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The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
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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.
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A young, energetic woman fights her way up in the world of super-powered boxing after discovering the mighty gloves of her missing idol!
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A story about messy relationships. From friendly foes to crazy families. Nothing is black and white, just full of color. But, all colors can get a little hazy...
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Kochab
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A YA F/F fantasy comic about Sonya, a lost skier trying to survive a snowy wilderness and find her way back to her village; and Kyra - a fire spirit trying to fix the home that she let fall apart around her.
Widdershins
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A series of light-hearted Victorian-era adventure stories featuring grumpy bounty hunters, accidental thiefkings, and more, in England's magical capital city Widdershins!
Love Not Found
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Abeille is on a quest to find someone who wants to do it the old-fashioned way in a time when touching has become outdated.
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A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
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Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
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Wallace Foster, a young, bright-eyed human social worker, has his entire world view rocked when he's suddenly relocated into a city primarily inhabited by monsters.
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I’d say now Toedad will need a neck brace, but I bet that’s not too different from usual
…fwiw, my BIL legit lived through a flipping car accident, saying if he’d have known he wouldn’t have gotten a scratch on him, he would’ve sat back and enjoyed the experience
I almost feel like I wish Willis hadn’t told us nobody would die. I’m starting to not feel suspense when characters are in danger– there’s always a handy Sal with a motorcycle just around the corner.
Well, i like it that i cN actually read one of willies comis(or comic in general) where i know people won’t sliced away down the line…well, unless it’s a crime comic of course, can’t solve a death if everyones alive ya know:-P
Wasn’t the moral of the story from Shortpacked! that not pulling the drama tag would have lead to a hellish limbo of boredom in which no-one could find personal fulfillment because they had to live in pursuit of constant punchlines?
… and you actually believe him?
I always see it like him lulling his readers into a false sense of security, them. BAM… off we go with a couple of characters!
He is DY Willis!
Not the first thing that popped into my head when you said commando moment…
“Remember when I said no one would die?”
“Yeah?!”
“I wasn’t wearing any underwear.”
You’re taking a single reply in a comment thread way too seriously. I wouldn’t hold him to that, and I’m assuming he won’t stop himself from taking the story wherever he wants to in the future just because of that.
If he killed anybody off it would take years for the characters to stop being in grief. A single death would send so many ripples through the cast that the comic could never be the same again.
We don’t need anymore “death as character resolution” storylines anytime soon. You can get that anywhere.
Eh, even if he hadn’t said that, this result was pretty well foreshadowed. I mean, he sent Sal and Joyce after them. That was obviously happening for a -reason-. I actually expected them to show up sooner, when AG first lost her footing at the swerve earlier.
It’s all sort of… pointless without the fear of them getting knocked off you know?
They could juggle chainsaws blindfolded and let Mike be their power of attorney and not a thing would really happen..
Feels like a superman story.
…have you ever read a book?
Protagonists very rarely die in media (although a group cast like this comic does enable it more).
Heck, these last few comics are about the only time anybody in DoA has been in mortal danger at all–was there no suspense prior to that?
if Dina is in the trunk, it might be a good idea not to open it, Velociraptor’s don’t react well to being stuffed in trunks and bounced around. She’s likely to go all Cretaceous on someone.
I DID sit back and enjoy. Being a small child, I had no idea why the car was moving so strangely, and idly wondered what the hell the driver was doing.
If it had been less dark outside, I might have noticed we were rolling and realized that I should be afraid.
We rolled over onto our roof into a ditch once. It was snowy, we were doing about 55 mph down the highway, and over-corrected when our wheel went off the right edge of the road. Too icy to correct and get back into our lane properly and we went off the other side of the highway.
Ends up having four-wheel-drive during an accident isn’t helpful when one has to get out and spin hubcaps to get into it.
Happily, the bank wasn’t too steep there, so we kind of went along it, mostly parallel to the road, until gently toppling over onto our roof. The snow on the bank slowed us considerably or it could have been worse. And we were SO lucky no one was coming from the opposite direction! Could have been terrible.
But yeah, surprisingly fun, once the “Oh holy shit I’m about to die” was over, and, you know, not counting the car being totalled and being out in the snow. Someone pulled over and let us hang out in their vehicle with the heater while we waited for the emergency services, which was nice.
And now I can cross that off my bucket list. Still need to ram a chain-link gate, though.
Was going down the freeway while it had been snowing for about an hour. I slowed down to come around a bend, not realizing that the turn I was about to take would get gradually sharper as I went around so I didn’t slow down enough. The back tires started sliding out from under me when I straightened out, and due to the tire shop losing my all-season tires the day before, all my cargo was shifted to the back of the van to make room for tires that weren’t there to balance out the weight. Nothing I tried seemed to help or hurt the situation at all, the van just turned in a slow clockwise slide and eventually went off the right side of the road, pretty much pointed backwards relative to the direction of travel. Rolled onto the driver’s side, then the roof, and came to rest sitting on the passenger side. Over the next two hours, a half dozen other cars ended up sliding off the road to one side or the other because the road was so slick. Made me feel a little better, even if I was the only one to actually roll my car. Only injury I got was a bruise from the seat belt as it held me in place during the roll.
Know a guy who somehow managed to flip his car end for end – think he went into the ditch in deep snow, front stopped but there was enough angular momentum to flip the car over. He was fine (yay seatbelts!) and mostly surprised to find himself upside down.
Some drunk idiots driving too fast on the street near my place hit the curb, took out a light pole, flipped onto the roof, and landed hard enough to shake my house at 100 meters. All but one of them crawled out and ran off before the cops arrived. There remaining girl was injured – I’m sure she was thrilled her ‘friends’ left her when she was hurt. Fortunately everyone on the block called 911 and the ambulance arrived quickly.
Ten years hence it has becoming a common debate in Dumbing of Age fandom over which appearances by Amazi-girl are of the real one, and which are of one of her robot doubles. Some fans take the radical stance that all appearances by Amazi-girl are of the robot doubles, including her sex scenes with Danny. (One fan argues that all Danny appearances are of robot doubles, but he is generally considered insane by 99.99 percent of the fandom.)
Fuck, wouldn’t that be so awful? TBH, I kind of wish Willis didn’t say already that DoA was going to be deathless, if only because having this moment of triumph where Becky and Joyce and Sal are okay and Amazi-Girl is mostly ok and Toedad’s been disarmed and the police are gonna be on the scene to take that motherfucker to the clink… and then having them pop the trunk and fan fave Dina’s just dead as hell back there?
THAT would be the cruelest thing he could do to us, as readers.
After the intial shock would wear off, it would just be an utter waste of Dina’s character. Suddenly killing off a character offscreen and only reveal it just to mess with people wouldn’t be dramatic. It would just be a cruel joke with no purpose other than get the reader upset that they cared about what happened to Dina’s character.
“I landed on a rock. turns out it was a dinosaur fossil. It appears to have distracted me & prevented me from remembering about the Father with a head shaped like a large toe…”
I expect she’s physically going to be okay, but legally? That car wreck is entirely her fault. Toedad’s injuries? Her fault. Damage to the other car? Her fault. The police were coming already… if she had simply stayed to give an eyewitness account, they could have wrapped all of this up in a tidy package. They have cars, radios, and numbers. What she did was reckless and stupid.
Does Batman (or zorro, or scarlet pimpernell etc) actually serve justice or further pervert its course? How many criminals they ‘ brought to justice ‘ could ever actually be successfully tried?
The more recent batman movies successfully explore this. And its one of the reasons I’m looking forward to BM v SM as both characters are seeing each other for their gaping flaws…
You may notice that the semi itself is nowhere to be found in today’s strip. That’s because Sal, using her counterpart’s alien-abductee powers, opened up a dimensional portal which swallowed the semi, saving Amber.
Unfortunately, we all know where that semi ended up.
My cousin drives a truck. Most of them (cousin included) have insane stories about the things they have witnessed. Now there are dashcams and proof! And yeah, there is a good chance that since he didn’t tag anything, he hustles to meet his deadline.
While truck driver quotas tend to be insane, I’m fairly sure that an overturned car does count as an “incident to report”, even if it wasn’t caused by the truck driver — surely the police would want to hear a third party witness to the accident?
I had forgotten just HOW much his art style had changed over the years. (Scot McCloud uses Jacques in lectures as a specific example of art quality improving over time with practice.)
*Starts setting up link to Gif of Anime couple banging mid sky-dive, using a fish & a flower to represent the relevant anatomy, suggesting a strap-on as a fish replacement, then remembers possible young Humans…*
*…After Daniel the Human starts playing with magnets…*
Yeah, although AmaziGirl may have escalated the situation (we don’t get an alternate timeline, so I can’t say), car accidents because of someone rescuing you are probably a lot less scary than the alternative.
The alternative being that the cops stop them and arrest them, because Joyce told them what happened, who they’re after, and where they’re likely going? Not to mention the fact that Becky had Dina’s phone which could be traced even without Becky calling 911. The police almost certainly could have handled it safer than Amazi-girl.
But it probably wouldn’t have been as interesting of a story.
As long as Becky pretended to be compliant, Ross attacking the cops is not unlikely. I still see it as a safer scenario for Becky, as the current scenario they were very lucky didn’t wind up with everyone dead.
Becky is lucky to be alive either way. How many murder-suicides do we hear about in a given year? AG might be the Looney Tune solution, but Becky probably had better chances this way. People trying to project calm and reason with an unreasonable man would not have had time to react when he turned the gun on her.
How? She’s in the passenger seat and he can’t aim that thing one-handed at her with her unable to stop him. Presuming a situation where Toedad knew the jig was up and the police were onto him, he’d have to grab his rifle from the backseat and shoot Becky while still driving, all without getting swarmed by cop cars.
Spencer? It’s not like he had any trouble grabbing the rifle from the backseat and climbing halfway out of the car to shoot at Amazi-girl. Nor did he really seem to concerned about driving during that fiasco.
The idea that Becky would have been safe if Amazi-girl hadn’t interfered because Toedad wouldn’t have been able to shoot while driving just doesn’t match what we just saw happen.
Because he’s trying to aim this huge rifle in a tiny, enclosed space while still driving and being pursued by police officers. If he came to a complete stop it would take at most thirty seconds before the cops were able to get to him. I sincerely hope I’m not downplaying how horrifying it is to be put into a situation like this, but Becky wouldn’t need to shake him off for that long before someone could stop him. If they were still in motion she could jump out of the car, especially if they were still going sub 30 speeds. Some major bruises sounds a lot better than getting shot point blank.
(I mean, I get that he’s nutso, but I don’t think letting go of the wheel to stick yourself out the window and shoot someone on your roof is a thing that actually happens)
Not a thing that actually happens? It’s a thing that happened, a couple of strips back.
Would it happen in real life? Probably not. Can you use that to argue that Becky would have been safe because Ross wouldn’t do something as crazy as the thing he just did? No.
By that logic, what Amazi-girl did wasn’t that dangerous because Ross wouldn’t risk losing control of the car to try to shoot her.
I feel totally okay with saying that Becky would have been safer without the caped nut intervening, actually. You just can’t judge what happened in the strip with any real situation because nothing’s that happened for the past week has made any sense, other than looking really cool.
I mentioned this in the comments for a previous strip…
Not all areas of the country are equipped to trace 911 calls, and even when areas ARE equipped to trace the calls, the information provided can either be wildly inaccurate (off by several miles) or even non-existent. So counting on the police to track a cell phone may be a mistake.
Doesn’t their doctrine say that suicide disqualifies you from entering Heaven? More likely he’d go down fighting after executing his daughter, even if he did stoop to such.
Even if he did consider suicide a sin, he could have simply let himself be gunned down by police. In that case, its not ‘suicide’ because he wasn’t doing the actual killing (even if he could have prevented it by surrendering.)
Becky didn’t know if anyone would be coming for her (she didn’t even call 911 until she saw AG), so yes, I would say a car accident would be less scary than her alternative.
Well, let’s see here. Alternate reality, Becky wouldn’t have called 911, because until she saw Amber she had fully lost hope and assumed any attempt to rescue herself would just bring pain and suffering on her loved ones, so they wouldn’t have known where to find her. Joyce would have still left the scene with Sal, so they wouldn’t have gotten information from someone who knew where they lived and were going (if Toedad was going there and didn’t decide to be hid by his pastor or his Church in the commission of this kidnapping).
If someone got a license plate, it’s possible that the police would be after him, but without, it would probably be a while before they’d be on his tail as they’d just have a vague description of him and maybe a description of Becky as well. Chances are he would at least have made it to his destination, where escalation would likely have occurred if Becky resisted her “healing” or just badness would happen in the course of her “healing”. Either way, she’d definitely be in a dangerous place and feeling like escape would just lead to her loved ones being threatened.
Sal and Joyce would be the monkey wrench, but would have probably escalated. Because Sal would look initially like just a crazy motorcyclist on the freeway (not uncommon), Becky may not have noticed it was a rescue attempt in time to call 911. Sal would definitely escalate the situation and could be put in extreme danger owing to the difficulty in battling a car with a motorcycle. I imagine in his current state, Toedad would have tried to crash into Sal or run her off the road. If it came to stopping the car, I imagine Toedad would have had the gun available in that instance and so Sal and Joyce would have been in extreme danger in that instance.
Ironically enough this might have been the best possible outcome, even though Amber literally put all of their lives in danger by acting without thinking (popping a tire on a freeway at freeway speeds on a narrow two-lane highway).
He didn’t rub the ketchup all over his car; he just kept ketchup packets in the door pocket, and the force of the crash caused ’em to fly out and get smashed and squirt everywhere.
Well, the important thing to note is that in her eyes, she was in her darkest moment. Without hope, scared for the life of her friends, completely robbed of what little freedom she had and on route to potentially years of abuse trying to “fix” her at the hands of a man perfectly willing to kill her and people she loves.
And then a real-life superheroine risked her life to save her and she had hope again. She believed that the authorities could stop her dad, that she might be rescued, that this nightmare might be ended and she could truly begin her life anew.
And it was true. The car is flipped, but her dad is disarmed, the cops are presumably on their way, no one has died yet, and thanks to her seatbelt she is even safe and sound. Plus a hot motorcycle lady saved the female superheroine.
Basically, to her eyes, this is the most eye-widening example of “God answering lesbian prayers” she has gotten yet. And that makes this not only a powerfully cathartic moment, one of renewal and rebirth, but a profoundly spiritual one as well. She’s got her confirmation of what she believes her God to be like due to these circumstances, she’s saved from Toedad, and she’s alive in a day where she easily thought she or one of her friends would die.
That’s a celebratory moment, even more so with the rush of adrenaline and excitement. Becky is truly joyous in such a terrifying time, but has good reason to be. This is her true rebirth.
Awesome read, Cerberus. I think that’s a great way to look at it, actually. Becky wasn’t just rescued; she was rescued in the most over the top, adrenaline fueled way possible. She didn’t have to huddle in her seat listening to her dad get perforated with bullets; things were rad.
Yup.This really is a rescue of Becky on all levels. And perhaps the most important part is that when she was rushed from Andersons she ended up on a bus all alone. When she was kidnapped from IU there were four people immediately risking everything to save her.
Eh, Sal would be up for more, but in order to stay awake there really needs to be a ring of fire over a shark tank added. Then maybe it would be worth missing beer time at Walmart for.
Becky was just saved from a fate worse than death. Her life has been structured and her contact with any form of excitement has been forbidden. She just found out what it really means to be alive, and she likes it. I don’t think Fundie will be able to hold her down now, the subservient Becky is gone and the new Becky has arrived.
Reasons for ambulance:
-ToeDad took some damage from the roll.
-Dina is trapped in the trunk, took a beating in the roll.
-Amber collapses from her wounds.
#3 is the worst outcome, as it would mean an end to Amber’s secret identity. For that reason, it’s also the least likely, in my mind. I imagine she’ll stumble off, and recuperate on her own. That’s what heroes do.
I suspect that Amber will try to pass off her injuries as nothing… until she collapses from complications due to untreated fractures or something in front of Danny, Ethan, Dorothy, Joyce, Sal or some combination of the five. That’s when things start becoming interesting for her and for those who know her.
They don’t look broken, just fairly torn up. I think but don’t know that blood that red indicates that it’s not congealing yet, but considering the injury is brand-new that’s to be expected.
They could be broken, of course, but if he’s crazed/determined enough that still might not stop him.
Dina walks up and carries Becky away from wreck. Becky playfully takes her dinosaur hat. All the ladies start clapping and Joyce calls out “Way to go, Becky!”
Looks like Toedad got his camo baggies ripped up, along with his knees. Let us hope that this knocked sense into his…ah, who am I kidding, the only knock he’s getting is the one from the cop car running into him shortly.
Right now, the highways is probably blocked, with the truck in one lane (it was slowing down and probably will stop) and the red car in the other lane. I doubt any cars will be speeding through there in the next few minutes, giving plenty of time to collect any spikes.
I’m sure the cops could also collect them. (I suspect they probably have to do a general site cleanup after any sort of accident, as well as an investigation. So, plenty of opportunity to discover the spikes.)
Doesn’t mean it wasn’t reckless. If Sal hadn’t violated about four laws of physics for her, it would have killed her, and could very easily have killed Becky and butthole dad, too, not to mention anyone else who might be behind them on what’s still a public highway that they probably haven’t had time to close, or the cops that we saw headed for the fountain a few days ago who may have turned to follow them to the current scene of the action by now. If one of those bounced into the other lane and takes out a front tire on that semi, things back behind them could get very ugly very fast.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if, if he was able to walk, he was to continue trying to threaten Becky or her rescuers. He’s lost a lot of his leverage that his gun brought, but he’s definitely been shown not to be shy about throwing a few punches at Becky. I can definitely see him trying to strangle Amazi-Girl or Becky and needing Sal to pull him off. That being said, I’m pretty sure Joyce is at a point where she is ready to rip out his femurs, so there’s also that.
I wonder if Willis used that line ‘again’ in reference to the TV series ‘dinosaurs’. (In that series, whenever something would happen to the infant son, such as being thrown across the room, it would respond with an enthusiastic “again!”)
AG is out of it, and Sal is going to drive away before the cops arrive. The long awaited confrontation isn’t going to happen, yet. That’s my best guess.
I will bet there will be some effort to either hide in the bushes, hide in civilian clothes or remove Amber/Amazi-girl from the scene. I really don’t want to think about what happens if the cops nab her.
I’m waiting for poor Sal to have a sort of Sarah-style internalised explosion from everyone lauding Amazi-Girl as a hero and no-one talking about escalation and trauma.
I think Becky will have a lot of traumas from this day (the feelings of never feeling fully safe, the guilt about “putting her friends in danger (even though she didn’t), the feeling that getting close to someone means that they are at risk) that will impact her for awhile. But this car crash while scary also brought her freedom from a scary dangerous situation. Even though it would easily be traumatic for someone else, I wouldn’t be surprised if she actually regards the car crash as a happy moment, especially since no one died and she didn’t get hurt.
That’s what I was thinking too. Joyce’s first time on a motorcycle, and when Sal tells her to “counterbalance” not only does she know what she means but how to do it … and to just the right degree??
I’ve NEVER been on a motor cycle, neither as a driver nor a passenger, and yet I knew instantly what Sal meant and how much Joyce would have to lean.
It’s basic physics, counterbalance is counterbalance whether you are on a bike or just walking on a fence.
Ha. One of my professors once created a simile, in which he compared something* to folks taking up Catholicism because they thought the constant kneeling and standing was a good exercise program.
*I am ashamed to say I have forgotten the rest of his argument.
She arced thru the air, and was caught by the character who sent her on this journey thru an ill fated confrontation years prior. While fighting a destructive father. There is also metaphorical resonance with the vehicles serving to illustrate character’s control of the situation literally spinning out of control.
Amazi-girl has seen Sal on the motorbike. Whether Sal’s wearing the helmet or not, Amazi-girl’s next conscious appearance will almost definitely involve a very awkward reunion.
My mistake (although if she is dizzy, it might take Sal’s face to make it click)- maybe she will look at Sal after she has dizzily said whatever (as in the second prediction), but that doesn’t have quite the same feel.
I was about to reply how that only happens in movies without basic knowledge of physics, but considering the last few action scenes that’s been going on, you might be right.
