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Nonsense. It’s obviously Mary out trying to discredit Amazigirl in the mistaken belief that Carla is Amazigirl based on mishearing Billie’s dying words.
Would Walky follow Lucy to make sure she arrived at her dorm safely? I think not. Having eliminated the known characters, we are left with the inescapable conclusion that this is the new character, Booster’s twin sister.
Please no. Much as I want to see what’s happening with Faz (sentence I never thought I’d type), I don’t want there to be a pattern of Blaine’s younger victims becoming violent thugs.
in fairness, he might not be a violent thug. He could base his ‘superpowers’ around “I am documenting all of this to a Livestream. Say Hello to the Internet. “
Yeah, I’m like 99% sure it’s Walky as Nightguy. He’s the only person I can think of whose hair matches, and Amber just said AmaziGirl was going out to do roller derby so they probably wouldn’t be out patrolling.
I mean, it isn’t. Sets itself automatically. Plus I just checked it to make sure – my clock is only off by 0.04 seconds to the national atomic clock. So… yeah.
Oh, also going to note that the speech bubble is a different color than the normal Amazi-Girl speech bubbles, so definitely not her if there was any doubt.
Two things.
One: That’s Walky.
Two: How are there still guys like this on campus!?!? How has there not been some sort of formal crack down on this after the Ryan incident and also a bunch of students getting kidnapped and a bunch more students involved in said kidnapping and potentially arrested for it! What?!
I don’t think it’s that much different elsewhere but yes. The “crack down” probably went as far as telling young women to not walk alone and not dress so revealingly.
I know assaults against women are often looked over in general especially on college campuses but this has been consistently happening in some form since the start of the comic. Has no one reported any of this ever? Creeps are just prowling around IU campus at night looking to beat up nerds and force themselves on women, it’s been 3 months since a bunch of students were kidnapped and it was even on the news. Becky tweeted it on a congresswoman’s twitter! Fucking Linda a total “Karen” wanted Amber expelled over it! The school has to have gotten some negative attention for this shit!
Dude, I get the alerts. IU isn’t exactly that low crime. There is at least one reported rape each week, and considering that statistically only 30-35% of all rapes get reported in the first place, that means that things like this creep is likely pretty common on campus. Things have slowed down a little due to the pandemic, but I still get alerts like this weekly all the same, so some things just are inevitable.
WTF is the population of IU to support 1 to 4 rapes per week!?! That’s appalling.
Google says total enrolled population is just shy of 50,000.
The ‘pedia reports national annual average for 2010 was ~28 per 100k.
Using the /lower/ bound that means that IU has rapes occuring at
1/wk x 2(population factor) x 52 week/yr = 104, roughly four times the national average of rapes per year. (none of this is intended to imply IU is notable in this regard. One might suppose this is representative of/influenced by the sexualized portrayal of college youth in media)
Though I’d guess that most of those rapes, like rapes everywhere, are date/acquaintance rapes rather than stranger danger attacks like this. Or at least like this seems to be.
Which probably has more to do with the higher numbers on college campuses than anything about media portrayal – more dates, more parties, more proximity -> more rapes.
Yep. You get way more Ryans (or even more insidious rapists) than you do This Guy. But I’m not remotely shocked here. Why would I be? There’s a serious bubble of apathy toward sexual predators by basically every power structure of the country, and colleges not taking allegations seriously is common. Honestly, I think that if Ryan hadn’t decided to bring a knife to the dorm and be such an Undeniable Threat, the college and police wouldn’t have been anywhere near as willing to side with Amber even if she had just beat him up. (He has such a promising future, after all.) Robin immediately taking the allegation seriously and being horrified is actually the more uncommon option.
Rape culture: Yes, this IS the fear drilled in our heads of what could happen every time you go outside at night for AFAB people.
There is an entire industry built around putting young women in situations where they can be raped and then blaming the victim. No, I can’t tell you anything at all about this industry or how they make their profit, but it’s the only thing that makes any sense.
Yes, I’m aware that that’s pretty out there, but so is an entire industry built around polluting the air, an entire industry built around addicting people to nicotine, or an entire industry built around convincing women that they are ugly.
That makes little sense. At least in the other cases, we can point to who profits.
And frankly, there’s no need for one. This has been going on for basically forever. In many ways we’re far better now than in the past. It’s just more visible and that’s partly because we give women far more freedom and partly because despite the victim blaming that still happens, it’s nothing like it was historically.
That’s the fear that’s drilled in, but the danger is more real with the nice boy who offers to walk you home than the stranger who attacks when you go out alone.
Haha, no, ask us still IU-affiliated readers. A quick search of my email for “rape” brings up five IU notify reports of rape this year. And those are just reported cases.
Dean McHenry finally managed to secure funds for campus security, but as he was walking to the bank to deposit them, he passed a Lego store and, well, i happens to us all.
But the new Millennium Falcon on his desk looks boss as hell, so it was a fair trade-off.
I’m sure it’s implied that he bought more sets, but I’ve inferred that the security funding was all of $800 (plus tax), and that seems more likely based on what I remember of my school’s campus security.
I would believe you except for the fact that $800 wouldn’t pay for a month’s salary of anyone running campus security, much less anyone for them to run. I mean, on-campus parking tickets alone should raise more than that, and student fees can pretty much be raised at will to support whatever cool security toys you want.
Sexual assault is fairly common on campus, but to my knowledge it’s highly skewed to assault within relationships/problems at or relating to party events. “Street” violence seems over-represented, but if we’re going to have superheroes mucking about, we need to have that enough of those villains.
This mysterious stranger will strike terror into the hearts of criminals when they tell them that Schumacher’s Batman & Robin was more enjoyable than the Nolan trilogy.
