Discussion (64) ¬
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social ⋅ 12h
Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social ⋅ 14h
April Wolfe @aprilwolfe.bsky.social ⋅ 12h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 11d
LorennaCleary.bsky.social @lorennacleary.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Al Ewing Writes Comics @al-ewing.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Gwen @finalgwen.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
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Barb O. Saur 
⚧️
classic Mike
in a few senses
more like ASS-ic mike
…not to speak ill of the dead
…. because he’s not dead?
perhaps
Indeed not! He’s in a gimp suit with a hose and lotion, holding the evil dads in durance at the bottom of a dry well in the basement of an abandoned house, for Ambi-Girl.
Do you think he’s gotten to the “your mom” quotes at this point, or is he just sticking to analyzation right now?
… Yes.
“I need you for a shield–I mean study partner. Ahem.”
if this were Wiggenstaff’s he could be both
Sure, Mike, keep telling yourself that’s why.
Walked right into that one, Ethan.
And you don’t even realize it.
This seems like a random monologue?
No.
I think that this flashback will serve to establish something we need to know about Mike, Amber, and Amazi-Girl. When we get to the denouement of the fight between Amazi-Girl and Mike against EvilDad and Ross, someone is going to do something important that we will see is in character because of what we are learning now, but that would make us nope out if we didn’t know it.
That is the usual purpose of a flashback in a dramatic story, and I think this is a literary flashback, not any character suffering dissociative hallucinations. Unlike, for instance, Mike lounging in Amber’s bed while she was humping Walky.
There goes Mike, keeping hope alive.
He’s basically Pandora.
Unlike himself. Probably.
Oh Mike, your tsundere ways are not lost upon us. Also I haven’t noticed, does Amber still call them her peers in current day or has she upgraded to calling them her friends?
I think friends. I definitely recall her referring to Ethan by a friend at one point.
Probably Dina too, but I’d have to check to make sure.
I think Dina first called Amber a friend and was happy when Amber confirmed it because she wasn’t quite sure. I tried searching for it but couldn’t find the strip, so there’s a possibility I’m getting some things mixed up.
Amber’s gained a lot of confidence since this flashback. And even this flashback is a big leap from the one before.
Though I don’t believe she’s called Mike a friend in the present. Or thinks of him that way.
I understand how Mike wanted to mess with Ethan during this time, but what’s his angle with Amber? I can’t tell if he just wants to mess with her or legitimately help her (as in the math test example).
I think it’s meant to be somewhat ambiguous and also filtered through the lens of “Mike is not actually good at helping”
I think he wanted to help her. Stuff like with her dad or teacher, I don’t think Amber ever knew about Mike’s machinations, so if it was just to troll her, it’d be kind of pointless.
I think we are learning that Mike wanted to legitimately help her but after his past failures, he started to use his sharp observations to needle them both rather than helping directly. This series of flashbacks is also likely to humanise the superhero stuff by showing that Amber did have to trial and error it a lot more before.
I think Mike likes to mess with people and help people, but especially help people by messing with them. This does not always go as planned however.
. . . How’d you remember the parts you weren’t there for?
Who said it was Amber’s flashback?
No, don’t give me hope.
Flashbacks don’t have to be someone’s. They can just be story flashbacks for the reader. I think.
Yeah. The main strip doesn’t stick to a single character’s point of view. I don’t see that the flashbacks should have to.
Unless Willis is going supernatural on us for serious, and Mike’s disembodied soul has taken up residence as an eternal backseat driver in Amber/Amazi-girl’s system, and will be harrying them both.
There was one strip a while ago where the alt-text specifically said that nobody was having the flashback, it was just happening to make a point to the readers.
Amber is tagged?
Could be Ethan’s flashback, if it’s anyone’s. He’s the only one there for all of it.
Joke’s on you, Mike. You caught feelings despite yourself. Those very feelings forced me to acknowledge you as a character instead of a “mere” force of nature.
A very, very *bad* character that sometimes goes after even worse characters, but a character nonetheless.
I’m assuming this flashback story arc is leading up to the reveal of what happened to Mike, but I could be wrong.
I’m wondering if Ethan is the one who found mike. So far this entire flashback sequence has had one common character: Ethan. Willis did a good job with a fake out by starting the sequence with Amber kicking the tree, but all of this looks like it’s Ethan’s memories of an important day in his life.
I think it’s multiple days in Ethan’s life in the year(s) following The Incident. I highly doubt tree kick and roof fall were same day affairs, after all.
“…yes. Friends. Just friends. Nothing else. Obviously.”
I really didn’t expect paralells between Mike and friggin’ Becky, but here we are.
Of all people in this comic, I never thought MIKE would be the illustration of why ‘dropping hints’ is absolutely pointless.
They both have stylish hair.
Of course you knew it, you wrote it!
Or maybe this storyline was written by Willis’ alter-ego, Incredi-Dude.
Because Incredi-Boy was taken.
Mike is quite insightful for his age in this time. He must have collected many skulls of mad men in Yharnam.
The answer is yes. 5% of the time.
Ethan used to be able to see right through Mile Used to, He really cared too much and his only way to act was incredible coarseness…so with time they stop trying to deal with him…and he died for one of his friends…
It makes sense to me from the start that Mike was onto Amber’s degeneration. However, being a cynical misanthrope, he really didn’t have any tools to do anything about it other than try to needle Ethan into doing something.
I’d also say that being 13 he didn’t really have the tools to do anything about it
Am I going to have to look up “shrinking violet”?
You might, it’s a fairly out-of-use bit of colloquial English. Basically, a Shrinking Violet is a person who retreats from social interactions, preferring to be inconspicuous or, ideally, invisible.
The Incredibles intensifies.
see also: wallflower
Well there you go! It just means a shy and socially-retiring person. I had always supposed that it implied timidity and lack of resolve.
Mike, to me, looks VERY ANNOYED in the last page which kind of tells me he’s been aware of his crush for longer than we thought.
Maybe. But when does Mike not look annoyed? (ans: when he’s in a coma) It seems like this may be pre-crush Mike. Honestly that goofy smile he had for Ethan in his last days is so new I suspect he may not have even realized he let us see it. Mike isn’t known for letting his guard down.
Now who is having this flashback?
I say Eef
As i said earlier in another reply, this is most definitely Ethan’s flashback, since he’s the only common character so far in all the strips. Makes me think Ethan is the one who found Mike.
It’s probably a literary device, not a dissociative episode. Probably just something that happened in the past, not anything occurring in the main continuity.
past Jock Mike
I enjoy what mike is talking about here, as someone who still does this – I can’t really call people my friends even still.
Mike Warner. Working on the desperate since 1999.