This entire comic has gone on for less than 2 months in their time right? If so, these people are all going to be so emotionally drained by the end of the semester. They don’t get breaks from things and the intensity keeps increasing.
The only institution more action-packed than Indiana University is Camp Firewood.
“I had to break up with Donna after Yaron tried to make us have a threesome. And then Tigerclaw showed up because Andy stole Katie away from Blake and they tried to destroy the camp. And then, well, right after that, President Reagan and the U.S. military ALSO tried to destroy the camp, but that was after they also shot Eric, the hermit who lived at camp and turned out to be a musical legend.
And then that new counselor Lindsay? Well, she saved us all because she was secretly a rock magazine journalist. And then Gail blew off Jonas at their wedding, and his name is actually Gene and he fought in Vietnam. And Gene also got beaten up by an assassin named Falcon, who tried to kill Beth and DID kill Greg and this guy Jim Stansel, but then he turned out to be good the whole time, which I acknowledge doesn’t really make any sense, and he was only here to protect Mitch, who was turned into a can of vegetables.
And then also Ben and McKinley are dating, Susie hooked up with Claude, Neil got laid, Victor didn’t get laid, and Abby got her period.
On a serious note yay, no one died! And sadly from this position, I can’t tell if toedad still has his gun in his hand or not. KEEP HIM FROM THE CAR!!!
I assume his rifle is lying in the ditch someplace. Even if it isn’t there’s a good chance any ammunition he has is no longer in his possession, and he may not be able to walk at the moment.
We’re assuming his legs are broken, they may not be. You’re assuming the man is thinking straight, I’d suggest hes not thinking straight at all so there may well be another firearm in his car (probably isn’t but not something you want to take chances with)
I wonder if Sal’ll ever find out that Amazi-girl was reckless and did something that “probably traumatized” others because Sal actually traumatized Amber.
It wouldn’t have been as traumatizing had it not been for Blaine’s years of abuse. It’d still be really messed up for both Amber and Ethan to go through, but she wouldn’t have sworn to don the cape and prowl the night.
Technically Toedad is on the shoulder of the on-ramp for SR 37/future I-69 (which you can see in the distance). To be honest, I almost expected to see the construction barrels in the distance as well, but that stretch was probably not being worked on when he took the reference pics for this shot.
This seems to have gone surprisingly well… Not in a POSITIVE way, just in the sense of “could have gone all sorts of wrong but amazingly everyone’s still conscious”.
This can’t be the very end though. Either Toedad still has some shit left to pull, or someone is still injured enough that they need to be hospitalized (probably him or Amber).
Either way, Toedad hasn’t been completely thwarted yet, he still has to be properly dealt with (either by Becky and co. or by the police) before we can get closure on this…
Yeah, it would bleed that much if they just got badly skinned by skidding across the dirt and ground at high speeds. Honestly, I hope he has actual fractures, because otherwise he’s about to make one last final powerplay to hurt someone.
Becky reminds me of the scene in ‘Pee Wee’s Big Adventure’ where he flips his bike multiple times, lands on the wheels and announces “I meant to do that.”
Looks like Ross will be in traction for a good while with shattered femurs and kneecaps. Hanging out of a cars window when it flips and rolls will do that to a person.
gun’s gone, toedad is rattled to all shit, car is probably totaled, police likely on their way already and along with their recording of toedad and his malignant intentions means we’re probably gonna get a short “hurrdurr family moment” before toedad is arrested and jailed for rest of the comic’s life. huzzah!
Considering the fact Sal thinks it’s a bad idea to get the police involved (what with Joyce and the party aftermath) it makes you wonder what else are you supposed to do in such a situation. Then again- she’s not exactly wrong about the excalation? People almost died in ways they wouldn’t had she not been involved. Of course it could be because Amazigirl in (more or less) her own words is kind of a ‘white girl power kick’ if I remember correctly- perhaps not the fact it was vigilantism itself in general, but that to Sal, Amazigirl herself is full of crap in her experience after all/doing this whole deal for awful reasons (as well as the fact in general white vigilantes tend to be a complete and utter horror irl most of the time… sometimes for similar reasons a lot of white cops are- of course Sal doesn’t take AG seriously but still). If there was some other vigilante out there without Amber’s baggage/bad points she might approve all the same- after all she’s about doing things for yourself otherwise away from the cops influence because they can’t be trusted.
I’m pretty sure that Sal is still p’od about Amazi-Girl stopping her and the roller-derby girls having booze in that parking lot.
The girl knows how to carry a grudge… not unlike Amazi-Girl. The really odd thing is how spookily alike they can be in their unforgiving judgements and unwillingness to even consider changing their opinions on people
I think one of the interesting thing about the Sal-Amazi-girl rivalry and the Sarah-Raidah rivalry is that both are between similarly minded people in some ways and that leads them to conflict, because those strong personalities butted heads. Either due to Amber feeling powerless during the robbery or Sal feeling put upon by Amazi-girl in the parking lot or due to differing opinions on how best to help Dana, both parties feel justifiably slighted and so bash heads frequently.
Well maybe next time he’s in a high speed chase he won’t let go of the wheel to hang out the side of the car to shoot some one like a Dumbass.
You know what no, he’s beyond a Dumbass who does that !? It’s simple basic knowledge, don’t stick your hand in fire, don’t jump off a cliff, and do not let go of the wheel while your driving.
Joyce handled her first Motorcycle ride remarkably well [considering the stunt driving Sal was doing]. My first time as a passenger on a motorcycle, the driver was yelling, “I can’t breath! Not so tight!” For some it’s pretty damn scary under normal conditions the first time round.
My first motorcycle ride was on my friends turbo crotch rocket. I got on, he gunned it and I found myself standing in the road watching him disappear down the street. It was a perfect dismount, I just slid off the back of the seat. I couldn’t have landed it better if I had practiced for a week.
Becky’s joi de vie and Dina’s wonderfully brutal (but innocently meant) honesty are what brings me back. And even though these last few strips were downright cartoonish in the way they handled vehicular and human bodies in motion, it was still good reads.
yeah, it’s really terrible that Willis isn’t applying a mastery of physics into his fictional comic. I get that the action might seem unbelievable to you, but this comic features a vigilante superhero so I can’t help but wonder why on earth any of this needs to be believable. Rule of Cool is clearly taking precedence over The Laws of Physics rn and that’s actually okay.
But, don’t you see? Everything needs to be realistic! Even things that aren’t real! In fact, they need to be more real than reality! If people can’t nitpick about science with a cartoon, the whole world would fall into madness!
Eh, it’s a legit criticism. They’re extremely rare, but vigilante superheroes exist in the real world and are still bound by the laws of physics.
That’s kind of what it boils down to: it was a cool scene, but so much of it was unbelievable, to the point where some of us were taken out of the storyline.
extremely rare irl vigilante superheroes, who were inspired by fictional comics in the first place does not somehow make the fiction in which vigilante superheroes exist realistic.
Ya gotta pick your battles on what you let yourself be bothered by when enjoying fictional media, and bad physics in action is ultimately a silly one.
Not “extremly rare” by a long shot, these are just the ones that are noteworthy enough for Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-life_superhero
I don’t get what you are saying, first you say that you can’t expect the comic to be realistic, since there’s a vigilante superhero in it, and then you say that just because those do exist in our reality it doesn’t matter ?
Because literally almost nobody is trying to evoke realism when writing about costumed vigilantes. They existed in fiction LONG before they existed in real life. and yes, I would call irl vigilantes “extremely rare” because we live in a world of OVER SEVEN BILLION FUCKING PEOPLE so the vigilantes listed in the article is not a lot. Irl superheroes are not a commonplace thing, and the way superheroes are treated in fiction (including this comic), and how they are treated in real life are DRASTICALLY different, I should know because I lived in Seattle where the Rain City Superheroes are and nobody fucking gave a crap. The only time people paid any real attention to them was when Pheonix Jones misjudged a situation and beat up some people he shouldn’t of. Superheroes as we perceive them in media aren’t realistic, and more importantly AREN’T MEANT TO BE.
But honestly I shouldn’t have had to write any of the previous paragraph because the post I wrote that you responded to was pretty blatantly clear. Irl superheroes (WHO WERE INSPIRED BY FICTIONAL SUPERHEROES IN THE FIRST FUCKING PLACE) do not retroactively make superheroes in any form of media realistic. Irl superheroes started to become a thing in the 90’s whereas the first fictional example of a costumed superhero is the Scarlet Pimpernel 1903. It was fiction that inspired real life in this case, when irl people dress up and try to fight crime, they are imitating fiction, that does not make fiction less fictional.
I cannot believe I even just had to write that.
But anyway, all I was trying to say is that it’s FUCKING ANNOYING to get overly bent up about physics in FICTION.
Fiction still has rules and consequences. It’s not crazy that, after years of Amber only getting into minor fistfights, getting taking down with a knee to the stomach, and ruining situations through her presence alone, our perception of her is tuned in a way that a storyline of Amber tanking ridiculous damage and then getting saved when Sal appears out of nowhere and catches her with one arm contradicts.
If Jimmy Olsen roughly punched Superman in the stomach and that was all it took to bring him down, I’d think that would be silly too.
You’re the one who brought up irl superheroes in the first place to insist that DoA has to follow the laws of physics. So don’t even bring up superman because superpowered human-like aliens don’t exist irl so superman must be too unbelievable for you right?
And have you ever actually been hit in the stomach? Because that is a much different experience than getting hit in the back, it winds you, and you can’t really do anything when you’re winded but try and catch your breath. Getting hit on the back of your body will hurt, but it won’t render you completely out of breath. But I guess the real question is, would you rather this strip be unbelievable, or would you rather all the characters in this strip be dead?
Okay, except she didn’t just get “hit in the back”. She slammed into a windshield so hard that it cracked and she was bleeding from her head, and then proceeds to do crazy stunts like it never happened until it suddenly hits her now. That’s way, way worse than getting kneed in the stomach.
I think the best case would be to not put characters in situations where it’s unbelievable that they’re not dead.
“I think the best case would be to not put characters in situations where it’s unbelievable that they’re not dead.”
It’s not unbelievable, the way she hit the screen meant it absorbed most of the force, I’ve read about people totally untrained being in situations like these, and walking away without a scratch. I girl I knew, tiny and scrawny, got hit by a car crossing the street, flew through the air, immediately got up and starting yelling at the driver, only got a few bruises.
While people can die, even from just falling on the floor badly, people also survive falling from airplanes without parachutes, so…
“Irl superheroes (WHO WERE INSPIRED BY FICTIONAL SUPERHEROES IN THE FIRST FUCKING PLACE) do not retroactively make superheroes in any form of media realistic”
I have no idea what you are talking about. How, why, what, eh? Why does it matter WHERE the idea came from, if it IS in real life NOW, then YES, that IS the definition of realistic.
How they are portrayed in fiction is irrelevant, as ALL portrayals of groups of people in fiction will always be different, that’s what makes it fiction.
Still, it’s very clear that in a realistic setting as this, then, yes, it IS supposed to be a real life superhero Amber is, and not a comic book superhero. Like the first part of Kick-Ass also did, and a few other movies.
“I cannot believe I even just had to write that.”
I cannot believe you wrote all of that in the first place, as it both fails to give me a real understanding of what you actually mean, and what I can understand seems totally irrelevant.
Well, as reckless and foolhardy as Amazi-girl is, she did accomplish the great task of disarming Ross. Let’s just hope the gun actually went OFF the bridge and he can’t crawl over and fetch it while the girls are distracted.
Six days until the hospital panel. Either it’s just for Ross’s legs (which look previously busted up), or something terrible will go down between now and the tenth.
Tomorrow will have the preview panel of Joyce running towards something all freaked-out like, so that’s probably (hopefully) gonna be her racing to give Becky the hug of a lifetime because HOLY CHEESEBALLS MY BESTEST FRIEND IN THE WORLD ALMOST DIED.
Is there a way to scream “DAMN YOU WILLIS” but in like a relieved way? Because that’s how I feel. Jerking us around, having our emotions toyed with like that. Who do you think you are, messing with us like that, a writer?!
The danger isn’t over yet, I’m afraid. Ross and Becky are still very close to the actual freeway itself. I made a post about my fears just like 4 below yours. Can you link me the preview page for tomorrow’s worrying joyce? Your description of it fits right in with my worry for tomorrow’s page.
I still don’t think it’s Amber who’s going to end up in the hospital, if only because then the Amazi-Girl storyline would be done and Amber would go to jail, and Toedad is looking pretty banged up. Maybe he’s the one who goes?
She probably should go, but depending on how she recovers from this dizzy spell, she probably doesn’t need to (she could have invisible injuries but there’s nothing that has strongly suggested them). She can treat cuts and bruises herself, and Dina or Danny (or possibly even Dorothy) would probably watch her (for shock or signs of concussion).
I dunno, I’ve been kind of assuming that it might be Becky (and possibly the other cast) regardless of injury, for purposes of evidence and making sure she’s somewhere safe or whatever, since she’s a victim of a violent crime.
With only a couple more strips in between, it seems like it won’t be anything super new or it would have to be a very hard cut to the hospital (which is possible, especially if Joyce passes out or something once she’s done with rage adrenaline). If it is something super severe, at least that’ll make it obvious, though.
I’ve also been thinking he’s going to be trolling us loss.jpg
Also it could be that Amber goes to visit the hospital (people have determined that there’s going to be a change of day/clothes soon) for some sort of closure with her dad (not that I’d recommend it, but this whole thing probably is dragging that up a lot in her head (see red car intro). Also by closure I mean telling him to fuck off and kicking him, or something).
Personally, I think Amber is going to end up in the hospital, being treated, but Sal, Joyce, and probably Becky (and maybe Red Car Driver) are going to get her out of costume first. THEN she can have her moment with Bodycast Blaine, the Dastardly Damaged Dad.
Granted, this would require Joyce to convince Sal and a stranger to help conceal Amazi-Girl’s identity, and then do the dreaded ‘lying to an authority figure’ that we all figured she’d missed out on when Ross didn’t ask for her help to find Becky.
I know Ross is kind of on the edge between ‘curbside’ and ‘actual road lane’, but the positioning still leaves me with a queasy feeling in my stomach – I fear that next page will end abruptly with Toedad becoming roadkill. From the looks of things, his legs are destroyed, or at least very damaged.
If there was another truck, this one going in the same direction as he was some distance behind, and it runs over the caltrops that Amazi-Girl just littered all over the fucking freeway, it’ll start careening out of control. He’s just close enough to the actual road where he’s in the line of danger, but he’s definitely too wounded to actually be able to move. I worry that next page will feature a look of dawning horror as he sees his impending doom, shortly before he becomes a splatter of Ross-parts. :/
On a cheerier note, I’m glad amber survived that. I kinda can’t wait to see the upcoming interaction between her and her savior – who also happens to be responsible for her reckless superheroing in the first place, ala dramatic flashback.
I can’t tell if he’s sitting like that because his legs are fucked or if he’s about to leap up and rush the camera. I kind of doubt he’ll be roadkill though, that would be kind of like if a random muggle just shot Voldy once the horcruxes were gone.
Well she swerved them in front of an oncoming truck (where did that thing disappear to?), and then their car flipped over. It’s amazing that nobody died.
The alternative was Ross driving the speed limit, stopping at signs because Becky told him to, until the police eventually caught up to him.
Except the caltrops are way down the road, far before anyone would see the accident and think to start to slow down. However, they are basically balls, most of them likely just rolled off into the ditch.
the truck is out of our view of the action. even if the driver braked as fast as they could, it would be quite a distance before the truck came to a complete stop anyway, plus the car containing becky would have kept going in the opposite direction before it skidded to a stop itself.
so, you know. it’s around. or the driver just shook their fist at these darn kids and just kept going. *shrug*
Yes, nothing bad would have happened in that alternative scenario.
After all, Toedad was a completely rational individual who would have recognized the error of his ways and immediately surrendered when confronted by police.
And it was a little known fact that Becky was in absolutely no danger from Toedad… he wasn’t planning on harming her; he was actually taking her out to see a showing of The Vagina Monologues and then out for ice cream to celebrate her new-found lesbianism. Damn you amazigirl for ruining Becky’s chance to get free ice cream from toedad!
And, when the cops catch up, him killing Becky to stop her from being taken back to a ‘life of sin’ and then killing himself. Sorry, Amazi-Girl made things worse in what hyper-optimistic version of the universe?
Where did the truck disappear to? A little further down the road, out of frame. Quite likely still pulling to a stop even now.
As for the larger situation, I think you’re overly optimistic about how things would have gone. Ross was already making “I’m willing to die to keep control of you” noises back at the fountain. It’s pretty easy to see that extending to “kill you to keep you from sin”, crazy as that is.
At the very least, the guy who’s willing to let go of the wheel of a moving car and climb out the window to shoot Amazi-girl isn’t likely to meekly surrender to the cops. So we’re still getting a car chase, a shoot out, likely a crash and Toedad dying in hail of bullets. A hail of bullets that’s in close proximity to Becky.
Of course, the other alternative is that the cops don’t catch up to him. The standard assumption in kidnapping cases is that if they get away initially, you never find the victim.
I’m just going to collectively address you guys here instead of making the same post four times.
So for the truck, the last strip made it look like it was immediately about to crash into Sal, and it’s completely vanished. It’s not even in frame when Sal catches Amber. Were they in any danger of it hitting them?
As for whether or not Amber caused more harm than good here, well, I still think so. How many times did everyone nearly die here? If even the slightest thing went differently everyone would be painting that highway with themselves.
I know we’re arguing hypotheticals but I can’t find any situation where an unhinged teenager is better at dealing with a violent hostage situation more than the police.
There were several cases where multiple people could have died. But when you are dealing with risks assessment, you have to weigh the probability of possible risk to many (the events on the road)with pretty much certain risk to a few (i.e. if Ross had gotten away). One risk assessment is not always better than another.
* If even the slightest thing went differently everyone would be painting that highway with themselves.
And if a few things would have went better in Amazi-girl’s favor (e.g. Ross not noticing her when he did, Ross not climbing out of the car) then its also possible Amber would have rescued Becky with almost no risk or injury to anyone.
* I know we’re arguing hypotheticals but I can’t find any situation where an unhinged teenager is better at dealing with a violent hostage situation more than the police.
The police can and do use deadly force. i.e. guns. That shoot people. With dangerous things called bullets. That can hit bystanders. (Not to mention pretty much certainly killing toedad.)
Then of course there is the immediacy factor…all great to say “the cops would handle the situation better”, but they weren’t there. And even with 911 calls, there is no guarantee they WOULD have been there any time soon, (At least before toedad got to a more secure/fortified position.)
If not for her, the car would still be speeding on it’s way out of state, while the cops sit at the fountain on campus trying to find witnesses for the shots fired.
Becky may have been seriously hurt while idiot father smacked her around, while letting go of the wheel.
AG stopped him, brought the car with a blown tire, back into a straight run, with one arm while hanging into the window, and disarmed the maniac.
I don’t think she made it worse. Considering she’s a teenager who was trying to save a person’s life, I think she made a damn good attempt.
AG made all the right moves, but needed more help than she got, until Sal showed up and grabbed her, and the glory.
I think both Amazi-girl and Sal are totally awesome.
She probably made things no better or worse than the police, or Joyce and Sal, would’ve made the situation. I mean if Joyce and Sal showed up before Amazi-Girl did, toedad would’ve probably stuck himself out of the window to shoot at them like he did w/ Amazi-girl and chaos would’ve ensued. And if the police got there first, well… they’re kinda trained to respond… actively to any perceived threats against them. As far as we can tell, no one died, so Amazi-girl did good.
Yes, yes she did. Even allowing for the possibility of a murder-suicide attempt when the cops finally catch up (which I don’t really think was hugely likely), Becky was in a car, being driven relatively safely, heading towards a known location, with a cellphone that Ross didn’t know about. She called 911 after seeing AG, but I think it’s likely she would have done that anyway – she used the conversation to give evidence on the line, not just to distract Ross from AG. I think Ross might well have found himself in a shootout in the end – if the cops arrived before he put the gun away – but there was no real danger of Becky actually being put through conversion ‘therapy’ or held hostage for the rest of her life, IMO.
