought the jail and stabbing on herself.
The jail, sure. The stabbing’s a bit over-the-top. The two together lead to “Right, you’ve been stabbed, gone to jail, and spent year in Catholic boarding school. And since as far as we’ve know you’re not gay and this isn’t a porno, that probably wasn’t all that fun. So how are you, honey”
STAB
KILL DANNY! KILL DANNY! KILL DANNY!
Okay, the first time you wrote this was okay, because I assumed you were kidding. Now, while I still assume you’re kidding, it’s become kinda creepy. Settle down your bloodlust, buddy.
Oh my god…
…
Let’s give her a hand!
I went back to look and see if Sal had a scar on her hand or somthing, but I got reminded she wares gloves. Well played past sal well played
Officer Friendly really should be worrying more about Amber’s other arm.
But I suppose I shouldn’t expect too much from the crack team that let a forteen year old girl disarm an officer and attack a subject in custody.
(Maybe that’s how Amber got out of this without time in juvie. “Now. We could charge the girl and testify, or–and hear me out on this one–we can let her with the glasses go and never speak of this again.”
He just never expected her to grab the knife that he was holding in his open, upturned palms, within easy arm’s-reach of the original perp, who hadn’t been cuffed yet.
Maybe I should change my earlier statement of “nothing good happens across the street from a mcdonalds” to “nothing good happens outside a convenience store”
Amber, have you considered NOT violently assaulting people?
Blaine is not people.
Are Blaine and Sal collectively people?
Because this comic looks like compelling evidence that Amber violently assaults people, plural.
Sal is people now, because she has apparently served her punishment and somewhat changed. Back then, she was just someone who had violently assaulted Amber’s friend. Mind you, she was in custody, which really nullifies the need to retaliate at that point. (tho I also think Amber was metaphorically / subconsciously stabbing Blaine at that point, in the only way her cracking mind could.)
Thing about mental trauma, sometimes other people get hit with the shrampnel
This mental breakdown and violence was brought you by: McDonalds! Because there is nothing like fat food when you feel down!
Im not sure….
Whats exactly was Blaine’s plan for this evening?
Verbally abuse Amber?
Beat her up?
Was the abuse sexual?
Im just not understanding what he hoped to accomplish.
Likely to reinforce his dominance. In any form of an abusive relationship, be it romantic, familial or otherwise, the abuser will go to great lengths to keep the abused submissive. I assume he was going to use Danny as a means to show in spite of her attitude at him when she was at school, when she was outside of her safe zone without others to help her she was still completely weak and helpless to protect those she cared about.
Granted as seen here, it doesn’t always end well for the abuser
He repeatedly said he would be “respected”. He had SOME idea that he could compel Amber to show him “respect”….
It’s funny but this happens sometimes that abusers get shocked when they realize that everything they taught the person every little thing is used to put them in their place.
“You shouldn’t let people hurt your friends and do nothing about it you failure” (fast forward) “I am going to hurt your friend….oh shit”
You know what AG needs right now? A Happy-Meal.
“Boy” happy meal for the Adventure Time toys.
Unless you’re in Pittsburgh, in which case you’ve just ordered heroin.
Holy crap, she stabbed her! *Gasp* That’s why Sal wears gloves all the time! Also, Danny STILL doesn’t know?! How many pennies have to drop for him to see it’s Amber? I mean, she’s talking in her Amber voice!
She said two words, while transitioning from her AG voice to her normal voice, in the rain (rain can be pretty loud).
We haven’t had a chance yet to see his reaction to her speech in the last panel, but that’s just the same two words again.
Well, we can see that her mask is slipping (figuratively and litteraly), and Amazi-Girl/Amber beat up Blaine thoroughly. At this point, even Danny has to put two and two together.
Don’t forget she didn’t put on the AG voice until well after she met Danny and was worried he might cotton on… Danny has heard AG talk in ambers voice, and still didn’t put it together, never underestimate the power of Danny’s ignorance.
Yay! Go Danny!
Love the expression in the third panel.
And now we know the truth behind all those red flashbacks.
It was McDonald’s colour fault.
Ok so I’ll admit Sal got what she deserved and this is a brilliant series
holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit
This one gave me a legit panic attack nightmare.
I imagined my dad was trying to shoot my family and even after all the shit he pulled on me and how I just let him do it because I was small and scared all the time, I pull the gun from him and just -bludgeoned- him to death.
30 times I hit him. It was like in a video game. I got a combo. And then I just got carted off to jail, laughing hysterically.