By contrast, AG’s rescue put everyone involved in immediate, deadly peril that they only survived through a combination of cartoon physics and improbable timing. She also endangered bystanders – Maggie, the truck driver and anyone who drove over her caltrops. So yeah, she escalated that shit.
I’d be pissed off with her if it wasn’t so fricking awesome.
Just out of curiosity, why are you so sure that the cops ‘knew the location’ they were going to? There was no guarantee that he was going home; he could have been taking her directly to some “pray-the-gay-away” camp, he might have been taking her to some family friend’s, etc.
And are you assuming toedad would have “put the gun away” when he got to the destination? He was dealing with what he thought was a sinful daughter whom he worried would run away. In his state of mind you would expect him to keep it handy at all times.
I didn’t say the cops knew where she was going (yet), but we do: Ross explicitly said (Deceptress and Clever) that he was taking her home. Dina also knows that, and Becky had previously told Joyce that he wanted to take her home (which would be Joyce’s assumption anyway, I’m pretty sure).
And yes, I’m expecting Ross to put the gun away because this is all about putting things back ‘on track’ with his mental script. Once he gets Becky home, and the church gathers around to pray over her, everything will be Completely Back To Normal and Ross will Have His Family Back because that’s What God Wants and All Will Be Well With The World… right?
Sal reminds me a lot of “cool” people I knew growing up, in that they always believed their own hype (but not outwardly admitting it of course) of being cool and therefore knowing stuff
AGs actions were desperate but without her there’d be a nutbar driving around with a loaded rifle whereas now the nutbar has (hopefully) broken legs
Sal is amazing. But her bike should have 2 blown out tires about now.
AG is amazing she made all the right moves in a very tramatic fast moving incidence.
She got the car stopped before Toedad either got out of state, or killed Becky either by smacking her, or piling up while not steering the car.
She disarmed Toedad, she got the car out of its spin (in yesterdays last panel)using one arm upsidedown.
The red car driver ‘caught her’. She performed all the rest alone.
Sal showed up at the last minute and pulled an amazing rescue. But is wrong to be judging what Amazi-girl has actually done.
I hope Becky spells it out for them.
Becky is a banana. So glad she appears not only okay, but realllly okay.
Toedad is in a bad way from looks of those red legs.
Amber may not be all that Okay Sal, you have no idea what she just went thru, doubt you saw her bounce off the windshield or disarm asshole dad.
AND this ain’t over. Not yet.
Get away from the car Becky. Get an ambulance for Amber. Make em get 2 so Toedad doesn’t ride with her. He will hurt her if he can.
Maybe open the trunk? still don’t know where Dina is.
AG cannot be seen by the responders; AG’s outfit matches the witness description of Blaine’s attacker but, not Blaine’s description.
Sal cannot be seen leaving the scene if Indiana has ‘fleeing the scene of an accident’ in its traffic codes.
They need AG to switch places with Joyce so Sal and AG can get the fuck outta Dodge and Joyce to duck into the bushes.
Because of the recording via Dina’s phone, the rest would handle itself.
I think Toedad’s knees are pretty skinned-up, rather than broken. I think he would be howling in pain, if they were. He just looks pretty dazed.
…and prolly lamenting the condition of his Toe-mobile.
Amazi-Girl is the most urgent candidate for the hospital, with a possible concussion, which needs to be checked. Pure adrenaline kept her awake, before.
Sal… I’ll I’ve got to say is that you’re about to experience a sharp learning curve. I’m strongly expecting a Sal Strop as Becky declares Amazi-Girl a heroine who saved her and a role model for everyone.
Yeah, personally, I don’t agree with Sal in this case. What Amber did was dangerous but, given the circumstances, I think that there has been a very good outcome and a far better one that the police, with their slow response time, scripted reactions and limitations, could possibly have achieved.
Even if that were right (and I think it’s debatable, but also not really debatable because how you would verify it?) it still wouldn’t justify the action. Unjustifiable risks paying off doesn’t mean the risk was justified blah blah look at me I write words I’m soo tired right now but whatevs who cares you can have your own opinion about this fictional thing we both like, it’s totally cool.
But that’s the thing, Sal *should* have been right. The situation she described shouldn’t have been just a hypothetical that they were lucky to avoid. The whole comic became a stupid action movie just to accommodate Amazi-girl’s existence without getting her killed. And I know that’s what always happens when she comes on the panel but that just means her effect on the comic and the tonal mismatch she forces with her sheer presence is consistently awful.
It used to be that a rapist would escape because Amber had no business being around. What happened?
What happened was the need to keep Becky in the comic, so they needed to be stopped so the cops could catch them before he could do anything to Becky. And because Willis is addicted to drama this meant somebody had to interfere instead of just having him get in an accident on his own because he was being reckless and not paying proper attention.
This. That car flipped. Becky should be hospitalized for weeks and Toedad should be dead. Amber fell from a speeding car, she should be dead. Sal and Joyce had a body hit their motorcycle at speed, they should be badly hurt. Somehow they’re all fine and Amazi-Girl is a hero. I don’t see how I’m supposed to buy this comic anymore.
And yet, cars flip with all the occupants walking out without even a scratch ALL THE TIME. People fall from speeding cars without dying, ALL THE TIME, etc. etc.
Come on, improbable is not the same as impossible, most of what’s been shown here is replicated, In Real Life, by stunt men while filming most of these action movies you guys keep referring to. Not to mention all the crazy shit going on every day by crazy people, like the people we see here.
I would actually say it is MORE realistic, in a way, than most fiction would portray this, as death/injuries are often heaped upon characters to create drama/plot in situations that have an equal possibility of ending up with no one hurt.
During the Whiteboard Dingdong Bandit misadventure, Amber Amazi-Girl had a talk with Joyce about that incident. I strongly suspect that Joyce trauma is at least partly the cause of Amazi-Girl’s declaration to not!Maggie that she “can’t fail anyone”.
So, Joyce had a big part in creating this guilt/intervention compulsion response in Amber.
No, she *shouldn’t* have been right, other than from a purely dramatic point of view!
The only reason things escalated during her rescue was that Ross discovered her in the wind-shield, and reacted the way he did.
Amazi-Girl is very well trained, was in an extreme encounter, which of course had an inherent risk, but I can not see that there was a bigger chance of her failing than succeeding in that situation either. rather the opposite in fact.
“No, she *shouldn’t* have been right, other than from a purely dramatic point of view!”
Or you know the point of view of people who don’t want to risk countless lives including those of bystanders sure. Like shit it was lucky the car Amber crashed into didn’t swerve out of control but instead had someone who was somehow able to keep driving steadily while listening reasonably to a complete stranger from out of nowhere.
“The only reason things escalated during her rescue was that Ross discovered her in the wind-shield, and reacted the way he did.”
Yeah isn’t it weird that when you’re fucking tailing a known armed gunman in a REALLY STUPID WAY THAT’S ALREADY LIFE THREATENING IN ITSELF he would use his gun on you?? It’s almost as if that’s the exact reason why you don’t chase down a fucking armed gunman!
You can argue all you want for how this situation is not convoluted, but to say Sal being wrong is something that is reasonable is downright irresponsible. Don’t chase armed gunmen! Don’t escalate situations! Don’t nearly cause a car-on-truck pile up! For the love of fuck!
In this situation we have to think of Amazi-Girl as an emergency service/responder, and they DO chase down gun-men, and yes, that CAN escalate the situation and make things worse, still it’s better than just letting them get away, right ?
No! Because you can get people killed! You can get YOURSELF killed. You could have gotten BECKY killed.
You know what Amazi-girl COULD have done? Wrote down the license plate number! It’s not like she didn’t have a clear view of it when she stuck her grappling hook in there!
“No! Because you can get people killed! You can get YOURSELF killed. You could have gotten BECKY killed.”
Just like the “proper” responders ALSO could get people killed!
This will ALWAYS be a risk when helping someone, why should it matter if the people helping are “official” or not ?
And “she’s really well trained” is such a Batman handwavy explanation too. Like what she was somehow trained to handle grappling people twice her size on the top of a speeding vehicle? Where the fuck do I sign up for THAT class?
Self-defence class, wind-surfing, climbing, dancing, stunt courses, joy-riding on subways, horse riding, there’s plenty of stuff you can train, and then COMBINE when the right situation calls for it.
First off, ignoring the fact that she clearly did not do all those things especially since she is a school girl (where would she even get the financing for it it’s not like her abusive father would have showered her with funds, let alone the time to do it), you would not even be slightly adept at even one of those things by college age, let alone enough at any combination of them to handle a real life situation.
I mean honestly it’s almost insulting how you could imply that just going on a surfing class or whatever could prepare you for THIS.
Actually the strip did mention that Amber’s dad sent her to Karate classes after the hold up (instead of therapy). Some of the other things (such as dancing) could have been part of school-sponsored activities.
Plus, Blaine had been removed from the family for a while… its possible that her mom got her involved in some of those activities after the divorce.
“you would not even be slightly adept at even one of those things by college age”
Thats…. I don’t even know how to respond to this. You don’t really believe that, do you ? There are SO MANY college kids that are adept at many things, all it takes is determination and dedicating yourself, spending all your free time honing up the skills it takes.
Surfing is basically what she did, but if you want a more extreme variant, look at kids that snowboard off-piste, hurling themselves down mountains off of cliffs. I would consider that a LOT more challenging than what we saw here. Sure, a lot of them also get hurt, really bad, but most of them can actually handle it.
Huh. AG didn’t lose it encountering Sal while trying to rescue Becky. Granted, Sal’s wearing a helmet, making it harder to tell who it is, but I’m happy to be wrong all the same.
God: OK, listen, I’m sorry I messed up earlier. Let me make it up to you. Your butthole father is flung out of the car. Here is a superhero, a rad rebel and Joyce on a motorcycle. We’re good?
The way one hears Sal’s speech bubbles:
“Ah, tol’ ya. ‘Escalation.’
Everyone here nearly died,
like, THIRTY times-in-a-row.
Pro’l all TRAUMATIZED, AN’ SHIT…”
Additionally:
To be stopped/standing in that position, Sal down-shifted, correctly selecting neutral, between 1st and 2nd, with her left foot while MID-AIR.
In panel 2, Sal is holding up 325lbs with her left leg, 135lbs of it with her left arm, holding the front brake with her right hand and the rear brake with her right foot.
Having gained an understanding of calculus, Sal is easily fighter pilot material.
I was thinking more realistically, like someone who probably could do 600lbs on an angled leg press but, isn’t huge is “S Williams,” the tennis player.
They’re about the same size.
Somewhere, there is a school coach who is a COMPLETE ASS if they didn’t, at least, attempt to get Sal to try out for the O’s as a sprinter…
Sal is not the same size as Serena; I’ve met her sister. I’m 6’3″, I work with dudes who have prison muscles, and Venus made me feel small. I mean, Sal’s not Dina, but she’s not big. She’s tall and skinny, probably with good legs and a strong core from the motorcycle, but she’s no Serena.
Sal: “Naw, Becky. You’ just a danger maniac. Go, si’down over there, Marty McFly’s mom… An’ don’t do anything that’ll get Dina killed. Ah’ see ya’ gears turning, already…”
Wow it sure is convenient that all the good guys got out of this fine while the bad guy is the only one who gets significantly injured. Like how Becky temporarily became too stupid to work a seatbelt so instead of stopping a car in a semi-reasonable manner we get this whole mes that she just so happens to survive because lol seatbelt. And “counterbalance”.
I think at that point it might have just been for the best that Becky hold on and wait for things to end. Even if she got the wheel they’re probably wasn’t really anything she could do and she’d probably end up way worse when the car flipped over.
Taking off a seatbelt in mid-out-of-control spin would have been a great way to get herself killed. It might also have been really hard to do quickly. Honestly, with the seatbelt she was well protected against most things. The truck hitting the side of the car would have killed her, but a bit of a roll on the side would just bang her up, but leave her relatively okay presuming the foot area didn’t crumple up around her leg or the dashboard didn’t pin her to her seat.
Why are we pretending there are realistic consequences in this story again? If Becky took off her seatbelt she would have magically been safe the same way Amber stayed safe after grappling hooking on to a moving car and then falling on to another moving car and then jumping on top of the first moving car and then wrestling with a man with a gun. “It would have been dangerous!” is a totally meaningless argument compared to what already happened in the comic.
Okay, so in this comment you are bongoing about people acting like there are realistic consequences, but in your first comment you are bongoing about how unrealistic the last few strips have been. Make up your mind, or better yet, stop getting upset about this awesome work of fiction. It is Willis’ story, not yours.
If I were to be honest, I’ve kind of taken Amazi-Girl related stunts to be the one remnant of wacky cartoonish hijinks and discounted them from my realism mental checklist about the time she jumped onto a moving truck. The emotional reality of her disassociations are another matter entirely.
I guess a way to put it is, I can buy the truck scene because Amber landed on it. It worked. If she slipped off the roof and smashed the grill but still kept going, then I’d think it’d be kinda nutty. Likewise, I can buy the skateboard sequence because, despite how dangerous it is, it feels normal that Amber would just go straight to the craziest plan, except this time it blew up in her face the same way it would have blown up in her face if that truck was going a few km faster or something.
But, yeah, I’ve always been way more invested in Amazi-Girl as a visual metaphor for Amber’s psychological issues than I have Amazi-Girl the super badass.
So she should take off the item that helps make sure you don’t die in an accident? That’s a pretty horrible decision to make when the car’s already out of control.
But Becky didn’t know no one would be killed so… why would she take off her seatbelt? I mean, I would get what you’re saying if this was like Deadpool or some comic where the characters know they’re characters and nothing bad will happen to them, but these ones don’t so of course she would keep her seatbelt on.
I’m thinking what Alex is referring is the part where Amber calls for Becky to take the wheel only because the belt’s on she can’t reach it, so Amber has to do it herself.
Becky’s not Sal, yet. She doesn’t keep shit together that way.
-She knows to run but, calls “split up.”
-She has the phone and comprehends she’s being abducted but, she calls Joyce instead of Emergency.
-She has the phone in the car, calls Emergency gives key phrases to let them know she’s being abducted but, doesn’t give them enough info to tell by whom or where they’re headed…
Beck’s moves are always to the left of perfect. That’s Beck.
Yes, that’s called ‘story convenience’. Willis can do whatever he wants with events and have only those whom he wants injured to suffer injury for the sake of the story he wants to tell.
That’s the problem. For people to care about the story, they have to trust it. Some people do, but for some people, the last couple weeks broke our trust. Seeing something like Amber getting flung from a moving car twice and being just fine makes it clear that consequences only exist in this comic when it’s convenient. That’s true for any story, but it’s hard to care when the writer shoves it in your face.
I’ve gone along with this arc so far, and I’m willing to shrug and accept the otherwise total absurdity of Amber not being a smear on the pavement yet, because whatever.
But I’m sort of hoping and expecting that this is the end of Amazi-Girl, both for Amber’s character’s sake and for the comic’s sake. For Amber’s sake because this arc here should’ve ended with her being killed, and it didn’t because of spectacular luck/the cartoonist saying so, not because she was a brilliant superhero who thought of everything. So if she keeps doing this, it’s only a matter of time before she really gets fucked up. And for the comic’s sake because of two things.
First, I wouldn’t want to see the rules of an otherwise fairly grounded and realistic comic get stretched beyond all reason just to accommodate one character; it reminds me of Mike from Shortpacked, and while Mike in Shortpacked was played for laughs, that’s not really how Dumbing of Age works (or, worked until now, I guess) and it would be a shark-jumping kind of shift.
And second, one of the central themes of this comic is growing up and discovering that the world is a lot more complicated and difficult than you thought it was. So where does the consequence-free vigilante fit into that? “Realistically,” Amber ought to be dead or seriously injured here and so should everyone else, but they’re not. If the lesson she takes from it is that she can totally be a superhero and save everyone because she knows what she’s doing and she can handle it, then “realistically,” it’s only a matter of time before she actually does get herself/others killed or seriously hurt. But that won’t happen, because Willis has already said he’s not killing anyone, and I don’t think he wants to draw Amber in traction for the next forty years, and I don’t think anyone wants to see that anyway. So it would just come to a series of exceptions carved into the Dumbiverse’s source code for Amazi-Girl, while the rest of the comic revolves around people experiencing the consequences of their actions and beliefs. It really strains credulity.
So hopefully, Amber has proven what she felt she had to prove with Amazi-Girl, and now she can put the costume away and work on a healthier way of coping with her issues. “Realistically,” she wouldn’t have a choice. She intervened in a series of violent felonies, she’s a key witness, what she does is technically illegal, she’s lucky to even be alive, and the only way her friends can “protect her secret identity” is to lie to the police and obstruct the very same investigation that would get Ross put away forever. So “realistically,” Amazi-Girl should be done whether Amber likes it or not. Whether that’s the route the comic takes, well, I guess we’ll find out.
Looking more closely at the last panel, Ross has some seriously shredded legs there. Maybe they’ll be dropping him off at the hospital before heading back to campus, and that’s the last we’ll be seeing of him and the emergency center entrance, at least until the inevitable Butthole Dad Alliance between Ross and Blain.
I’m flashing on the brief re-boot of the Spider-Man villain Hobgoblin in the late 1990s as a Fundie and his resultingly awkward conversations with the rest of the Sinister Six.
Imagine Blaine trying to explain his evil plan ™ and Ross interjecting with a stern reminder that Becky must not be harmed because he has to “save her soul”. Blaine blanks for a moment then reassures them that this will be a factor in their revenge before turning away with a grimace of disbelief.
She is. She’s been rescued from a terrible fate and given back her freedom. This is not a traumatic moment for her. Everything else today… yeah, pretty much. But this moment? Pure joy.
So I’m worried about Dina! Is she dead in the woods? Hurt and being hospitalized? Leading the police in the manhunt now that their incompetence has been made obvious.
Dina weighs about 98lbs, soaking wet. The 200lbs+ Ross wouldn’t have had any trouble scooping up Dina as she actively attacked him rather than running away.
So, if no one said “Dina is at that place,” she’s still in jeopardy…
Ross spotted Becky across the field and promptly dismissed Dina, as far as I could tell. She’s in preview strips that take place in the next day or so (assuming no hospital time skip) and looks fine. Rest easy.
Am I the only one concerned about the amount of red on Dad’s pants? That has to be blood; I checked earlier strips to make sure it’s not part of the pants. Speaking as someone who has a very similar psycho dad, I’m sure Becky doesn’t want her dad to be hurt/dead, just away from her.
Joyce: “Oh, that? It was Tuesday. There always a rollover accident on Tuesday. And lesbianism? They say everybody thinks about it at some time.”
Carol (phone:) “Well… There was that one girl while we were in school. Gosh, what a rack!! But, then I met yer father and he had such a nice tooshie and-”
Hank (phone:) “HOLY GOD!!!”
Joyce: “It’s a school, Dad. There are all kinds of folks. It’s not like there are MTF transsexuals, right under your nose, trying to use the ladies’ room or anything like that.”
Hank (phone:) “WHAT?!!!”
Joyce: “Hail Satan!!”
Hank (phone:) “THAT IS NOT APPRO-”
Joyce: * click *
Becky: “That’ll… Fix ’em…?”
Joyce: “Gosh, no. I just figured I’d get one in while I’m still buzzing with adrenaline. They’ll probably be here in an hour. I’ll have to convince ’em not to take me then…”
A friend and I were discussing the bike related events in the past few comics last night, and we came to a few conclusions. First, AG’s back would have been broken by the catch. Sal would have suffered either a broken arm, dislocated shoulder, or wrenched back. Possibly some combination of all three. Sal would probably have yanked on the right hand grip enough that the bike would have lost stability. Joyce would have been thrown and, at the very least, would have a nifty case of road rash. This is not a complaint, nor is it meant in any way as a slight towards our illustrious bard. Wandering the planet for over 3 score years has made the suspension of disbelief a somewhat easy task, and has increased my appreciation for a story well told. If I wanted hard core reality, I’d watch the news channels. That’s far too depressing. The Walkyverse (or Willisverse) is a nice place for an occasional escape.
Lastly, our most important decision was that Gentleman Jack goes well in Dr Pepper.
Well, none of the involved is majoring in physics so you cannot expect them to heed all the respective laws.
Frankly, Sal should be a driving instructor. Danny’s math tutoring is peanuts compared to what she managed to teach Joyce about bike stunts on the way. “Counterbalance!”?!?
I think that Ross, if he’s capable of it, is going to have food for thought as he waits for the indictment and trial process to reach its conclusion. After all, he is alive for one reason – someone that he thought deserved to be ‘sent to hell’ put her life on the line and endured pain to save him.
Maybe he’ll say that it was an act of God but, why would God use those particular emissaries? If he has sufficient self-awareness, he could have some enlightenment coming his way.
Now he knows, the demonic horde stealing his daughter is strong and his faith wavered too much for God to fully work through him. Now, he knows next time not to hold back and let the demons confuse him. Next time, he will do whatever it takes.
Yeah, I’d put easy money on Toedad learning all the wrong lessons and Becky having to nervously keep track of his parole hearings and release dates to know when her life and whatever girlfriend’s life she has at the time are about to be threatened again.
He’ll blame his failure on Satan, or that God works in mysterious ways. Either way, he’ll have time in jail/prison to plot his next move. Depending on his fellow fundies, he may even be able to orchestrate another kidnapping. We know the Brown’s won’t be involved, but fundamentalists need a support group. His may be a somewhat secretish subset of church members. He may have some fellow fundies that are willing to help save Becky’s soul from certain damnation.
At any rate, I suspect that Sal’s prediction about Amazigirl escalating the situation might have been because Sal has identified Amazigirl on campus as the girl escalating the convenience store robbery.
At any rate, I doubt that Amber will be happy about Danny tutoring Sal. But what will really be unforgivable is Sal’s Mariocart score.
Ross got lucky he was thrown instead of being crushed underneath the car. Probably has injuries, but at least he’s still alive, and maybe he’ll learn a lesson from this.
Family isn’t always just about flesh and blood, sometimes family is about those who care about you and accept you for who and what you are.
Although terrifying (between possible fatality and brutal imagery) it would be kind of good if the car dragged on them and he lost his legs because I’d be a lot less worried about him doing anything.
I wonder what the fallout of this will be for characters like Joshua/Joscelyn and Ethan, who are trying to figure out how/whether to come out to their families. It might lead to bonding for Joyce and her sister, but otherwise I think it might make both more likely to hide.
For Jocelyn it could go either way*, but I imagine it will be a pretty impactful thing, especially seeing what her family does
* both because we don’t know what the Brown parents will do (hopefully think Ross is awful, even if they don’t accept Jocelyn or Becky) and because if they agree with Ross, that could be a catalyst for her to come out and leave the family/community for good
How long before the cops show up? Does Toedad shrug off his injuries and pull a bowie knife out from his pockets? Is Dina in the Trunk? If so, is she injured? How long does AG remain out? Is the gun far enough away that Toedad can’t get it to continue the threat? Do Joyce & Becky hug, or more? Where’s Walky during all this – eating McNuggets or ‘servicing’ Dorothy? Will Becky go back to being homeless now that the University will find out the story? How long before AG looks at Sal & connects the dots? . . .
First alert: man with gun by Dunn Meadow. (Everyone involved hightails it towards Showalter Fountain, half a mile away.)
Second alert: shots fired at Showalter Fountain. (Everyone involved hightails it towards highway 37, passing the cops en route.)
Third alert: 911 call in moving vehicle, GPS hopefully available. (Car crashes just before highway 37, about 5 miles from the fountain.)
They’ll catch up with the plot eventually, probably in another strip or two.
I believe the gun has already been removed from the immediate vicinity, when Amazigirl kicked it out of toedad’s hands while they were struggling outside the car.
Kudos for drawing the underside of a car and making it look like the underside of a car actually looks, instead of the two-axles-connected-by-a-giant-pipe that so many artists go with. That’s always made me crazy.
Man. Reading Willis webcomics is like a masterclass in characters with wildly diverging viewpoints where no one is wrong. Amazi-Girl helped, but Sal is right. I imagine we’ll be getting some interesting arguments in the comics to come, Assuming Amazi Girl retains consciousness.
Amber definitely recognized Sal. I couldn’t point you to the exact page, but there was a sequence with either a near-miss or actual freak out about it.
Why are there so many people thinking Dina is in the trunk? How did you get to that conclusion? Pretty sure he left her in the woods to chase his daughter.
Honestly, my biggest takeaway from this whole sequence is that I don’t think action sequences work well in this format. Waiting a day for another few panels that cover a few more seconds drains the tension in a way that it didn’t in the more talky tense scenes.
It also pushes people to look to closely at the details of the physics and break their sense of disbelief that way. Which would happen less if it came in bigger doses.
Either a much looser style, with more action in less detail, or some other approach.
I do suspect it’ll read much better when read through all at once.
Amber really is amazing. she may be reckless when it comes to sal [and i guess everything because she does put herself at risk a lot] but her physical strength and determination saved the day. true the police would’ve gotten to becky and her dad- but let’s be honest. this man holding a gun and deciding anyone in his way would be ‘put in hell’ by his own hand would’ve had a standoff with the police and who knows who could’ve gotten hurt.
This is a good win for Amber, Becky, and Joyce. Becky gets her freedom, Amazigirl prevails [hopefully she can get away in time], and Joyce has some control back.
I decided to reread shortpacked and noticed this. http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=33 Maggie in this strip bears a striking resemblance to the driver of the red car.
Somewhere, there’s a Clan missing it’s ristar freeborn elemental. You did good AG. You did good.
Now get in there Sal and Joyce, and make fucking sure he can’t get up and try and start whaling on folks! Until he’s either in a submission position, cuffed or we’re sure his legs are broken, he’s still a threat.
Now I’ve got a DoA AU set on Arc Royal (that world the Wolves-In-Exile hold in common with the Kell Hounds), where amongst other things Amber is an Elemental sibbie gone off the reservation… though the chase with Ross would be have to be suitably escalated for Amber being literally born and bred for that kind of crazy riding and fighting + plus being about twice the height and mass, with even more muscle.
…
I also, after seeing the spider tat, keep imagining Sal as Natasha Kerensky for some reason – though I think a dire wolf would be slow for her tastes.
So I stopped reading Dumbing of Age for about 2 months.
This is the first page I see, my 3 FAVORITE CHARACTERS riding a motorcycle.
My life is complete.
1st HOLY COW
2nd Really digging the art, especially in the fourth panel. It’s so dynamic. It’s been very dynamic lately, but something about that panel highlights it for me.
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YEAHHHHHHH
I’d say now Toedad will need a neck brace, but I bet that’s not too different from usual
…fwiw, my BIL legit lived through a flipping car accident, saying if he’d have known he wouldn’t have gotten a scratch on him, he would’ve sat back and enjoyed the experience
He’d need a neck first.
He’ll have to get in line behind the Criminologist.
I almost feel like I wish Willis hadn’t told us nobody would die. I’m starting to not feel suspense when characters are in danger– there’s always a handy Sal with a motorcycle just around the corner.
Well, i like it that i cN actually read one of willies comis(or comic in general) where i know people won’t sliced away down the line…well, unless it’s a crime comic of course, can’t solve a death if everyones alive ya know:-P
It’s going to stay that way too, at least until someone finds the tag.
Don’t even MENTION the drama tag.
You mean this thing I found in the closet? Is it too late to put it back?
No.
No. No.
Nonononononononononononononononononono
Haven’t you learned from shortpacked already to not pull anything you don’t know what is already?>_<
Wasn’t the moral of the story from Shortpacked! that not pulling the drama tag would have lead to a hellish limbo of boredom in which no-one could find personal fulfillment because they had to live in pursuit of constant punchlines?
and then foursomes.
When did he say no one would die? I don’t remember reading that.
it was an answer to an ask on his tumblr. i’m sure someone has a link, and i think i saw it given in one of the comment threads for the past few days.
Here!
Thank you!
.
I definitely didn’t realize that was a thing…
When the action’s THIS intense, it’s a good thing to forget!
… and you actually believe him?
I always see it like him lulling his readers into a false sense of security, them. BAM… off we go with a couple of characters!
He is DY Willis!
I’m fully expecting a Commando moment at some point.
“Remember when I said no one would die?”
“Yeah?!”
“I lied.”
Not the first thing that popped into my head when you said commando moment…
“Remember when I said no one would die?”
“Yeah?!”
“I wasn’t wearing any underwear.”
You’re taking a single reply in a comment thread way too seriously. I wouldn’t hold him to that, and I’m assuming he won’t stop himself from taking the story wherever he wants to in the future just because of that.
If he killed anybody off it would take years for the characters to stop being in grief. A single death would send so many ripples through the cast that the comic could never be the same again.
We don’t need anymore “death as character resolution” storylines anytime soon. You can get that anywhere.
… maybe if he was ending the comic, maybe…
Eh, even if he hadn’t said that, this result was pretty well foreshadowed. I mean, he sent Sal and Joyce after them. That was obviously happening for a -reason-. I actually expected them to show up sooner, when AG first lost her footing at the swerve earlier.
Good thing I almost never read the comments. o 3o-b
It’s all sort of… pointless without the fear of them getting knocked off you know?
They could juggle chainsaws blindfolded and let Mike be their power of attorney and not a thing would really happen..
Feels like a superman story.
…have you ever read a book?
Protagonists very rarely die in media (although a group cast like this comic does enable it more).
Heck, these last few comics are about the only time anybody in DoA has been in mortal danger at all–was there no suspense prior to that?
I’m happy because I understand that reference, and I wouldn’t have last week.
Congrats on losing your virginity!
I have to say, that would be a great euphemism. “So, are you and Danny going to pull the drama tag tonight?”
zing!
Now that’s a guy with the right perspective on life.
Toedad will need no neckbrace. Toedad is devoid of neck. From the wedge of flesh that is his upper body protrudes only his toehead.
But he’s not blond.
icwutudidthar
Becky made me smile.
After today’s experience artwork, I really needed that.
Thanks.
*at work
Stoopid autocorrect.
Phew, I was thinking you got hit by some involuntary performance artist.
Yeah, me too. Now where the devil is darling Dina?
in the trunk?
if Dina is in the trunk, it might be a good idea not to open it, Velociraptor’s don’t react well to being stuffed in trunks and bounced around. She’s likely to go all Cretaceous on someone.
Frankly, I’m not sure how he’s still alive, given where he was that truck should have bisected him.
Maybe he tries to stand up and the top part of him slides away, like in Sin City.
I was thinking Johnny Mnemonic
I DID sit back and enjoy. Being a small child, I had no idea why the car was moving so strangely, and idly wondered what the hell the driver was doing.
If it had been less dark outside, I might have noticed we were rolling and realized that I should be afraid.
We rolled over onto our roof into a ditch once. It was snowy, we were doing about 55 mph down the highway, and over-corrected when our wheel went off the right edge of the road. Too icy to correct and get back into our lane properly and we went off the other side of the highway.
Ends up having four-wheel-drive during an accident isn’t helpful when one has to get out and spin hubcaps to get into it.
Happily, the bank wasn’t too steep there, so we kind of went along it, mostly parallel to the road, until gently toppling over onto our roof. The snow on the bank slowed us considerably or it could have been worse. And we were SO lucky no one was coming from the opposite direction! Could have been terrible.
But yeah, surprisingly fun, once the “Oh holy shit I’m about to die” was over, and, you know, not counting the car being totalled and being out in the snow. Someone pulled over and let us hang out in their vehicle with the heater while we waited for the emergency services, which was nice.
And now I can cross that off my bucket list. Still need to ram a chain-link gate, though.
Was going down the freeway while it had been snowing for about an hour. I slowed down to come around a bend, not realizing that the turn I was about to take would get gradually sharper as I went around so I didn’t slow down enough. The back tires started sliding out from under me when I straightened out, and due to the tire shop losing my all-season tires the day before, all my cargo was shifted to the back of the van to make room for tires that weren’t there to balance out the weight. Nothing I tried seemed to help or hurt the situation at all, the van just turned in a slow clockwise slide and eventually went off the right side of the road, pretty much pointed backwards relative to the direction of travel. Rolled onto the driver’s side, then the roof, and came to rest sitting on the passenger side. Over the next two hours, a half dozen other cars ended up sliding off the road to one side or the other because the road was so slick. Made me feel a little better, even if I was the only one to actually roll my car. Only injury I got was a bruise from the seat belt as it held me in place during the roll.
Know a guy who somehow managed to flip his car end for end – think he went into the ditch in deep snow, front stopped but there was enough angular momentum to flip the car over. He was fine (yay seatbelts!) and mostly surprised to find himself upside down.
Some drunk idiots driving too fast on the street near my place hit the curb, took out a light pole, flipped onto the roof, and landed hard enough to shake my house at 100 meters. All but one of them crawled out and ran off before the cops arrived. There remaining girl was injured – I’m sure she was thrilled her ‘friends’ left her when she was hurt. Fortunately everyone on the block called 911 and the ambulance arrived quickly.
Is this the end for Amazi-girl?!
It turns out that she’s actually a Amazi-Bot.
Probably just a concussion. Or a flesh wound.
Amazi-Girl: “NO! Wait!! Don’t run away, its just a flesh wound; I can still keep fighting!”
“Pfft. A minor skull fracture stopped you? Pathetic.”
-Blaine-in-your-head
“a flesh wound” isn’t that what the black night said after king arther cut his arm of in monty python and the holy grail?
Ten years hence it has becoming a common debate in Dumbing of Age fandom over which appearances by Amazi-girl are of the real one, and which are of one of her robot doubles. Some fans take the radical stance that all appearances by Amazi-girl are of the robot doubles, including her sex scenes with Danny. (One fan argues that all Danny appearances are of robot doubles, but he is generally considered insane by 99.99 percent of the fandom.)
But he’s obviously a robot! That kind of stupidity has to be the result of programming!
More important, where is Dina?!!!
And Maggie?
Oh shit. Someone check the trunk!!
Been wondering about that ever since Toedad appeared at the fountain.
He shrugged her off and then left while she was stunned.
Turns out she’s just in the trunk because car doors have windows and can’t be hidden behind.
Fuck, wouldn’t that be so awful? TBH, I kind of wish Willis didn’t say already that DoA was going to be deathless, if only because having this moment of triumph where Becky and Joyce and Sal are okay and Amazi-Girl is mostly ok and Toedad’s been disarmed and the police are gonna be on the scene to take that motherfucker to the clink… and then having them pop the trunk and fan fave Dina’s just dead as hell back there?
THAT would be the cruelest thing he could do to us, as readers.
After the intial shock would wear off, it would just be an utter waste of Dina’s character. Suddenly killing off a character offscreen and only reveal it just to mess with people wouldn’t be dramatic. It would just be a cruel joke with no purpose other than get the reader upset that they cared about what happened to Dina’s character.
Dina will appear a few real-time months from now completely fine.
“I landed on a rock. turns out it was a dinosaur fossil. It appears to have distracted me & prevented me from remembering about the Father with a head shaped like a large toe…”
Maybe…the person who created Amazi-Girl did just save her life, after all.
I expect she’s physically going to be okay, but legally? That car wreck is entirely her fault. Toedad’s injuries? Her fault. Damage to the other car? Her fault. The police were coming already… if she had simply stayed to give an eyewitness account, they could have wrapped all of this up in a tidy package. They have cars, radios, and numbers. What she did was reckless and stupid.
And now you get the vigilante hero trope.
Does Batman (or zorro, or scarlet pimpernell etc) actually serve justice or further pervert its course? How many criminals they ‘ brought to justice ‘ could ever actually be successfully tried?
The more recent batman movies successfully explore this. And its one of the reasons I’m looking forward to BM v SM as both characters are seeing each other for their gaping flaws…
Batman is necessary because he’s in a superhero universe.
See, superhero universes also have supervillains, and somebody’s gotta deal with ’em. And why couldn’t they be tried?
They also have slowed response time and quite possibly inaccurate locators.
Whoo no getting hit by the semi!
Your MOMS getting hit with a semi
For a nickle
Damn you barely beat me.
Lol I just had to jump on that asap
That’s what your mom said.
For another nickle :3
Or a nickel even.
In the FAAAAACCCCCCCCEEEEEEEE!!!!
Gor a Nickle
You may notice that the semi itself is nowhere to be found in today’s strip. That’s because Sal, using her counterpart’s alien-abductee powers, opened up a dimensional portal which swallowed the semi, saving Amber.
Unfortunately, we all know where that semi ended up.
Or, not having actually hit anything and with no incident to report, the semi kept driving to meet its scheduled quota.
That driver now has a story nobody will believe, though. The rest of his week is going to feel very boring by comparison.
Ambulance.
can’t use them anymore, don’t want the comic to get DMCA’d by Nintendo: Wii-U Wii-U Wii-U…
I think they ran out of nickels to pay the ambulence with.
My cousin drives a truck. Most of them (cousin included) have insane stories about the things they have witnessed. Now there are dashcams and proof! And yeah, there is a good chance that since he didn’t tag anything, he hustles to meet his deadline.
While truck driver quotas tend to be insane, I’m fairly sure that an overturned car does count as an “incident to report”, even if it wasn’t caused by the truck driver — surely the police would want to hear a third party witness to the accident?
I’m hoping he was just looking for a safe place to pull over (not a bridge) or turn around.
Woah
Sweet catch Sal.
What happened to ToeDad’s legs?
A car crash happened.
Friction.
You win one internet
Well whatever happened it doesn’t look like he’ll be chasing her anymore.
Or even walking much for a few days. Hell, just putting on pants will be difficult until his skin has healed a bit.
He was hanging out the window. I’d be surprised if he didn’t BREAK his leg(s) based on how he was using them to like hold himself out the window.
They became stronger.
Afterward, many are strong in the broken places?
Most likely broken glass from the window.
Nerve gas
Disguised as imported Tomato Juice.
Which was paid for with a nickel
Road rash. I’m surprised there isn’t more on his arms.
Ruth just removed his femurs.
Looks like he used his legs to break his le… I mean fall. Yeah, he used his legs to break his fall.
By breaking his legs.
Some random kids driving around with a paintball gun, shooting random people…
…Yesssss…random people…*Hides paintball gun with toedad’s mug taped to it…*
Well, she does seem happy. She must be hiding it…… Really well.
Adrenaline is awesome.
That was nuts!
“Great, now my daughter is not only turned on by girls, but also by danger”.
Luckily she’s dating a velociraptor, so her relationship needs are met.
Funny how that turns out.
She’s gonna be boinkin’ chicks while sky diving!
…Slipshine?
Wh–how would that even WORK?! >_<
Aerodynamically.
Aerodynamically curvacious…ly.
I had forgotten just HOW much his art style had changed over the years. (Scot McCloud uses Jacques in lectures as a specific example of art quality improving over time with practice.)
Tandem jump.
*Starts setting up link to Gif of Anime couple banging mid sky-dive, using a fish & a flower to represent the relevant anatomy, suggesting a strap-on as a fish replacement, then remembers possible young Humans…*
*…After Daniel the Human starts playing with magnets…*
Considering what she just went through, the car crash was kind of a step down for Becky.
Yeah, although AmaziGirl may have escalated the situation (we don’t get an alternate timeline, so I can’t say), car accidents because of someone rescuing you are probably a lot less scary than the alternative.
The alternative being that the cops stop them and arrest them, because Joyce told them what happened, who they’re after, and where they’re likely going? Not to mention the fact that Becky had Dina’s phone which could be traced even without Becky calling 911. The police almost certainly could have handled it safer than Amazi-girl.
But it probably wouldn’t have been as interesting of a story.
You’re assuming Toedad wouldn’t have decided to have a shootout with the cops.
Or taken both his and Becky’s life before the cop could get to them…
As long as Becky pretended to be compliant, Ross attacking the cops is not unlikely. I still see it as a safer scenario for Becky, as the current scenario they were very lucky didn’t wind up with everyone dead.
Her compliance was meaningless. He would have killed her to prevent her from being taken away from him and allowed to ‘live in sin’.
Becky is lucky to be alive either way. How many murder-suicides do we hear about in a given year? AG might be the Looney Tune solution, but Becky probably had better chances this way. People trying to project calm and reason with an unreasonable man would not have had time to react when he turned the gun on her.
How? She’s in the passenger seat and he can’t aim that thing one-handed at her with her unable to stop him. Presuming a situation where Toedad knew the jig was up and the police were onto him, he’d have to grab his rifle from the backseat and shoot Becky while still driving, all without getting swarmed by cop cars.