This just gave me a fucking nightmare and it’s fantastic and scary how well you portray the absolute fury that abusive people can get in meek people like me when we’ve HAD ENOUGH.
Seek help.
I’ve had dreams like that. I wake up feeling terrified of myself.
What a scary nightmare!
I hope you have good support for the panic attacks.
FINISH HIM!
That’s not Amazi-girl’s voice in the last panel.
It stopped being her voice the first time she shouted, “NEVER AGAIN!” Mid-speech-bubble, it faded from AG to Amber. I thought it was a nice touch.
soooo….. white girl stabs brown girl…. brown girl gets indicted …. white girl gets pat in the head from her dad: “l’il brown b**** got what she deserved” … ” rekon that” says the cops with a smile and a wink.
“She hurt herself to play victim” says the prosecutor.. “Obviously…” says the court honor.
five years later.
Sal looks at Amber: “meh…all white girls with glasses look the same…”
Amber half glances at Sal: “this brown girl with STRAIGHT hair MUST BE that black curly girl from back then!”
Drakkin the alien’s family:white mother, black dad, two white siblings, two brown ones. I used to see myself as beige when i was young…. i got the super straight hair at birth… i swear.
what
I can’t tell if Drakkin is calling Amber racist, the authorities racist, or Willis racist. They’re certainly accusing someone of being racist.
Well, everybody’s a little bit racist sometimes.
It’s a good bet all three are.
Uh… alright…then?
Drakkin, sometimes you find what you’re looking for, whether it’s there or not.
Maybe. But this subplot , it strikes close to home, with the mixed marriage of my parents. Me, being raised in a Church of Scotia sponsored school, right in the middle of a strongly catholic country, makes a funny mirror.
Prejudice, like racism, rises its ugly head everywhere, and It is funny that I only came to understand it as an adult. In the school, it was a great thing to see kids from 5 o 6 countries’ heritage in a single classroom. There were not minorities, there was not a superior race at sight. Sometimes some white boy would be the Head Boy, and the next year a brown boy or a yellow one. The very idea of one race being superior to other was an abhorrent thought for the scotish teachers (long live the Queen, longer live to Scotland!). One school, were nobody would ever use a racial derogative and get away with it!. We were just proud of being alumni.
The problem came to hit me, once school was over and i found out how most everybody else would look at you and clasify your skills, knowledge and aptitudes based on your color. It was easier! The cholos exagerate their smarts! They are obviously dumb! Otherwise, how come the spanish conquered them and their country! And when I say most everybody else, I mean that sadly some of my fellow brown countrymen also think and say out loud that the other browns are dumb and inferior. The prejudice permeates the souls.
My first job: “Have you figured it out off the pictures?”, said my boss, once when i commented something i have read in a foreign magazine i had at hand. I didnt understand the question at first. It fell in place latter on. Obviously I wouldn’t be able to read english. I was brown! He had never read my Resumé.
My first appartment: “How come the robbers got into the building so easily? Have you noticed the new tennant?”
you got the idea. It happens. My nick is like that for “a reason”.
If you bust into somewhere and take a hostage no one gives a shit what happens to you.
Reverse it: Criminal causes innocent to have a psychotic break and trauma and you want to add insult to injury by adding punishment on top?
Ethan and Amber are not fucking props in the drama of Sal’s life.
one serious question thou’.
why go the distance to the far away hand? why the right hand and not the left arm wich was closer? what was in her mind? is that a religious thing about punishment? what about “an eye for an eye”? is the Amazi-Girl an attonement thing? Is she only allowed to become enraged when she is her role of vigilante? Do that means that Amber is not allowed to be angry? Wich personality is repressing the other?
ok, that escalated quite beyond one question…
amber you were such a fool in your youth
her BACK was RIGHT THERE
wholy shit snacks!!!
And THAT’s how we get ANTs!
so in five panels, Amazi-Girl (or present Amber) went on a PTSD rampage, flashback Amber went insane, Danny did something that wasn’t naive or misguided and we figured out Amber has a more violent history than previously thought with Sal.
willis what the hell how did you even come up with this
There is no AG in this strip, just Amber, according to the tags. I think AG left at some point and this is all Amber. Amber who can’t stop hitting Blaine until she is totally exhausted.
Plus, were Sal’s gloves planned to hid a scar two years ago? Or just a happy fashion accessory?
The gloves! I didn’t even think of that!
Man I love this comic.