At the least it seems more survivable than this.
Spencer? It’s not like he had any trouble grabbing the rifle from the backseat and climbing halfway out of the car to shoot at Amazi-girl. Nor did he really seem to concerned about driving during that fiasco.
The idea that Becky would have been safe if Amazi-girl hadn’t interfered because Toedad wouldn’t have been able to shoot while driving just doesn’t match what we just saw happen.
Because he’s trying to aim this huge rifle in a tiny, enclosed space while still driving and being pursued by police officers. If he came to a complete stop it would take at most thirty seconds before the cops were able to get to him. I sincerely hope I’m not downplaying how horrifying it is to be put into a situation like this, but Becky wouldn’t need to shake him off for that long before someone could stop him. If they were still in motion she could jump out of the car, especially if they were still going sub 30 speeds. Some major bruises sounds a lot better than getting shot point blank.
(I mean, I get that he’s nutso, but I don’t think letting go of the wheel to stick yourself out the window and shoot someone on your roof is a thing that actually happens)
Not a thing that actually happens? It’s a thing that happened, a couple of strips back.
Would it happen in real life? Probably not. Can you use that to argue that Becky would have been safe because Ross wouldn’t do something as crazy as the thing he just did? No.
By that logic, what Amazi-girl did wasn’t that dangerous because Ross wouldn’t risk losing control of the car to try to shoot her.
I feel totally okay with saying that Becky would have been safer without the caped nut intervening, actually. You just can’t judge what happened in the strip with any real situation because nothing’s that happened for the past week has made any sense, other than looking really cool.
If they had even arrived before Toedad had them out of the state.
I mentioned this in the comments for a previous strip…
Not all areas of the country are equipped to trace 911 calls, and even when areas ARE equipped to trace the calls, the information provided can either be wildly inaccurate (off by several miles) or even non-existent. So counting on the police to track a cell phone may be a mistake.
Or, the cops would have stopped them, Ross would have shot her and then shot himself.
Doesn’t their doctrine say that suicide disqualifies you from entering Heaven? More likely he’d go down fighting after executing his daughter, even if he did stoop to such.
No; suicide is only an unforgivable sin in Catholic theology, as far as I know. Ross is almost certainly on the odd wing that claims to be Protestant.
Even if he did consider suicide a sin, he could have simply let himself be gunned down by police. In that case, its not ‘suicide’ because he wasn’t doing the actual killing (even if he could have prevented it by surrendering.)
He’s also probably part of the Protestant wing that doesn’t even consider Catholics as Christian.
except, you know, joyce didn’t tell them
Becky didn’t know if anyone would be coming for her (she didn’t even call 911 until she saw AG), so yes, I would say a car accident would be less scary than her alternative.
Also Joyce didn’t talk to the cops, we’re just hoping Skateboard did.
Sayid. His name was Sayid.
Was? … is he symbiotically linked with his skateboard and giving it to Amber caused him to spontaneously combust into nothingness?
RIP Skateboard Guy Sayid
Our interaction with Sayid so far is in the past, and, honestly, I don’t expect to see him again, so yeah, past tense applies.
Honestly, it would be nice to be wrong about this. More Sayid?
Please more Sayid.
there will definitely be more seen of sayid
eeeeee
Well, let’s see here. Alternate reality, Becky wouldn’t have called 911, because until she saw Amber she had fully lost hope and assumed any attempt to rescue herself would just bring pain and suffering on her loved ones, so they wouldn’t have known where to find her. Joyce would have still left the scene with Sal, so they wouldn’t have gotten information from someone who knew where they lived and were going (if Toedad was going there and didn’t decide to be hid by his pastor or his Church in the commission of this kidnapping).
If someone got a license plate, it’s possible that the police would be after him, but without, it would probably be a while before they’d be on his tail as they’d just have a vague description of him and maybe a description of Becky as well. Chances are he would at least have made it to his destination, where escalation would likely have occurred if Becky resisted her “healing” or just badness would happen in the course of her “healing”. Either way, she’d definitely be in a dangerous place and feeling like escape would just lead to her loved ones being threatened.
Sal and Joyce would be the monkey wrench, but would have probably escalated. Because Sal would look initially like just a crazy motorcyclist on the freeway (not uncommon), Becky may not have noticed it was a rescue attempt in time to call 911. Sal would definitely escalate the situation and could be put in extreme danger owing to the difficulty in battling a car with a motorcycle. I imagine in his current state, Toedad would have tried to crash into Sal or run her off the road. If it came to stopping the car, I imagine Toedad would have had the gun available in that instance and so Sal and Joyce would have been in extreme danger in that instance.
Ironically enough this might have been the best possible outcome, even though Amber literally put all of their lives in danger by acting without thinking (popping a tire on a freeway at freeway speeds on a narrow two-lane highway).
Those are some drippy legs, Toedad.
So much ketchup.
I dunno why he rubbed ketchup all over his car, but it probably didn’t help him keep a grip while this all happened. Lesson learned.
Lesson learned: Condiments cause accidents.
And condoms prevent accidents
Crap. I thought it was the other way around.
Accidents prevents condoms?
#NotAllCondiments
>.>
He didn’t rub the ketchup all over his car; he just kept ketchup packets in the door pocket, and the force of the crash caused ’em to fly out and get smashed and squirt everywhere.
I guess that is where Becky gets keeping packets on-hand. She paid off a bet to Joyce with an Arby’s packet.
Yeah, it’s a learned habit.
For real was he wearing cargos? Because I could totally actually see him carrying ketchup.
I saw that movie. (I won’t spoil it for anyone else by mentioning it by title, but there was a use of ketchup packets to simulate blood!)
Was it for the greater good?
Kids in africa could have eaten that ketchup!
No, see, he stopped for burgers on his way to the university and he still had some ketchup packets in his pockets, so they’ve all exploded.
No, Ultrasuede is a miracle. This is just good timing.
Catty, you are the livin’ end!
Yay Becky’s okay! I hope her dad is in a lot of pain!
Becky is crazy. Simply crackers.
Weird on a stick, you bet.
Would that make Dina the cheese?
Well, what else would someone who’s first crush is Joyce Brown be?
Just kidding.
That’s our Becky!
Laugh track, shrug at camera, roll credits.
No don’t roll credits yet. First they need to do a cheesy high five and freeze frame it in midair.
And then the car explodes.
Well, the important thing to note is that in her eyes, she was in her darkest moment. Without hope, scared for the life of her friends, completely robbed of what little freedom she had and on route to potentially years of abuse trying to “fix” her at the hands of a man perfectly willing to kill her and people she loves.
And then a real-life superheroine risked her life to save her and she had hope again. She believed that the authorities could stop her dad, that she might be rescued, that this nightmare might be ended and she could truly begin her life anew.
And it was true. The car is flipped, but her dad is disarmed, the cops are presumably on their way, no one has died yet, and thanks to her seatbelt she is even safe and sound. Plus a hot motorcycle lady saved the female superheroine.
Basically, to her eyes, this is the most eye-widening example of “God answering lesbian prayers” she has gotten yet. And that makes this not only a powerfully cathartic moment, one of renewal and rebirth, but a profoundly spiritual one as well. She’s got her confirmation of what she believes her God to be like due to these circumstances, she’s saved from Toedad, and she’s alive in a day where she easily thought she or one of her friends would die.
That’s a celebratory moment, even more so with the rush of adrenaline and excitement. Becky is truly joyous in such a terrifying time, but has good reason to be. This is her true rebirth.
Awesome read, Cerberus. I think that’s a great way to look at it, actually. Becky wasn’t just rescued; she was rescued in the most over the top, adrenaline fueled way possible. She didn’t have to huddle in her seat listening to her dad get perforated with bullets; things were rad.
Yup.This really is a rescue of Becky on all levels. And perhaps the most important part is that when she was rushed from Andersons she ended up on a bus all alone. When she was kidnapped from IU there were four people immediately risking everything to save her.
Becky is NOT alone.
Friends don’t always do everything right, but just having them there, trying, is tremendously validating.
I may be slightly sensitive to this point having finally gotten around to reading MTMTE #43.
I like this reading. Not fully convinced it matches Willis’ thought process, but I like it.
Becky “That was fun, let’s do it again!”
Everyone else, “NO!”
Reminds me of that scene from the Ice Age movie.
Eh, Sal would be up for more, but in order to stay awake there really needs to be a ring of fire over a shark tank added. Then maybe it would be worth missing beer time at Walmart for.
Sal is infinitely jumping the shark?
Becky was just saved from a fate worse than death. Her life has been structured and her contact with any form of excitement has been forbidden. She just found out what it really means to be alive, and she likes it. I don’t think Fundie will be able to hold her down now, the subservient Becky is gone and the new Becky has arrived.
People pay good money for thrills like that. Take that girl to an amusement park!
Well done, Willis. Not gonna kill anyone yet, I see. Merciful AND admirable.
Ambulance.
Reasons for ambulance:
-ToeDad took some damage from the roll.
-Dina is trapped in the trunk, took a beating in the roll.
-Amber collapses from her wounds.
#3 is the worst outcome, as it would mean an end to Amber’s secret identity. For that reason, it’s also the least likely, in my mind. I imagine she’ll stumble off, and recuperate on her own. That’s what heroes do.
I suspect that Amber will try to pass off her injuries as nothing… until she collapses from complications due to untreated fractures or something in front of Danny, Ethan, Dorothy, Joyce, Sal or some combination of the five. That’s when things start becoming interesting for her and for those who know her.
Start?
Danny, Ethan and Dorothy all know her secret alter ego.
Danny and Ethan know that the other knows.
You forgot 4: Toedad isn’t done yet and still has some fight left in him.
*starts uncontrollably fangirling over Sal*
Ross pants seem to have blood on them, probably broke them. Also Becky has the biggest luck.
She was the only person buckled up throughout this whole thing!
She was wearing a seatbelt, so her chances of injury were a lot less than anyone else’s.
Those pants will never be the same, always not quite straight.
Toedad will bring them to his pastor to pray the straightness back into them. He will restore what remains of his wardrobe!
Here, have an internet.
I imagine that there’s more fresh stains than blood on the inside and outside after Mr Toedad’s wild ride.
How does one break their pants? :p
submerge them in liquid nitrogen then hit them with a hammer
…and now the real work begins
Toedad looks crippled
One can hope.
+1
You mean stubbed?
You just won an internet sir, here have a cookie!
Posting in an epic chain.
Seriously. Best joke I’ve seen in a comment section in years.
… I don’t often -read- comments, though. So it could be a fluke.
You should read the ones here. They’re regularly awesome.
Boy, there sure are a lot of internets being given out today.
Quick, Becky! Run! Run now, before he can get up to follow you!!
With the state his legs seem to be in, I doubt he can get up, much less go after someone. =D
They don’t look broken, just fairly torn up. I think but don’t know that blood that red indicates that it’s not congealing yet, but considering the injury is brand-new that’s to be expected.
They could be broken, of course, but if he’s crazed/determined enough that still might not stop him.
Oh thank God.
Hopefully her dad is too dizzy to do anything
OH
F.LUX WAS ON AT THE TIME
DIDN’T NOTICE BLOOD AT FIRST
*looks for the Dilbert Dunker scene from An Officer & A Gentleman*
Love will lift us Up Where We Belong….
Dina walks up and carries Becky away from wreck. Becky playfully takes her dinosaur hat. All the ladies start clapping and Joyce calls out “Way to go, Becky!”
…I may need to go draw this.
Looks like Toedad got his camo baggies ripped up, along with his knees. Let us hope that this knocked sense into his…ah, who am I kidding, the only knock he’s getting is the one from the cop car running into him shortly.
The cop cars are all in a pileup behind them because they hit those spike balls Amazi-Girl was recklessly scattering in the road, too.
^ lol
Reckless? She did it on purpose, and it worked.
John has a good point, though—she hadn’t really thought through the consequences that those road spikes could have to other cars on the road.
Right now, the highways is probably blocked, with the truck in one lane (it was slowing down and probably will stop) and the red car in the other lane. I doubt any cars will be speeding through there in the next few minutes, giving plenty of time to collect any spikes.
Assuming she gets the chance to.
I’m sure the cops could also collect them. (I suspect they probably have to do a general site cleanup after any sort of accident, as well as an investigation. So, plenty of opportunity to discover the spikes.)
Doesn’t mean it wasn’t reckless. If Sal hadn’t violated about four laws of physics for her, it would have killed her, and could very easily have killed Becky and butthole dad, too, not to mention anyone else who might be behind them on what’s still a public highway that they probably haven’t had time to close, or the cops that we saw headed for the fountain a few days ago who may have turned to follow them to the current scene of the action by now. If one of those bounced into the other lane and takes out a front tire on that semi, things back behind them could get very ugly very fast.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if, if he was able to walk, he was to continue trying to threaten Becky or her rescuers. He’s lost a lot of his leverage that his gun brought, but he’s definitely been shown not to be shy about throwing a few punches at Becky. I can definitely see him trying to strangle Amazi-Girl or Becky and needing Sal to pull him off. That being said, I’m pretty sure Joyce is at a point where she is ready to rip out his femurs, so there’s also that.
took me a few reads to understand why becky was shouting ‘again’. man, all that sheltering has mad her ultra-eager for excitement, huh?
The adrenaline rush you get after an accident can be pretty intense. Bursting out laughing isn’t uncommon.
After all, when you think about it thrill rides and skydiving etc are just controlled accident analogues.
The laughter is your body’s way of proving it’s still alive.
I wonder if Willis used that line ‘again’ in reference to the TV series ‘dinosaurs’. (In that series, whenever something would happen to the infant son, such as being thrown across the room, it would respond with an enthusiastic “again!”)
NOT THE MAMA!
Correction:broke his legs.
Is Sal about to learn the secret origin of Amazi-girl?
Bet Sal doesn’t want to know or care to know.
I imagine so.
It’s going to happen sooner or later. Or is it? Maybe WatchayoutalkinboutWillis will have Amber resolve her Sal problems without a reveal to Sal.
AG is out of it, and Sal is going to drive away before the cops arrive. The long awaited confrontation isn’t going to happen, yet. That’s my best guess.
I will bet there will be some effort to either hide in the bushes, hide in civilian clothes or remove Amber/Amazi-girl from the scene. I really don’t want to think about what happens if the cops nab her.
Or not traumatized at all, matter of fact I think everyone has built up an immunity at this point.
I’m waiting for poor Sal to have a sort of Sarah-style internalised explosion from everyone lauding Amazi-Girl as a hero and no-one talking about escalation and trauma.
“When did Ah become the adult in the room?!?”
I think Becky will have a lot of traumas from this day (the feelings of never feeling fully safe, the guilt about “putting her friends in danger (even though she didn’t), the feeling that getting close to someone means that they are at risk) that will impact her for awhile. But this car crash while scary also brought her freedom from a scary dangerous situation. Even though it would easily be traumatic for someone else, I wouldn’t be surprised if she actually regards the car crash as a happy moment, especially since no one died and she didn’t get hurt.
Toedad’s legs look pretty messed up
Also I am surprise Joyce knew how to counter balance lol
Im guessing sal explained on the way
Dang she is a fast learner then! :O
Or Joyce just understood what it meant. She’s fairly clever, and growing less ignorant by the day.
That’s what I was thinking too. Joyce’s first time on a motorcycle, and when Sal tells her to “counterbalance” not only does she know what she means but how to do it … and to just the right degree??
Bill understands
I’ve NEVER been on a motor cycle, neither as a driver nor a passenger, and yet I knew instantly what Sal meant and how much Joyce would have to lean.
It’s basic physics, counterbalance is counterbalance whether you are on a bike or just walking on a fence.
Well, that was a resounding success, who’s up for shawarma?
Car doors are really hard to open vertically.
“There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don’t know what it is, but I wanna try it.”
yes lets all go eat for half a minute until the Real Final Credits roll.
…and Toedad doesn’t get any,. He has to lie outside the shawarma joint with an enchanted motorcycle on his chest.
And Becky gets to be Thor, happily chowing down on her food while everyone else is pretty much passed out on the table.
Shawarma, like its Greek counterpart the gyro, gets its name from a root meaning “turned” or “spun”. Maybe not the best choice àfter that ride?
Judging by Becky’s reaction, I think she’d be ok with it.
“Well, my head’s already spinnin’, might as well get some food that’ll keep up with it.”
Amazi-Girl!Hulk is gonna be super hungry, so better order extra portions for her.
I’d love to be that sort of traumatized.
Becky is a gift to this world
Looks like Toedad’s legs may have been broken when he was ejected from the car.
And that, kids, is why you should always wear a seatbelt.
And not climb out the window of a moving car. That you are driving. At speed.
Especially not when you’re the driver!
Is Becky quoting the baby from the TV show Dinosaurs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIc6eo5dmic
I wonder what Amber’s reaction will be to being saved by Sal….
“Good thing I didn’t stab her hand harder or she wouldn’t have been able to catch me”
Jumping off the bridge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFQvGJGpM1s
Five years from now Becky will be a pro stunt driver, specialising in both cars and cycles.
I can totally see that happening.
Paleontologist by day, stunt driver by night. Becky is Lady Badass!
OH NO. HIS PRAYING KNEES. He’ll never kneel again.
He’ll have to settle for lying flat on the ground like a worm.
Wow God you could have just took away his christian membership card but ok I’m cool with this.
How now will he show his humility before the lord?
Bend his neck like everyone… oh, sorry.
Ha. One of my professors once created a simile, in which he compared something* to folks taking up Catholicism because they thought the constant kneeling and standing was a good exercise program.
*I am ashamed to say I have forgotten the rest of his argument.
Becky, no! No “again”!
Character Arc… Literally.
She arced thru the air, and was caught by the character who sent her on this journey thru an ill fated confrontation years prior. While fighting a destructive father. There is also metaphorical resonance with the vehicles serving to illustrate character’s control of the situation literally spinning out of control.
This is an example of good writing.
Well it’s good to see that Becky seems to be able to bounce back pretty well and quickly from something like this.
Becky’s bouncyness is unrivaled, I’m impressed!.
No pun intended, really.
She’s practically a Bumble.
Is Becky a super hero? Cause super heroes are bouncy.
So are rubber balls :3
Prediction: tomorrow (or the next day), AmaziGirl wakes up just as Sal removes her helmet.
Prediction if not: Sal removes helmet after AG gives a ‘thank you, citizen’ speech
Amazi-girl has seen Sal on the motorbike. Whether Sal’s wearing the helmet or not, Amazi-girl’s next conscious appearance will almost definitely involve a very awkward reunion.
Citation: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/invest/
If she had followed through and actually gotten that damned Amazi-cycle half of this mess would have been avoidable.
Amen to that…
Her Amazi-cycle would not have been able to catch her, though.
People keep saying Amber’s like Batman, but she lacks his main superpower – money.
Does that make her Rorschach?
New Batgirl, perhaps. With a bit of Cass Cain inspiration (we know Amber’s a Gail Simone fan, natch).
Toedad is closer to Rorschach IMO, in that unhinged-fundie-who-will-not-stop way.
My mistake (although if she is dizzy, it might take Sal’s face to make it click)- maybe she will look at Sal after she has dizzily said whatever (as in the second prediction), but that doesn’t have quite the same feel.
The car is still on, therefore it can still explode.
For a nickel
I was about to reply how that only happens in movies without basic knowledge of physics, but considering the last few action scenes that’s been going on, you might be right.
I see badly screwed up, possibly multiple broken, legs on Toedad. YAY!
And I go from stress and fret and worry to an actual out loud verbal LOL in the course of one strip. Dammit, Willis.
Hooray for seatbelts!
Awesomeness all around!
Now I kinda hope Toedads leg injuries are hospital-worthy, otherwise we’ll have to go back to worrying about Dina.
Dina has been accounted for in a more recent preview panel though:
http://dumbingofage.tumblr.com/post/131265907762
I am relieved, but disappointed to have lost the tension of worrying.
Also Willis said that Toedad was the only one bleeding (although I guess that doesn’t rule out concussed)
In the woods, that is. At the very least he and AmaziGirl are now.
This entire comic has gone on for less than 2 months in their time right? If so, these people are all going to be so emotionally drained by the end of the semester. They don’t get breaks from things and the intensity keeps increasing.
It’s Monday of Week Five.