Sal’s been wearing gloves all the time a whole lot longer than DoA has been a thing.
I’m finding it really interesting how fifteen-year-old quirks of Sal’s character design – her long, straight hair, wearing gloves all the time – are suddenly stealth plot points in DoA.
Is that a McDonatello’s?
So… Why, exactley, did she change to Amazi Girl and started chasing down Sal when she saw her playing DS with Danny?
So she could attack her. Because she’s batshit crazy.
“I see you can use your right hand just fine. I’m here to rectify that”
Hover text for this strip should have been “stigmata.”
i also like how there’s people almost obsessively updating the tvtropes character sheets for Blaine, Amber and Danny every day now
I’m absolutly not concerned by that comment at all, I assure you, believe me, really.
Warning: DO NOT FUCK WITH AMBER O’MALLEY. SHE WILL FUCK YOUR SHIT UP.
So, how’s Danny going to Dan this one up?
My guess is that Blaine was one punch away from being completely subdued, and now he’s had the time to get back up and blindside Amber with a boot to the face. Things go downhill from there.
“So, did you bring my DS?”
NO MORE
Sal finds Blaine, and assumes he is innocent. Blaine then says”This weird bongo in a superhero costume was beating me up”. Sal recognizes her as the girl who stalked her. Sal and Blaine then work together to find Amazi-Girl.
I checked the other strips. We NEVER see Sal’s right hand. When she’s not wearing her glove it’s always behind her back or conspicuously just off-panel. Damn you, Willis, you are a crafty one.
Now onwards to angry sedx!
This is the worst McDonalds product placement ever.
It’s actually just McDona.
NO! STAB BLAINE! BLAINE! IN THE EYE! AND ALSO THE DICK!
Ok.. now she needs to rip off the mask and yell “Oh, and I’m Amber by the way you STUPID FUCKING MUPPIT! WE LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME except for this mask! What are you a character from a superman comic?!”
You mean just like every single other character in the comic can’t recognize her? Like Blaine can’t recognize his own daughter? Willis has pretty clearly (or as clearly as Willis gets about these things) that as far as Amazi-Girl goes, everyone *is* a character from a Superman comic. They can’t recognize her because she wears a mask.
Since Faz and Blaine were originally together when they showed up in Amber’s room, am I the only one who is wondering where Faz is throughout all this? Or is he going to become the Chuck Cunningham of DoA?
Oops — wrong link/too deep into the trope. Use this one instead.
We can only hope
Kinda feel bad for Sal now.
I don’t she got what she deserved and it could have gone a lot worse for her, cashier pulls a gun or maybe her knife slips across Ethans throat etc etc
Anyone else notice that when she’s raising her fists in the first panel it’s the way you would do if you were gripping a knife with both hands?
Yeah, I saw that too.
I figured it was just the follow-through on a two-handed uppercut. But it does fit nicely with the image of her with the knife upraised in the flashback…
I saw that too and came here to check if anybody had commented on it. I like it.
Am I the only one who realized she just did her normal Amber voice and Danny is visibly shocked?
Although he could not be visibly shocked. It’s hard to tell when his eyes are black dots.
Hm. My prediction would be that he doesn’t figure it out from this, because otherwise I don’t know what the point was of Billie misleading him into thinking that Sal was Amazi-Girl. Unless Sal keeping Danny’s DS is going to be a huge plot point in a future storyline, I feel like we still have some personal drama that can milked from the identity mix-up.
I’d think that Amber seeing her boyfriend chatting up her origin story would be enough of a payoff for that particular plot.
Checkov’s Nintendo?
Willis has been hinting on Twitter that both Blaine and Danny still have no idea that Amber is Amazi-Girl, regardless her voice being unchanged at this point. Disguise level: Clark Kent.
Danny just witnessed a felony assault–granted it couldn’t have happened to a better guy than Blaine, but Danny’s now in a helluva pickle. Does he tell the truth about what he’s just seen and to who? Dorothy? The police?
whatever he does, i’m sure everyone will hate him for it just the same
don’t worry danny, some things are forever
like fandom hate
It was
KovacsAmber who closedhisher eyes. It wasRorschachAmazi-Girl who opened them again.Sharingan Unlocked
Really stretching here, but I think Danny knows that Amazi-Girl is Amber, but blurting that stuff out with Blaine around would be a very very bad idea. Not that he wouldn’t Dan it up, of course.
yeah I think so too, at this point he is going to know, and/or amber is just about to tell him and to unload on him. question is, is your typical fairly well-adjusted, pretty essentially healthy-home 18 year old boy ready for this shit, at all?