The only institution more action-packed than Indiana University is Camp Firewood.
“I had to break up with Donna after Yaron tried to make us have a threesome. And then Tigerclaw showed up because Andy stole Katie away from Blake and they tried to destroy the camp. And then, well, right after that, President Reagan and the U.S. military ALSO tried to destroy the camp, but that was after they also shot Eric, the hermit who lived at camp and turned out to be a musical legend.
And then that new counselor Lindsay? Well, she saved us all because she was secretly a rock magazine journalist. And then Gail blew off Jonas at their wedding, and his name is actually Gene and he fought in Vietnam. And Gene also got beaten up by an assassin named Falcon, who tried to kill Beth and DID kill Greg and this guy Jim Stansel, but then he turned out to be good the whole time, which I acknowledge doesn’t really make any sense, and he was only here to protect Mitch, who was turned into a can of vegetables.
And then also Ben and McKinley are dating, Susie hooked up with Claude, Neil got laid, Victor didn’t get laid, and Abby got her period.
So, it was a hard day.”
…….. Becky is my Spirit Animal.
On a serious note yay, no one died! And sadly from this position, I can’t tell if toedad still has his gun in his hand or not. KEEP HIM FROM THE CAR!!!
He lost the gun a while ago and from the looks of it, he’s got broken legs. Bonus!
Hello, wheelchair!
He dropped the gun while hanging out of the car about 5 strips back. It should be way back along the road behind them.
I assume his rifle is lying in the ditch someplace. Even if it isn’t there’s a good chance any ammunition he has is no longer in his possession, and he may not be able to walk at the moment.
AG kicked the gun out of his hands before taking the wheel.
Nothing to say he doesn’t have another firearm in the car somewhere…
Well he’s not in the car and if he did have a second gun, don’t you think he’d have used that instead of a single shot rifle?
We’re assuming his legs are broken, they may not be. You’re assuming the man is thinking straight, I’d suggest hes not thinking straight at all so there may well be another firearm in his car (probably isn’t but not something you want to take chances with)
I wonder if Sal’ll ever find out that Amazi-girl was reckless and did something that “probably traumatized” others because Sal actually traumatized Amber.
Sal was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, it was the lifetime of abuse from Blaine that traumatised Amber.
She still clearly traumatized Amber, regardless. That event was a catalyst for Amber learning self defense and becoming Amazi-Girl.
It wouldn’t have been as traumatizing had it not been for Blaine’s years of abuse. It’d still be really messed up for both Amber and Ethan to go through, but she wouldn’t have sworn to don the cape and prowl the night.
I do not remember red being part of the camo pattern on Ross’s pants…
Bet the underside of the car was a bongo to find references for.
I admit that my comment was mostly to find out if the filter was still working.
It is.
Also, is anyone else imagining Sal as a member of Daft Punk?
She’s the Stig’s…Dumbiverse cousin!
Despite what Jeremy Clarkson says is the origin of the term “Stig”, it’s actually an acronym in reverse and stands for Guy In The (racing) Suit.
Really ? It’s a very common name in Norway.
Toedad’s legs don’t look so good. I wish I could be more gloaty about that… but can’t manage it.
One of these days Sal has to learn that she is one of the genesis events behind Amazi Girl.
…Becky, I fuckin’ love ya.
becky, no
I wonder if that’s a real highway or if Willis let this one slide because all highways look the same
On his Tumblr he got real photos he took and all.
And then he complained that it was all on GoogleEarth too!
Technically Toedad is on the shoulder of the on-ramp for SR 37/future I-69 (which you can see in the distance). To be honest, I almost expected to see the construction barrels in the distance as well, but that stretch was probably not being worked on when he took the reference pics for this shot.
This seems to have gone surprisingly well… Not in a POSITIVE way, just in the sense of “could have gone all sorts of wrong but amazingly everyone’s still conscious”.
This can’t be the very end though. Either Toedad still has some shit left to pull, or someone is still injured enough that they need to be hospitalized (probably him or Amber).
Either way, Toedad hasn’t been completely thwarted yet, he still has to be properly dealt with (either by Becky and co. or by the police) before we can get closure on this…
Yay! Her dad’s legs are bleeding!
http://truegif.com/pictures/gif/2713.gif
nobody’s injured yet does that mean the action isnt over
Look at Toedad’s legs. If that ain’t what you’d call broken then I don’t know what is.
“got some blood on them sort of” is not usually what broken looks like to me
just looks like he skinned them
They look floppy to me, like he broke them. Regardless, both he and AG are injured (she did hit the windshield of a car).
What about Toedad?
Take another look at ToeDad’s legs. I’m pretty sure those are compound fractures in both legs.
everyone keeps saying this but i really dont see it
theyre bloody that doesnt mean theyre broken
Yeah, it would bleed that much if they just got badly skinned by skidding across the dirt and ground at high speeds. Honestly, I hope he has actual fractures, because otherwise he’s about to make one last final powerplay to hurt someone.
ross’s legs have been mentioned, and let’s not forget that amazi-girl hit a car.
And is bleeding from the scalp.
Is there any chance of getting that final panel in high resolution?
And Patreon tells me I need to ask for another panel tomorrow.
Ross ain’t going to be walking around anytime soon
This is probably my favorite strip so far. I love becky
I know, right!
Becky reminds me of the scene in ‘Pee Wee’s Big Adventure’ where he flips his bike multiple times, lands on the wheels and announces “I meant to do that.”
Looks like Ross will be in traction for a good while with shattered femurs and kneecaps. Hanging out of a cars window when it flips and rolls will do that to a person.
Everyone got what they deserved! Drinks for everybody!
Except you, Toedad. You have to go sit in the shed and think about what you’ve done.
Nope — drinks for ToeDad too. Then the cops can add driving under the influence to everything else they’re going to throw at him.
gun’s gone, toedad is rattled to all shit, car is probably totaled, police likely on their way already and along with their recording of toedad and his malignant intentions means we’re probably gonna get a short “hurrdurr family moment” before toedad is arrested and jailed for rest of the comic’s life. huzzah!
You know Sal isn’t 100% precent wrong but it just feels weird getting a lecture about unnecessary extreme action from HER of all people.
I mean for example take in context everything she just said in panel 4 then think back to her history with Amber and Amazi-girl
Not to mention there’s ItsWalky version of Sal but I don’t think that is applicable to this right now.
Considering the fact Sal thinks it’s a bad idea to get the police involved (what with Joyce and the party aftermath) it makes you wonder what else are you supposed to do in such a situation. Then again- she’s not exactly wrong about the excalation? People almost died in ways they wouldn’t had she not been involved. Of course it could be because Amazigirl in (more or less) her own words is kind of a ‘white girl power kick’ if I remember correctly- perhaps not the fact it was vigilantism itself in general, but that to Sal, Amazigirl herself is full of crap in her experience after all/doing this whole deal for awful reasons (as well as the fact in general white vigilantes tend to be a complete and utter horror irl most of the time… sometimes for similar reasons a lot of white cops are- of course Sal doesn’t take AG seriously but still). If there was some other vigilante out there without Amber’s baggage/bad points she might approve all the same- after all she’s about doing things for yourself otherwise away from the cops influence because they can’t be trusted.
There is no Fictional superhero out there that I know of that doesn’t have twice the baggage she does.
I’m pretty sure that Sal is still p’od about Amazi-Girl stopping her and the roller-derby girls having booze in that parking lot.
The girl knows how to carry a grudge… not unlike Amazi-Girl. The really odd thing is how spookily alike they can be in their unforgiving judgements and unwillingness to even consider changing their opinions on people
I think one of the interesting thing about the Sal-Amazi-girl rivalry and the Sarah-Raidah rivalry is that both are between similarly minded people in some ways and that leads them to conflict, because those strong personalities butted heads. Either due to Amber feeling powerless during the robbery or Sal feeling put upon by Amazi-girl in the parking lot or due to differing opinions on how best to help Dana, both parties feel justifiably slighted and so bash heads frequently.
I love how much Joyce’s clothes look like her It’s Walky! getup right when she jumps into an action movie.
Toedad probably deserves this but I am pretty sure his legs are fucking wrecked based on how red they are.
Well maybe next time he’s in a high speed chase he won’t let go of the wheel to hang out the side of the car to shoot some one like a Dumbass.
You know what no, he’s beyond a Dumbass who does that !? It’s simple basic knowledge, don’t stick your hand in fire, don’t jump off a cliff, and do not let go of the wheel while your driving.
Amber and Sal need to have a long talk after this.
A really long talk.
Joyce handled her first Motorcycle ride remarkably well [considering the stunt driving Sal was doing]. My first time as a passenger on a motorcycle, the driver was yelling, “I can’t breath! Not so tight!” For some it’s pretty damn scary under normal conditions the first time round.
My first motorcycle ride was on my friends turbo crotch rocket. I got on, he gunned it and I found myself standing in the road watching him disappear down the street. It was a perfect dismount, I just slid off the back of the seat. I couldn’t have landed it better if I had practiced for a week.
Great. Becky is Baby Dinosaur. https://youtu.be/b2nPJJW_jJ0
Which means that, from now on, when she talks I’m going to hear Kevin Clash’s voice.
Damn you, Willis.
That punchline, haha
Quick, kick toedad in his bright red weakpoints before he can grab another gun.
Hope he doesn’t wipe out a nother handgun, then I would point I would haft to point out something really stupid.
Becky’s got the right attitude! ^_^
No Debby Downer, all right!
As we said in Iraq, anything that doesn’t kill you is kinda fun!
Ok suspension of disbelief aside it looks like toedad’s getting back up.
Not with broken legs he’s not.
Becky’s joi de vie and Dina’s wonderfully brutal (but innocently meant) honesty are what brings me back. And even though these last few strips were downright cartoonish in the way they handled vehicular and human bodies in motion, it was still good reads.
I think about Becky when I’m sad
yeah, it’s really terrible that Willis isn’t applying a mastery of physics into his fictional comic. I get that the action might seem unbelievable to you, but this comic features a vigilante superhero so I can’t help but wonder why on earth any of this needs to be believable. Rule of Cool is clearly taking precedence over The Laws of Physics rn and that’s actually okay.
this was actually meant to be a reply to a specific comment, but, okay, website, I guess it can stand on its own.
But, don’t you see? Everything needs to be realistic! Even things that aren’t real! In fact, they need to be more real than reality! If people can’t nitpick about science with a cartoon, the whole world would fall into madness!
Eh, it’s a legit criticism. They’re extremely rare, but vigilante superheroes exist in the real world and are still bound by the laws of physics.
That’s kind of what it boils down to: it was a cool scene, but so much of it was unbelievable, to the point where some of us were taken out of the storyline.
extremely rare irl vigilante superheroes, who were inspired by fictional comics in the first place does not somehow make the fiction in which vigilante superheroes exist realistic.
Ya gotta pick your battles on what you let yourself be bothered by when enjoying fictional media, and bad physics in action is ultimately a silly one.
I find nothing unrealistic about the physics in this comic.
*jumps off rooftop, fires grapple gun, and swings away without ripping out arms*
Yeah, it’s like, I see these people just running around not summoning Superman, and I’m like, “Do you even Zee Watch, brah?” LOL
Hey if Batman says it’s not unrealistic then it’s all good. He’s the expert in these sorta things.
Not “extremly rare” by a long shot, these are just the ones that are noteworthy enough for Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-life_superhero
I don’t get what you are saying, first you say that you can’t expect the comic to be realistic, since there’s a vigilante superhero in it, and then you say that just because those do exist in our reality it doesn’t matter ?
That’s not what I said at all. Real people who dress in silly costumes all actually, you know, exist in a world where physics apply.
Whoops. You weren’t responding to me. My bad.
Because literally almost nobody is trying to evoke realism when writing about costumed vigilantes. They existed in fiction LONG before they existed in real life. and yes, I would call irl vigilantes “extremely rare” because we live in a world of OVER SEVEN BILLION FUCKING PEOPLE so the vigilantes listed in the article is not a lot. Irl superheroes are not a commonplace thing, and the way superheroes are treated in fiction (including this comic), and how they are treated in real life are DRASTICALLY different, I should know because I lived in Seattle where the Rain City Superheroes are and nobody fucking gave a crap. The only time people paid any real attention to them was when Pheonix Jones misjudged a situation and beat up some people he shouldn’t of. Superheroes as we perceive them in media aren’t realistic, and more importantly AREN’T MEANT TO BE.
But honestly I shouldn’t have had to write any of the previous paragraph because the post I wrote that you responded to was pretty blatantly clear. Irl superheroes (WHO WERE INSPIRED BY FICTIONAL SUPERHEROES IN THE FIRST FUCKING PLACE) do not retroactively make superheroes in any form of media realistic. Irl superheroes started to become a thing in the 90’s whereas the first fictional example of a costumed superhero is the Scarlet Pimpernel 1903. It was fiction that inspired real life in this case, when irl people dress up and try to fight crime, they are imitating fiction, that does not make fiction less fictional.
I cannot believe I even just had to write that.
But anyway, all I was trying to say is that it’s FUCKING ANNOYING to get overly bent up about physics in FICTION.
Fiction still has rules and consequences. It’s not crazy that, after years of Amber only getting into minor fistfights, getting taking down with a knee to the stomach, and ruining situations through her presence alone, our perception of her is tuned in a way that a storyline of Amber tanking ridiculous damage and then getting saved when Sal appears out of nowhere and catches her with one arm contradicts.
If Jimmy Olsen roughly punched Superman in the stomach and that was all it took to bring him down, I’d think that would be silly too.
You’re the one who brought up irl superheroes in the first place to insist that DoA has to follow the laws of physics. So don’t even bring up superman because superpowered human-like aliens don’t exist irl so superman must be too unbelievable for you right?
And have you ever actually been hit in the stomach? Because that is a much different experience than getting hit in the back, it winds you, and you can’t really do anything when you’re winded but try and catch your breath. Getting hit on the back of your body will hurt, but it won’t render you completely out of breath. But I guess the real question is, would you rather this strip be unbelievable, or would you rather all the characters in this strip be dead?
Okay, except she didn’t just get “hit in the back”. She slammed into a windshield so hard that it cracked and she was bleeding from her head, and then proceeds to do crazy stunts like it never happened until it suddenly hits her now. That’s way, way worse than getting kneed in the stomach.
I think the best case would be to not put characters in situations where it’s unbelievable that they’re not dead.
“I think the best case would be to not put characters in situations where it’s unbelievable that they’re not dead.”
It’s not unbelievable, the way she hit the screen meant it absorbed most of the force, I’ve read about people totally untrained being in situations like these, and walking away without a scratch. I girl I knew, tiny and scrawny, got hit by a car crossing the street, flew through the air, immediately got up and starting yelling at the driver, only got a few bruises.
While people can die, even from just falling on the floor badly, people also survive falling from airplanes without parachutes, so…
“Irl superheroes (WHO WERE INSPIRED BY FICTIONAL SUPERHEROES IN THE FIRST FUCKING PLACE) do not retroactively make superheroes in any form of media realistic”
I have no idea what you are talking about. How, why, what, eh? Why does it matter WHERE the idea came from, if it IS in real life NOW, then YES, that IS the definition of realistic.
How they are portrayed in fiction is irrelevant, as ALL portrayals of groups of people in fiction will always be different, that’s what makes it fiction.
Still, it’s very clear that in a realistic setting as this, then, yes, it IS supposed to be a real life superhero Amber is, and not a comic book superhero. Like the first part of Kick-Ass also did, and a few other movies.
“I cannot believe I even just had to write that.”
I cannot believe you wrote all of that in the first place, as it both fails to give me a real understanding of what you actually mean, and what I can understand seems totally irrelevant.
Well, as reckless and foolhardy as Amazi-girl is, she did accomplish the great task of disarming Ross. Let’s just hope the gun actually went OFF the bridge and he can’t crawl over and fetch it while the girls are distracted.
The problem with this is assuming that there is only one gun.
If he had another gun, he would have used it instead of the single shot rifle.
The gun has to be two or three hundred feet away, minimum.
Six days until the hospital panel. Either it’s just for Ross’s legs (which look previously busted up), or something terrible will go down between now and the tenth.
Tomorrow will have the preview panel of Joyce running towards something all freaked-out like, so that’s probably (hopefully) gonna be her racing to give Becky the hug of a lifetime because HOLY CHEESEBALLS MY BESTEST FRIEND IN THE WORLD ALMOST DIED.
Is there a way to scream “DAMN YOU WILLIS” but in like a relieved way? Because that’s how I feel. Jerking us around, having our emotions toyed with like that. Who do you think you are, messing with us like that, a writer?!
Oh, wait.
The danger isn’t over yet, I’m afraid. Ross and Becky are still very close to the actual freeway itself. I made a post about my fears just like 4 below yours. Can you link me the preview page for tomorrow’s worrying joyce? Your description of it fits right in with my worry for tomorrow’s page.
Even without the freeway, Ross is a big man and not necessarily hobbled, and he’s not exactly been rational.
Here’s the tumblr panel.
Ross and Amber both need medical attention, without any further terrible things happening.
I’m betting this is Maggie’s favorite.
I still don’t think it’s Amber who’s going to end up in the hospital, if only because then the Amazi-Girl storyline would be done and Amber would go to jail, and Toedad is looking pretty banged up. Maybe he’s the one who goes?
Oh god two evil dads in the hospital nooo
She probably should go, but depending on how she recovers from this dizzy spell, she probably doesn’t need to (she could have invisible injuries but there’s nothing that has strongly suggested them). She can treat cuts and bruises herself, and Dina or Danny (or possibly even Dorothy) would probably watch her (for shock or signs of concussion).
I dunno, I’ve been kind of assuming that it might be Becky (and possibly the other cast) regardless of injury, for purposes of evidence and making sure she’s somewhere safe or whatever, since she’s a victim of a violent crime.
With only a couple more strips in between, it seems like it won’t be anything super new or it would have to be a very hard cut to the hospital (which is possible, especially if Joyce passes out or something once she’s done with rage adrenaline). If it is something super severe, at least that’ll make it obvious, though.
I’ve also been thinking he’s going to be trolling us loss.jpg
Also it could be that Amber goes to visit the hospital (people have determined that there’s going to be a change of day/clothes soon) for some sort of closure with her dad (not that I’d recommend it, but this whole thing probably is dragging that up a lot in her head (see red car intro). Also by closure I mean telling him to fuck off and kicking him, or something).
Personally, I think Amber is going to end up in the hospital, being treated, but Sal, Joyce, and probably Becky (and maybe Red Car Driver) are going to get her out of costume first. THEN she can have her moment with Bodycast Blaine, the Dastardly Damaged Dad.
Granted, this would require Joyce to convince Sal and a stranger to help conceal Amazi-Girl’s identity, and then do the dreaded ‘lying to an authority figure’ that we all figured she’d missed out on when Ross didn’t ask for her help to find Becky.
LMAO. Inappropriate reaction, Becky!!!
Did Becky just discover her super power of flight?
I know Ross is kind of on the edge between ‘curbside’ and ‘actual road lane’, but the positioning still leaves me with a queasy feeling in my stomach – I fear that next page will end abruptly with Toedad becoming roadkill. From the looks of things, his legs are destroyed, or at least very damaged.
If there was another truck, this one going in the same direction as he was some distance behind, and it runs over the caltrops that Amazi-Girl just littered all over the fucking freeway, it’ll start careening out of control. He’s just close enough to the actual road where he’s in the line of danger, but he’s definitely too wounded to actually be able to move. I worry that next page will feature a look of dawning horror as he sees his impending doom, shortly before he becomes a splatter of Ross-parts. :/
On a cheerier note, I’m glad amber survived that. I kinda can’t wait to see the upcoming interaction between her and her savior – who also happens to be responsible for her reckless superheroing in the first place, ala dramatic flashback.
I can’t tell if he’s sitting like that because his legs are fucked or if he’s about to leap up and rush the camera. I kind of doubt he’ll be roadkill though, that would be kind of like if a random muggle just shot Voldy once the horcruxes were gone.
Betting money on the latter.
Loving the teamwork between Joyce and Sal here.
His legs are busted. finish him with a car battery
Becky’s a leprechaun!
I’d say toedad about to get Salled, but I think at this point Joyce is a bigger threat.
Escalation? Is that really fair? Whaddaya say, guys? Did Amazi-Girl make things better or worse?
Well she swerved them in front of an oncoming truck (where did that thing disappear to?), and then their car flipped over. It’s amazing that nobody died.
The alternative was Ross driving the speed limit, stopping at signs because Becky told him to, until the police eventually caught up to him.
So yes, Amber made everything worse.
Also those caltrops she threw all over the street are still there where they can blow out other cars tires. Like say, the police’s.
I think cars are going to stop after a crash like that.
Except the caltrops are way down the road, far before anyone would see the accident and think to start to slow down. However, they are basically balls, most of them likely just rolled off into the ditch.
the truck is out of our view of the action. even if the driver braked as fast as they could, it would be quite a distance before the truck came to a complete stop anyway, plus the car containing becky would have kept going in the opposite direction before it skidded to a stop itself.
so, you know. it’s around. or the driver just shook their fist at these darn kids and just kept going. *shrug*
Yes, nothing bad would have happened in that alternative scenario.
After all, Toedad was a completely rational individual who would have recognized the error of his ways and immediately surrendered when confronted by police.
And it was a little known fact that Becky was in absolutely no danger from Toedad… he wasn’t planning on harming her; he was actually taking her out to see a showing of The Vagina Monologues and then out for ice cream to celebrate her new-found lesbianism. Damn you amazigirl for ruining Becky’s chance to get free ice cream from toedad!
And, when the cops catch up, him killing Becky to stop her from being taken back to a ‘life of sin’ and then killing himself. Sorry, Amazi-Girl made things worse in what hyper-optimistic version of the universe?
Where did the truck disappear to? A little further down the road, out of frame. Quite likely still pulling to a stop even now.
As for the larger situation, I think you’re overly optimistic about how things would have gone. Ross was already making “I’m willing to die to keep control of you” noises back at the fountain. It’s pretty easy to see that extending to “kill you to keep you from sin”, crazy as that is.
At the very least, the guy who’s willing to let go of the wheel of a moving car and climb out the window to shoot Amazi-girl isn’t likely to meekly surrender to the cops. So we’re still getting a car chase, a shoot out, likely a crash and Toedad dying in hail of bullets. A hail of bullets that’s in close proximity to Becky.
Of course, the other alternative is that the cops don’t catch up to him. The standard assumption in kidnapping cases is that if they get away initially, you never find the victim.
I’m just going to collectively address you guys here instead of making the same post four times.
So for the truck, the last strip made it look like it was immediately about to crash into Sal, and it’s completely vanished. It’s not even in frame when Sal catches Amber. Were they in any danger of it hitting them?
As for whether or not Amber caused more harm than good here, well, I still think so. How many times did everyone nearly die here? If even the slightest thing went differently everyone would be painting that highway with themselves.
I know we’re arguing hypotheticals but I can’t find any situation where an unhinged teenager is better at dealing with a violent hostage situation more than the police.
* How many times did everyone nearly die here?
There were several cases where multiple people could have died. But when you are dealing with risks assessment, you have to weigh the probability of possible risk to many (the events on the road)with pretty much certain risk to a few (i.e. if Ross had gotten away). One risk assessment is not always better than another.
* If even the slightest thing went differently everyone would be painting that highway with themselves.
And if a few things would have went better in Amazi-girl’s favor (e.g. Ross not noticing her when he did, Ross not climbing out of the car) then its also possible Amber would have rescued Becky with almost no risk or injury to anyone.
* I know we’re arguing hypotheticals but I can’t find any situation where an unhinged teenager is better at dealing with a violent hostage situation more than the police.
The police can and do use deadly force. i.e. guns. That shoot people. With dangerous things called bullets. That can hit bystanders. (Not to mention pretty much certainly killing toedad.)
Then of course there is the immediacy factor…all great to say “the cops would handle the situation better”, but they weren’t there. And even with 911 calls, there is no guarantee they WOULD have been there any time soon, (At least before toedad got to a more secure/fortified position.)
She disarmed a nutbar, rescued Becky and the nutbar now has (potentially) broken legs so yes she made things better
Of course she potentially could have made things a lot worse but she didn’t so its all good
If not for her, the car would still be speeding on it’s way out of state, while the cops sit at the fountain on campus trying to find witnesses for the shots fired.
Becky may have been seriously hurt while idiot father smacked her around, while letting go of the wheel.
AG stopped him, brought the car with a blown tire, back into a straight run, with one arm while hanging into the window, and disarmed the maniac.
I don’t think she made it worse. Considering she’s a teenager who was trying to save a person’s life, I think she made a damn good attempt.
AG made all the right moves, but needed more help than she got, until Sal showed up and grabbed her, and the glory.
I think both Amazi-girl and Sal are totally awesome.
She probably made things no better or worse than the police, or Joyce and Sal, would’ve made the situation. I mean if Joyce and Sal showed up before Amazi-Girl did, toedad would’ve probably stuck himself out of the window to shoot at them like he did w/ Amazi-girl and chaos would’ve ensued. And if the police got there first, well… they’re kinda trained to respond… actively to any perceived threats against them. As far as we can tell, no one died, so Amazi-girl did good.
Yes, yes she did. Even allowing for the possibility of a murder-suicide attempt when the cops finally catch up (which I don’t really think was hugely likely), Becky was in a car, being driven relatively safely, heading towards a known location, with a cellphone that Ross didn’t know about. She called 911 after seeing AG, but I think it’s likely she would have done that anyway – she used the conversation to give evidence on the line, not just to distract Ross from AG. I think Ross might well have found himself in a shootout in the end – if the cops arrived before he put the gun away – but there was no real danger of Becky actually being put through conversion ‘therapy’ or held hostage for the rest of her life, IMO.
By contrast, AG’s rescue put everyone involved in immediate, deadly peril that they only survived through a combination of cartoon physics and improbable timing. She also endangered bystanders – Maggie, the truck driver and anyone who drove over her caltrops. So yeah, she escalated that shit.
I’d be pissed off with her if it wasn’t so fricking awesome.
Just out of curiosity, why are you so sure that the cops ‘knew the location’ they were going to? There was no guarantee that he was going home; he could have been taking her directly to some “pray-the-gay-away” camp, he might have been taking her to some family friend’s, etc.
And are you assuming toedad would have “put the gun away” when he got to the destination? He was dealing with what he thought was a sinful daughter whom he worried would run away. In his state of mind you would expect him to keep it handy at all times.
I didn’t say the cops knew where she was going (yet), but we do: Ross explicitly said (Deceptress and Clever) that he was taking her home. Dina also knows that, and Becky had previously told Joyce that he wanted to take her home (which would be Joyce’s assumption anyway, I’m pretty sure).
And yes, I’m expecting Ross to put the gun away because this is all about putting things back ‘on track’ with his mental script. Once he gets Becky home, and the church gathers around to pray over her, everything will be Completely Back To Normal and Ross will Have His Family Back because that’s What God Wants and All Will Be Well With The World… right?
Had Amazi-Girl not intervened things would have been MUCH worse.
Because Willis.
Added today on Amazi-girl’s case : caused a car accident.
Still struggling with title words, Willis?
Sal reminds me a lot of “cool” people I knew growing up, in that they always believed their own hype (but not outwardly admitting it of course) of being cool and therefore knowing stuff
AGs actions were desperate but without her there’d be a nutbar driving around with a loaded rifle whereas now the nutbar has (hopefully) broken legs
Sal is smarter than anyone gives her credit for.
“yer fuckin’ welcome.” – sal, probably
I love you Sal! (Sigh of relief)
Oh god I love Becky so hard
Toedad’s knees look all busted up.
Adrenaline rush is a helluva drug.
There are people missing from the vote.
Does the Great and Powerfull Willis accept write ins?
Main characters aren’t included in the poll.
Sal is amazing. But her bike should have 2 blown out tires about now.
AG is amazing she made all the right moves in a very tramatic fast moving incidence.
She got the car stopped before Toedad either got out of state, or killed Becky either by smacking her, or piling up while not steering the car.
She disarmed Toedad, she got the car out of its spin (in yesterdays last panel)using one arm upsidedown.
The red car driver ‘caught her’. She performed all the rest alone.
Sal showed up at the last minute and pulled an amazing rescue. But is wrong to be judging what Amazi-girl has actually done.
I hope Becky spells it out for them.
Becky is a banana. So glad she appears not only okay, but realllly okay.
Toedad is in a bad way from looks of those red legs.
Amber may not be all that Okay Sal, you have no idea what she just went thru, doubt you saw her bounce off the windshield or disarm asshole dad.
AND this ain’t over. Not yet.
Get away from the car Becky. Get an ambulance for Amber. Make em get 2 so Toedad doesn’t ride with her. He will hurt her if he can.
Maybe open the trunk? still don’t know where Dina is.
Not over yet.
AG cannot be seen by the responders; AG’s outfit matches the witness description of Blaine’s attacker but, not Blaine’s description.
Sal cannot be seen leaving the scene if Indiana has ‘fleeing the scene of an accident’ in its traffic codes.
They need AG to switch places with Joyce so Sal and AG can get the fuck outta Dodge and Joyce to duck into the bushes.
Because of the recording via Dina’s phone, the rest would handle itself.
I love Becky.
Becky is ALIVE!!!!!
this is a triumph
cake for everyone!
* collects a piece of cake, offer thermos tea
I’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.
Yep. Confirmation that Becky is an adrenalin junky.
I think Toedad’s knees are pretty skinned-up, rather than broken. I think he would be howling in pain, if they were. He just looks pretty dazed.
…and prolly lamenting the condition of his Toe-mobile.
Amazi-Girl is the most urgent candidate for the hospital, with a possible concussion, which needs to be checked. Pure adrenaline kept her awake, before.
It looks as if the cape was Sal’s. Sal definitely needs a cape.
I know it’s insanely dangerous to wear a cape on a motorcycle, but does it really matter after surviving this?
Sal… I’ll I’ve got to say is that you’re about to experience a sharp learning curve. I’m strongly expecting a Sal Strop as Becky declares Amazi-Girl a heroine who saved her and a role model for everyone.
I don’t think Sal would be even a little bit surprised at that reaction. That doesn’t make her less right.
Yeah, personally, I don’t agree with Sal in this case. What Amber did was dangerous but, given the circumstances, I think that there has been a very good outcome and a far better one that the police, with their slow response time, scripted reactions and limitations, could possibly have achieved.
Even if that were right (and I think it’s debatable, but also not really debatable because how you would verify it?) it still wouldn’t justify the action. Unjustifiable risks paying off doesn’t mean the risk was justified blah blah look at me I write words I’m soo tired right now but whatevs who cares you can have your own opinion about this fictional thing we both like, it’s totally cool.
But that’s the thing, Sal *should* have been right. The situation she described shouldn’t have been just a hypothetical that they were lucky to avoid. The whole comic became a stupid action movie just to accommodate Amazi-girl’s existence without getting her killed. And I know that’s what always happens when she comes on the panel but that just means her effect on the comic and the tonal mismatch she forces with her sheer presence is consistently awful.
It used to be that a rapist would escape because Amber had no business being around. What happened?
What happened was the need to keep Becky in the comic, so they needed to be stopped so the cops could catch them before he could do anything to Becky. And because Willis is addicted to drama this meant somebody had to interfere instead of just having him get in an accident on his own because he was being reckless and not paying proper attention.
This. That car flipped. Becky should be hospitalized for weeks and Toedad should be dead. Amber fell from a speeding car, she should be dead. Sal and Joyce had a body hit their motorcycle at speed, they should be badly hurt. Somehow they’re all fine and Amazi-Girl is a hero. I don’t see how I’m supposed to buy this comic anymore.
And yet, cars flip with all the occupants walking out without even a scratch ALL THE TIME. People fall from speeding cars without dying, ALL THE TIME, etc. etc.
Come on, improbable is not the same as impossible, most of what’s been shown here is replicated, In Real Life, by stunt men while filming most of these action movies you guys keep referring to. Not to mention all the crazy shit going on every day by crazy people, like the people we see here.
I would actually say it is MORE realistic, in a way, than most fiction would portray this, as death/injuries are often heaped upon characters to create drama/plot in situations that have an equal possibility of ending up with no one hurt.
During the Whiteboard Dingdong Bandit misadventure,
AmberAmazi-Girl had a talk with Joyce about that incident. I strongly suspect that Joyce trauma is at least partly the cause of Amazi-Girl’s declaration to not!Maggie that she “can’t fail anyone”.So, Joyce had a big part in creating this guilt/intervention compulsion response in Amber.
No, she *shouldn’t* have been right, other than from a purely dramatic point of view!
The only reason things escalated during her rescue was that Ross discovered her in the wind-shield, and reacted the way he did.
Amazi-Girl is very well trained, was in an extreme encounter, which of course had an inherent risk, but I can not see that there was a bigger chance of her failing than succeeding in that situation either. rather the opposite in fact.
“No, she *shouldn’t* have been right, other than from a purely dramatic point of view!”
Or you know the point of view of people who don’t want to risk countless lives including those of bystanders sure. Like shit it was lucky the car Amber crashed into didn’t swerve out of control but instead had someone who was somehow able to keep driving steadily while listening reasonably to a complete stranger from out of nowhere.
“The only reason things escalated during her rescue was that Ross discovered her in the wind-shield, and reacted the way he did.”
Yeah isn’t it weird that when you’re fucking tailing a known armed gunman in a REALLY STUPID WAY THAT’S ALREADY LIFE THREATENING IN ITSELF he would use his gun on you?? It’s almost as if that’s the exact reason why you don’t chase down a fucking armed gunman!
You can argue all you want for how this situation is not convoluted, but to say Sal being wrong is something that is reasonable is downright irresponsible. Don’t chase armed gunmen! Don’t escalate situations! Don’t nearly cause a car-on-truck pile up! For the love of fuck!
In this situation we have to think of Amazi-Girl as an emergency service/responder, and they DO chase down gun-men, and yes, that CAN escalate the situation and make things worse, still it’s better than just letting them get away, right ?
No! Because you can get people killed! You can get YOURSELF killed. You could have gotten BECKY killed.
You know what Amazi-girl COULD have done? Wrote down the license plate number! It’s not like she didn’t have a clear view of it when she stuck her grappling hook in there!
“No! Because you can get people killed! You can get YOURSELF killed. You could have gotten BECKY killed.”
Just like the “proper” responders ALSO could get people killed!
This will ALWAYS be a risk when helping someone, why should it matter if the people helping are “official” or not ?
And “she’s really well trained” is such a Batman handwavy explanation too. Like what she was somehow trained to handle grappling people twice her size on the top of a speeding vehicle? Where the fuck do I sign up for THAT class?
Actually, you can’t. When you’re ready, the masters find you
Self-defence class, wind-surfing, climbing, dancing, stunt courses, joy-riding on subways, horse riding, there’s plenty of stuff you can train, and then COMBINE when the right situation calls for it.
First off, ignoring the fact that she clearly did not do all those things especially since she is a school girl (where would she even get the financing for it it’s not like her abusive father would have showered her with funds, let alone the time to do it), you would not even be slightly adept at even one of those things by college age, let alone enough at any combination of them to handle a real life situation.
I mean honestly it’s almost insulting how you could imply that just going on a surfing class or whatever could prepare you for THIS.
Actually the strip did mention that Amber’s dad sent her to Karate classes after the hold up (instead of therapy). Some of the other things (such as dancing) could have been part of school-sponsored activities.
Plus, Blaine had been removed from the family for a while… its possible that her mom got her involved in some of those activities after the divorce.
“you would not even be slightly adept at even one of those things by college age”
Thats…. I don’t even know how to respond to this. You don’t really believe that, do you ? There are SO MANY college kids that are adept at many things, all it takes is determination and dedicating yourself, spending all your free time honing up the skills it takes.
Surfing is basically what she did, but if you want a more extreme variant, look at kids that snowboard off-piste, hurling themselves down mountains off of cliffs. I would consider that a LOT more challenging than what we saw here. Sure, a lot of them also get hurt, really bad, but most of them can actually handle it.
“Not the mama!”
Because becky was the only person in the whole situation who had on a seatbelt. EVEN YOU MR TRUCK DRIVER
Sal, Joyce and Amber are awesome!
So happy everyone survived.
…okay, when did Catholic schools start teaching stunt biking?
Ok, that was impressive and badass. So cool.
Toedads legs appear to have alot of blood coming out from them.
Good
Anyone else disappointed that the you can’t see a head, and where the arms are folded in, on the bottom of the car?
Huh. AG didn’t lose it encountering Sal while trying to rescue Becky. Granted, Sal’s wearing a helmet, making it harder to tell who it is, but I’m happy to be wrong all the same.
AG is kinda not really responsive ATM.
Oh shut up Sal you’ve never deescalated a situation in your life get off the high horse.
“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the bad-ass-est of them all?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Norris…”
Norris is basically toedad. Amber is far more badass because it isn’t scripted.
In universe.
God: OK, listen, I’m sorry I messed up earlier. Let me make it up to you. Your butthole father is flung out of the car. Here is a superhero, a rad rebel and Joyce on a motorcycle. We’re good?
Becky: We’re good!
Becky: You do answer lesbian prayers!
becky++
New programming language?
The way one hears Sal’s speech bubbles:
“Ah, tol’ ya. ‘Escalation.’
Everyone here nearly died,
like, THIRTY times-in-a-row.
Pro’l all TRAUMATIZED, AN’ SHIT…”
Additionally:
To be stopped/standing in that position, Sal down-shifted, correctly selecting neutral, between 1st and 2nd, with her left foot while MID-AIR.
In panel 2, Sal is holding up 325lbs with her left leg, 135lbs of it with her left arm, holding the front brake with her right hand and the rear brake with her right foot.
Having gained an understanding of calculus, Sal is easily fighter pilot material.
Holy shit, Sal is Neo.
I was thinking more realistically, like someone who probably could do 600lbs on an angled leg press but, isn’t huge is “S Williams,” the tennis player.
They’re about the same size.
Somewhere, there is a school coach who is a COMPLETE ASS if they didn’t, at least, attempt to get Sal to try out for the O’s as a sprinter…
Sal is not the same size as Serena; I’ve met her sister. I’m 6’3″, I work with dudes who have prison muscles, and Venus made me feel small. I mean, Sal’s not Dina, but she’s not big. She’s tall and skinny, probably with good legs and a strong core from the motorcycle, but she’s no Serena.
Serena is 5’9″ 150lbs
Venus is 6’1″ 165lbs
Or, at least, that what their pages say…
SAL: “Sit down! You’ve been traumatised!”
BECKY: “This tingly, giddy sensation is trauma! Man! I got to get me more of that!”
Sal: “Naw, Becky. You’ just a danger maniac. Go, si’down over there, Marty McFly’s mom… An’ don’t do anything that’ll get Dina killed. Ah’ see ya’ gears turning, already…”
Wow it sure is convenient that all the good guys got out of this fine while the bad guy is the only one who gets significantly injured. Like how Becky temporarily became too stupid to work a seatbelt so instead of stopping a car in a semi-reasonable manner we get this whole mes that she just so happens to survive because lol seatbelt. And “counterbalance”.
Haven’t you ever had a seat belt that wouldn’t allow you to lean forward while accelerating?
Car’s motion off axis = seat belt shoulder strap holds passenger back.
Which is usually when you, you know, press that button that undoes it.
I think at that point it might have just been for the best that Becky hold on and wait for things to end. Even if she got the wheel they’re probably wasn’t really anything she could do and she’d probably end up way worse when the car flipped over.
Taking off a seatbelt in mid-out-of-control spin would have been a great way to get herself killed. It might also have been really hard to do quickly. Honestly, with the seatbelt she was well protected against most things. The truck hitting the side of the car would have killed her, but a bit of a roll on the side would just bang her up, but leave her relatively okay presuming the foot area didn’t crumple up around her leg or the dashboard didn’t pin her to her seat.
Why are we pretending there are realistic consequences in this story again? If Becky took off her seatbelt she would have magically been safe the same way Amber stayed safe after grappling hooking on to a moving car and then falling on to another moving car and then jumping on top of the first moving car and then wrestling with a man with a gun. “It would have been dangerous!” is a totally meaningless argument compared to what already happened in the comic.