So.
Did he died?
I’m glad he stepped in, and I hope she comes clean that it’s her. Or at least give him some sort of clue, because with Ethan off playing your local Hetero (though I know he loves her more than anyone, but with his own scrambled up feelings about himself, and the events of what happened that day finally being revealed, she probably doesn’t want to burden him), Dina still trying to understand social and emotional behavior, and Mike being Mike, Danny is all she got. And even though he Danny’d this up really bad, hopefully he can be there for the fall out because once that asshole wakes up I’m sure he’s going to want the last word. Though I wonder what he’s going to do, seeing as he can’t go to the cops. As far as we know Amazi-girl has only been seen around campus (and I’m sure wherever they are in town there are no witnesses. Even though that was a glorious beating, SOMEBODY would have stepped in earlier) so if he reports a blue and yellow costumed girl assaulting him he’ll end up giving himself away because then campus security will know he was on school grounds and I’m sure they’ll report him, and before we know it Amber’s mother will show up etc, etc. I don’t know but knowing this asshole he’s going to have the last word.
She’s in Berserk mode
“Flippy” mode
So why is this comic completely realistic EXCEPT for people’s abilities to see through masks? It’s hard for me to understand this incongruity. I see how it enables us to have this sort of intriguing storyline but it also tugs on my suspension of disbelief because EVERYTHING else is normal so it stands out like a sore thumb.
the only conceit is to let go the mask. please let it go. it does not have to be 100% realistic. everything else is normal? a masked vigilante having the opportunity to pay it back to her abusive father and understanding, really understanding that it’s all him? really? remember distinction between normal and believable.
Normal meaning stuff that actually occurs irl as opposed to in this universe.
And no, I won’t let it go, it’s disconcerting, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. It’s like this facet of the strip pushes things into the uncanny valley of believability.
Although in Danny’s case it is highly unlikely that he hasn’t made the Amber/Amazi-Girl connection, it is still completely realistic that no one else has. Amazi-Girl doesn’t go around handing out business cards (“In trouble? Call 555-AMAZING”) and only Danny has been close enough to her in both personas frequently enough to have reasonably gotten a clue.
As for Sal and Amber not recognizing each other, remember that the robbery/stabbing happened something like five years ago and took perhaps ten highly stressful minutes for the entire incident to go down; they have most likely had no contact during that intervening period. Now put glasses on one of the participants, completely change the hairstyle of the other, let ’em age from 13 to 18, and voila!
Finally remember that this whole incident got started when Amber was already stressed out over Ethan hanging out with Joyce (“You’ll fake it with her but not with me”) when she saw Sal with Danny — and now, in hindsight, it appears that she may have recognized Sal as the person she stabbed — and that’s when Amber’s train went completely off the rails.
Well I’m thinking of Blaine and Danny, primarily. It seems no one finds her sufficiently familiar to identify her, in general. It bugs me. I’m still reading this webcomic and enjoying it, but it’s not without what I consider flaws.
Its a real problem for me. People without glasses (going for contacts or such) or with radical differente hairdos are different people for me. Say, James Marsden (cyclops) without the googles. In other movies out of the franchise, I only find out after the credits roll. Used to happen to me with Samuel Jackson in most his ’00s movies. I have tried to rationalizate this issue, and came empty handed. Maybe I’m wired funny.
So it wasn’t a rubber knife, after all.
“Wait a minute, you must be impersonating Amber’s voice to confuse him! Good call!”
Oh, finally, Amber did something I don’t like, besides liking Danny- stabbing someone already apprehended who is also messed up and has issues of their own.
Oh come on, she didn’t know that! How was she suppose to know that Sal has her own personal turmoil? All she knows is that Sal hurt Ethan and made Amber feel weaker than she already feels. Amber was not in the right state of mind either. I am not saying that what she did is right, but you have to think about it in Amber’s perspective.
(past the expiration date on this comment, but I happened past and can’t not respond here.)
Cyan could’ve stopped at “stabbing someone” and I would’ve still been nodding my head vigorously. I feel sympathy for Amber, but as an act, this is pretty indefensible.
Red eyes.
I’m reading through the archives for the second time and I’ve been keeping an eye on her hands. Sleeping with her gloves on should maybe have tipped me off the first time around that something was off (it didn’t), but the second time around I noticed that she always kept her right hand out of sight when she was wearing the schoolgirl uniform. Impressive, Willis!