Okay, so in this comment you are bongoing about people acting like there are realistic consequences, but in your first comment you are bongoing about how unrealistic the last few strips have been. Make up your mind, or better yet, stop getting upset about this awesome work of fiction. It is Willis’ story, not yours.
Complaining, not bongoing.
On another note, I was really into your use of “bongoing” but then realized you meant “complaining”
If I were to be honest, I’ve kind of taken Amazi-Girl related stunts to be the one remnant of wacky cartoonish hijinks and discounted them from my realism mental checklist about the time she jumped onto a moving truck. The emotional reality of her disassociations are another matter entirely.
I guess a way to put it is, I can buy the truck scene because Amber landed on it. It worked. If she slipped off the roof and smashed the grill but still kept going, then I’d think it’d be kinda nutty. Likewise, I can buy the skateboard sequence because, despite how dangerous it is, it feels normal that Amber would just go straight to the craziest plan, except this time it blew up in her face the same way it would have blown up in her face if that truck was going a few km faster or something.
But, yeah, I’ve always been way more invested in Amazi-Girl as a visual metaphor for Amber’s psychological issues than I have Amazi-Girl the super badass.
So she should take off the item that helps make sure you don’t die in an accident? That’s a pretty horrible decision to make when the car’s already out of control.
Amber made much more horrible decisions and it didn’t get ANYONE killed somehow.
But Becky didn’t know no one would be killed so… why would she take off her seatbelt? I mean, I would get what you’re saying if this was like Deadpool or some comic where the characters know they’re characters and nothing bad will happen to them, but these ones don’t so of course she would keep her seatbelt on.
I’m thinking what Alex is referring is the part where Amber calls for Becky to take the wheel only because the belt’s on she can’t reach it, so Amber has to do it herself.
Becky’s not Sal, yet. She doesn’t keep shit together that way.
-She knows to run but, calls “split up.”
-She has the phone and comprehends she’s being abducted but, she calls Joyce instead of Emergency.
-She has the phone in the car, calls Emergency gives key phrases to let them know she’s being abducted but, doesn’t give them enough info to tell by whom or where they’re headed…
Beck’s moves are always to the left of perfect. That’s Beck.
Yes, that’s called ‘story convenience’. Willis can do whatever he wants with events and have only those whom he wants injured to suffer injury for the sake of the story he wants to tell.
That’s the problem. For people to care about the story, they have to trust it. Some people do, but for some people, the last couple weeks broke our trust. Seeing something like Amber getting flung from a moving car twice and being just fine makes it clear that consequences only exist in this comic when it’s convenient. That’s true for any story, but it’s hard to care when the writer shoves it in your face.
I’ve gone along with this arc so far, and I’m willing to shrug and accept the otherwise total absurdity of Amber not being a smear on the pavement yet, because whatever.
But I’m sort of hoping and expecting that this is the end of Amazi-Girl, both for Amber’s character’s sake and for the comic’s sake. For Amber’s sake because this arc here should’ve ended with her being killed, and it didn’t because of spectacular luck/the cartoonist saying so, not because she was a brilliant superhero who thought of everything. So if she keeps doing this, it’s only a matter of time before she really gets fucked up. And for the comic’s sake because of two things.
First, I wouldn’t want to see the rules of an otherwise fairly grounded and realistic comic get stretched beyond all reason just to accommodate one character; it reminds me of Mike from Shortpacked, and while Mike in Shortpacked was played for laughs, that’s not really how Dumbing of Age works (or, worked until now, I guess) and it would be a shark-jumping kind of shift.
And second, one of the central themes of this comic is growing up and discovering that the world is a lot more complicated and difficult than you thought it was. So where does the consequence-free vigilante fit into that? “Realistically,” Amber ought to be dead or seriously injured here and so should everyone else, but they’re not. If the lesson she takes from it is that she can totally be a superhero and save everyone because she knows what she’s doing and she can handle it, then “realistically,” it’s only a matter of time before she actually does get herself/others killed or seriously hurt. But that won’t happen, because Willis has already said he’s not killing anyone, and I don’t think he wants to draw Amber in traction for the next forty years, and I don’t think anyone wants to see that anyway. So it would just come to a series of exceptions carved into the Dumbiverse’s source code for Amazi-Girl, while the rest of the comic revolves around people experiencing the consequences of their actions and beliefs. It really strains credulity.
So hopefully, Amber has proven what she felt she had to prove with Amazi-Girl, and now she can put the costume away and work on a healthier way of coping with her issues. “Realistically,” she wouldn’t have a choice. She intervened in a series of violent felonies, she’s a key witness, what she does is technically illegal, she’s lucky to even be alive, and the only way her friends can “protect her secret identity” is to lie to the police and obstruct the very same investigation that would get Ross put away forever. So “realistically,” Amazi-Girl should be done whether Amber likes it or not. Whether that’s the route the comic takes, well, I guess we’ll find out.
Looking more closely at the last panel, Ross has some seriously shredded legs there. Maybe they’ll be dropping him off at the hospital before heading back to campus, and that’s the last we’ll be seeing of him and the emergency center entrance, at least until the inevitable Butthole Dad Alliance between Ross and Blain.
I’m flashing on the brief re-boot of the Spider-Man villain Hobgoblin in the late 1990s as a Fundie and his resultingly awkward conversations with the rest of the Sinister Six.
Imagine Blaine trying to explain his evil plan ™ and Ross interjecting with a stern reminder that Becky must not be harmed because he has to “save her soul”. Blaine blanks for a moment then reassures them that this will be a factor in their revenge before turning away with a grimace of disbelief.
*Takes referee “touchdown is good!” pose*
And Joyce does a Tebow.
NOTHING traumatizes Becky anymore. She’s free like the wind. Wohoo!
She is. She’s been rescued from a terrible fate and given back her freedom. This is not a traumatic moment for her. Everything else today… yeah, pretty much. But this moment? Pure joy.
is Becky Drax the Destroyer?
I adore how quick and easy Joyce acts when Sal says “Counter balance”.
I think I would just say “Eh?” and then we would all crash.
The SEMME training kicked in.
Yeah, I’m beginning to think Dumbyverse is actually alt-Walkyverse in which everybody got mind wiped and just forgot about the aliens.
It’s all part of the Willisverse.
In the first panel I interpreted the two round bits on the visor as indicating Sal’s eyes.
So you can imagine my momentary confusion at panel four.
I just realized that Becky’s crazy.
So I’m worried about Dina! Is she dead in the woods? Hurt and being hospitalized? Leading the police in the manhunt now that their incompetence has been made obvious.
Willis had made a comment in an earlier strip that “the only one bleeding in the woods was Ross” (or something to that effect).
That doesn’t mean she wasn’t in the trunk.
Dina weighs about 98lbs, soaking wet. The 200lbs+ Ross wouldn’t have had any trouble scooping up Dina as she actively attacked him rather than running away.
So, if no one said “Dina is at that place,” she’s still in jeopardy…
Ross spotted Becky across the field and promptly dismissed Dina, as far as I could tell. She’s in preview strips that take place in the next day or so (assuming no hospital time skip) and looks fine. Rest easy.
XD
That meta. Don’t meta (no spoilers!)
What’sa meta with you?
At worst, Dina’s limping back towards the fountain. When she finds out Becky’s safe, there will be much happiness. When they’re back in private, there will be much kissing and giggling. http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/04-walking-with-dina/kiss-2/
Am I the only one concerned about the amount of red on Dad’s pants? That has to be blood; I checked earlier strips to make sure it’s not part of the pants. Speaking as someone who has a very similar psycho dad, I’m sure Becky doesn’t want her dad to be hurt/dead, just away from her.
You are probably one of the only people -concerned-, yes. You are not the only person that -noticed-, but-concerned-, sure.
So it looks like toedad’s legs are bleeding…. or I might be imagining things…
I was gonna say the same. I hope the fucker broke both of them.
No way Joyce gets to hide from her parents after this.
What’s this I heard about you being involved in motorcycle car crashes and lesbianism? What is that secular school doing to you?
JOYCE: “Oh, so you heard about that?”
HANK: “It was kind of hard not to; your interview was repeated on all the main networks news that night!”
Joyce: “Oh, that? It was Tuesday. There always a rollover accident on Tuesday. And lesbianism? They say everybody thinks about it at some time.”
Carol (phone:) “Well… There was that one girl while we were in school. Gosh, what a rack!! But, then I met yer father and he had such a nice tooshie and-”
Hank (phone:) “HOLY GOD!!!”
Joyce: “It’s a school, Dad. There are all kinds of folks. It’s not like there are MTF transsexuals, right under your nose, trying to use the ladies’ room or anything like that.”
Hank (phone:) “WHAT?!!!”
Joyce: “Hail Satan!!”
Hank (phone:) “THAT IS NOT APPRO-”
Joyce: * click *
Becky: “That’ll… Fix ’em…?”
Joyce: “Gosh, no. I just figured I’d get one in while I’m still buzzing with adrenaline. They’ll probably be here in an hour. I’ll have to convince ’em not to take me then…”
Wonder if Amzi-girl didn’t go would it all have worked out? Sal was right, she always seems to escalate the situation.
The real hero is Sir Isaac Newton. Sal made that catch thanks to the power of calculus.
“What a ride!”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind doing it again now that I know that you can live through it!”
A “DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp” reference, Jimmy? Nice to know I’m not the only one who remembers that movie.
By the way, am I the only one who read Becky’s line in the voice of Baby Sinclair from “Dinosaurs”?
Haha yes! I’m glad someone knows that line too
And I didn’t read that line the way you did at first, but now I am
I love Becky’s unwavering positivity.
holy shit. i haven’t read this in a week so i just saw that whole insane sequence at once. my heart is racing.
A friend and I were discussing the bike related events in the past few comics last night, and we came to a few conclusions. First, AG’s back would have been broken by the catch. Sal would have suffered either a broken arm, dislocated shoulder, or wrenched back. Possibly some combination of all three. Sal would probably have yanked on the right hand grip enough that the bike would have lost stability. Joyce would have been thrown and, at the very least, would have a nifty case of road rash. This is not a complaint, nor is it meant in any way as a slight towards our illustrious bard. Wandering the planet for over 3 score years has made the suspension of disbelief a somewhat easy task, and has increased my appreciation for a story well told. If I wanted hard core reality, I’d watch the news channels. That’s far too depressing. The Walkyverse (or Willisverse) is a nice place for an occasional escape.
Lastly, our most important decision was that Gentleman Jack goes well in Dr Pepper.
Well, none of the involved is majoring in physics so you cannot expect them to heed all the respective laws.
Frankly, Sal should be a driving instructor. Danny’s math tutoring is peanuts compared to what she managed to teach Joyce about bike stunts on the way. “Counterbalance!”?!?
Congratulations, Sal! You’re now AmazingGirl’s sidekick!
(Runs away in fear of Sal’s violent reaction)
The Kia Forte is front-wheel-drive, but this one has a driveshaft.
It’s because of the well-known prohibition against front-wheel drive in Leviticus 42:69. Ross had to special-order the car from Kia.
I think that Ross, if he’s capable of it, is going to have food for thought as he waits for the indictment and trial process to reach its conclusion. After all, he is alive for one reason – someone that he thought deserved to be ‘sent to hell’ put her life on the line and endured pain to save him.
Maybe he’ll say that it was an act of God but, why would God use those particular emissaries? If he has sufficient self-awareness, he could have some enlightenment coming his way.
Now he knows, the demonic horde stealing his daughter is strong and his faith wavered too much for God to fully work through him. Now, he knows next time not to hold back and let the demons confuse him. Next time, he will do whatever it takes.
Yeah, I’d put easy money on Toedad learning all the wrong lessons and Becky having to nervously keep track of his parole hearings and release dates to know when her life and whatever girlfriend’s life she has at the time are about to be threatened again.
He’ll blame his failure on Satan, or that God works in mysterious ways. Either way, he’ll have time in jail/prison to plot his next move. Depending on his fellow fundies, he may even be able to orchestrate another kidnapping. We know the Brown’s won’t be involved, but fundamentalists need a support group. His may be a somewhat secretish subset of church members. He may have some fellow fundies that are willing to help save Becky’s soul from certain damnation.
NOT THE MAMA! (Except Earl Sinclair was a WAY better dad than Toedad, even after flinging the baby across the room. :p )
It just occurred to me — Too bad Billie’s not here to see Sal and Amazigirl in the same place at the same time.
But since she’s not, she’ll hear Amazi-Girl+bike and be totally convinced she’s right.
Sigh. You’re probably right. Oh, wells. More drama.
When my fiancé rolled our car a couple of years ago, I was no where NEAR that excited about it…
Joyce sure is channeling her BAMFy alternate dimension self today.
I hope that gun didn’t land near that crazy ass dad.
Yep. Becky is definitely showing signs of severe trauma
Next she’ll express her trauma by going skydiving. After that, well, the sky’s the limit.
How did Becky’s mother die again?
At any rate, I suspect that Sal’s prediction about Amazigirl escalating the situation might have been because Sal has identified Amazigirl on campus as the girl escalating the convenience store robbery.
At any rate, I doubt that Amber will be happy about Danny tutoring Sal. But what will really be unforgivable is Sal’s Mariocart score.
And that’s why you wear your seatbelt, kids!
Ross got lucky he was thrown instead of being crushed underneath the car. Probably has injuries, but at least he’s still alive, and maybe he’ll learn a lesson from this.
Family isn’t always just about flesh and blood, sometimes family is about those who care about you and accept you for who and what you are.
The blood of the Covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.
Although terrifying (between possible fatality and brutal imagery) it would be kind of good if the car dragged on them and he lost his legs because I’d be a lot less worried about him doing anything.
I wonder what the fallout of this will be for characters like Joshua/Joscelyn and Ethan, who are trying to figure out how/whether to come out to their families. It might lead to bonding for Joyce and her sister, but otherwise I think it might make both more likely to hide.
Ethan already came out to his family. After a pretty bad response from them, he went back into the closet.
Specifically, they know that he was trying to cure his gay by dating Joyce.
For Jocelyn it could go either way*, but I imagine it will be a pretty impactful thing, especially seeing what her family does
* both because we don’t know what the Brown parents will do (hopefully think Ross is awful, even if they don’t accept Jocelyn or Becky) and because if they agree with Ross, that could be a catalyst for her to come out and leave the family/community for good
This is the best seatbelt PSA ever.
Sooo many questions still left to be resolved.
How long before the cops show up? Does Toedad shrug off his injuries and pull a bowie knife out from his pockets? Is Dina in the Trunk? If so, is she injured? How long does AG remain out? Is the gun far enough away that Toedad can’t get it to continue the threat? Do Joyce & Becky hug, or more? Where’s Walky during all this – eating McNuggets or ‘servicing’ Dorothy? Will Becky go back to being homeless now that the University will find out the story? How long before AG looks at Sal & connects the dots? . . .
What i want to know is why is it taking longer for the cops to show up then the pizza guy they aren’t living in New York or some major city
They’ve been going the wrong way or to the wrong place pretty consistently from the first alert, I think.
First alert: man with gun by Dunn Meadow. (Everyone involved hightails it towards Showalter Fountain, half a mile away.)
Second alert: shots fired at Showalter Fountain. (Everyone involved hightails it towards highway 37, passing the cops en route.)
Third alert: 911 call in moving vehicle, GPS hopefully available. (Car crashes just before highway 37, about 5 miles from the fountain.)
They’ll catch up with the plot eventually, probably in another strip or two.
Becky’s like *Hercules Mulligan voice* “I need no introduction, when you knock me down I get the fuck back up again!”
SOMEBODY, GET THAT SHOTGUN AWAY FROM THAT SOMEBEACH!
and let the Cops take ’em away.
I believe the gun has already been removed from the immediate vicinity, when Amazigirl kicked it out of toedad’s hands while they were struggling outside the car.
Ross, you got red on you.
Woooo, Dinosaurs reference!
Kudos for drawing the underside of a car and making it look like the underside of a car actually looks, instead of the two-axles-connected-by-a-giant-pipe that so many artists go with. That’s always made me crazy.
Hey cool, David Willis has been interviewed by The Mary Sue.
http://www.themarysue.com/interview-with-david-willis/
Man. Reading Willis webcomics is like a masterclass in characters with wildly diverging viewpoints where no one is wrong. Amazi-Girl helped, but Sal is right. I imagine we’ll be getting some interesting arguments in the comics to come, Assuming Amazi Girl retains consciousness.
That’s our Becky!
OMG, a dinosaurs reference, that is perfect.
Question: Is Sal aware of how she’s affected Amber in the past?
I’m fairly certain that she doesn’t recognize Amber. So no, I don’t think so.
Do either one of them recognize the other? We might have a scene where they point at each other shouting “You!” at some point.
Amber definitely recognized Sal. I couldn’t point you to the exact page, but there was a sequence with either a near-miss or actual freak out about it.
“One more time! One more time!
I will go rolling once again!”
And the girl said, and the girl said,
While playing with the words in her head!
Why are there so many people thinking Dina is in the trunk? How did you get to that conclusion? Pretty sure he left her in the woods to chase his daughter.
If she was there, we probably would have found out when he took Becky.
Honestly, my biggest takeaway from this whole sequence is that I don’t think action sequences work well in this format. Waiting a day for another few panels that cover a few more seconds drains the tension in a way that it didn’t in the more talky tense scenes.
Which would happen less if it came in bigger doses.
It also pushes people to look to closely at the details of the physics and break their sense of disbelief that way.
Either a much looser style, with more action in less detail, or some other approach.
I do suspect it’ll read much better when read through all at once.
I think so too. The action flows much more nicely read quickly and sequentially instead of waiting 24 hours for the next strip.
I dunno. The suspense is just crazy heightening.
Well, it’s a problem a lot of webcomics struggle with. Try Order of the Stick – those are fun, but they come with multi-week gaps.
I think one of the main problems is that most of us know that Willis has said that no one dies, so that lowers the stakes.
Unless he’s lying.
Or unless he only means major characters — which could mean secondary characters could die.
Amber really is amazing. she may be reckless when it comes to sal [and i guess everything because she does put herself at risk a lot] but her physical strength and determination saved the day. true the police would’ve gotten to becky and her dad- but let’s be honest. this man holding a gun and deciding anyone in his way would be ‘put in hell’ by his own hand would’ve had a standoff with the police and who knows who could’ve gotten hurt.
This is a good win for Amber, Becky, and Joyce. Becky gets her freedom, Amazigirl prevails [hopefully she can get away in time], and Joyce has some control back.
Her Determination carried her through, yes.
I decided to reread shortpacked and noticed this. http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=33 Maggie in this strip bears a striking resemblance to the driver of the red car.
*rock and roll noises*
Somewhere, there’s a Clan missing it’s ristar freeborn elemental. You did good AG. You did good.
Now get in there Sal and Joyce, and make fucking sure he can’t get up and try and start whaling on folks! Until he’s either in a submission position, cuffed or we’re sure his legs are broken, he’s still a threat.
Blaine seems like he’d be a good sibko trainer…
Now I’ve got a DoA AU set on Arc Royal (that world the Wolves-In-Exile hold in common with the Kell Hounds), where amongst other things Amber is an Elemental sibbie gone off the reservation… though the chase with Ross would be have to be suitably escalated for Amber being literally born and bred for that kind of crazy riding and fighting + plus being about twice the height and mass, with even more muscle.
…
I also, after seeing the spider tat, keep imagining Sal as Natasha Kerensky for some reason – though I think a dire wolf would be slow for her tastes.
So the rifle is gone and Toedad is bleeding on the ground…
Becky, don’t protect your dad. Don’t don’t don’t. Please don’t.
I’m not a huge Becky fan, but today I think she’s right on the money.
Mm, yes, clearly Becky is traumatized.
Probably far more worried about Toedad was going to do to her than the car rolling.
does it make me a bad person to say that i’m glad ross is broken and bruised?
couch it in terms of him being less of a threat to others. Nobody will question it.
So I stopped reading Dumbing of Age for about 2 months.
This is the first page I see, my 3 FAVORITE CHARACTERS riding a motorcycle.
My life is complete.
Just as an aside, I reread the last year or so earlier and the timing definitely does flow when it’s read as a cohesive comic, at least.
1st HOLY COW
2nd Really digging the art, especially in the fourth panel. It’s so dynamic. It’s been very dynamic lately, but something about that panel highlights it for me.