I would like to see what she’s up to. Has the noble sacrifice of her career for Becky caused her to turn her life around, devote her time to helping others, and start a new career that no longer requires her to kowtow to Indiana’s worst elements to maintain their support?
Or is she now on her fourteenth re-watch of Steven Universe and so firmly adhered to Leslie’s couch by a layer of Skittles residue that Leslie has offered the couch free to anyone on Craigslist if they will cart it out with the former congresswoman attached, no questions asked.
Is anyone in the cast even old enough to appreciate the Tim Burton Batman? I mean that movie came out before I was born and I’m almost 30. Most people college age grew up with the Nolan films right?
I do understand that people can watch movies older than they are yes. What I’m more surprised by is that this assumedly college aged shadowy figure “Probably Walky” Made a reference to it. Especially considering their assumed age they’d have to actively seek out the Burton film since it has long been passed it’s time of mainstream relevance for them growing up.
Older stuff comes on the TV all the time, and public places often have movie channels playing as background noise. Also, stores routinely have DVDs and such of all sorts of movies. There’s no need for a person to seek things out on purpose, is all I’m saying.
I get it, but I do think it’s a little obscure considering the age. You have to start considering how they get exposed to certain stuff. It’s a really interesting concept I could talk at length about. For example I wouldn’t be surprised if at one point someone said they didn’t know what an Nintendo 64 is because they just didn’t grow up in a time it was relevant.
I’m in college and I would and do reference that movie–to be fair I AM a huge comics nerd so if it is Walky who doesn’t seem to be, that doesn’t really make sense, but for someone like Amber that reference would totally be legit.
It’s really not obscure. TV reruns, seeing the Dvd for sale somewhere, it being available on a streaming service somewhere, finding it online, etc. are all possibilities and only one requires you to specifically search for it. Even then, I can easily see Walky googling ‘batman movie’ and running across it that way. This REALLY IS NOT hard, especially since pop culture these days tends to have a longer shelf life anyway.
Walky references a lot of stuff. Including stuff that references other stuff. If he had one real area of competence not related to his lifestyle-physique disconnect, it’s probably pop culture trivia.
Tim burton absolutely would’ve been mainstream for them growing up. Maybe not his love action movies but I’m on like two years older than most of the cast and Tim burton was my whole childhood
Whoever it is they’re taking a big risk if they have no fighting skills. Amazi-girl’s rep will scare some creeps off, but it will also attract some. Either they’ll be someone wanting revenge, or someone wanting to prove how nasty they are by taking out her out.
Yeah, but considering everybody knew of the hero as Amazi-Girl, I doubt they’d be going, “I thought you were gone!” in response to a male voice
Mind, we also don’t know what Walky sounds like, he could very well have an androgynous voice, letting him, if he does a Christian Bale impression without lowering it, sound close enough that one could think he’s Amazi-Girl
I know everyone’s guessing Walky, and it makes the most sense aside from someone new, but I can’t help but think it’s Billie, having graduated from thinking Sal is Amazi-girl, to thinking *she* is the new Amazi-girl
That reminds me of a comic I read ages ago where one of the heroes was outraged when she realised a newspaper had shooped a photo of her and some others to make her look taller. She was very adamant about being within 1 standard deviation from the average height.
No way. She’d fight crime by organizing a student-based neighborhood watch and campaigning for cameras and lights around the dorm. That looks good on the resume, after all. She WOULDN’T fight crime by picking fights when she doesn’t know how to fight, and she wouldn’t learn to fight when that time could be spent studying instead.
People saying it’s Walky are forgetting that there was one person missing still from the new semester cast poster. So I’m going to say it’s either a new person or possibly an older character we haven’t seen yet since the new semester started.
I agree with you, and further I suspect that they are not in an Amazi-girl costume but using shadow and their winter coat to try to scare away the dude.
“No I literally meant I’ll keep her warm. I’ve got a car with the heater running right over there. Hypothermia is no laughing matter. Even if she doesn’t come with me I have pockets upon pockets of hand warmers. Hypothermia can have long ter consequences on your blood flow and joints!”
I can’t imagine Sydney Yus saying anything as mundane as “Yes, and it’s very scary, according to Tim Burton!”
She’d say something more like “Indeed! And as the master of the cinematic macabre Tim Burton knows well, scarcely anything else could strike more terror into the moral fibre of villainous rogues! Begone, fiend! You have not seen the last of Sydney Yuuuuoops…”
None of my whack ideas ever pan out, so I’m just throwing this out for the shits and giggles:
It’s Marcie. Now, wait, I can hear you say “But isn’t she mute?” Ah, but the skipped Halloween story line had a Very Special Drama involving Marcie, Sal, and Carla, and once Carla found out that Marcie had a sad backstory involving a throat injury that could be fixed with surgery, she (anonymously) arranged for funding for the surgery to take place. Voice for the voiceless!
Marcie sounds like Batman because her throat is still healing from the surgery.
I know that is Walky, but this is a serious situation. This college has a scary amount of sexual predators lurking at night, and AMAZI-GIRL WAS THE ONLY ONE DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THAT!!!! The fact that a mentally ill vigilante was the only one actively fighting rapists just adds to the corruption and incompetence of the college security and police in that town, and they haven’t improved after two kidnappings.
Seriously, I studied in Monterrey, Mexico, and the guards watched the campus at night with dignity. I mean, the guards, the military police of Mexico are corrupt.
Pfft. Tim Burton??? Tim Burton is an expert it kinda creepy and uber-weird, but the man wouldn’t know scary if jumped him in an alley and stole his wallet.
What about Leslie? Her hair is a similar shape, and the color might be obscured by the dark. Keeping women on campus safe seems like a cause that would be pretty important to her, especially if she felt at all responsible for not protecting Becky enough from everything that happened. That would also explain the older “Tim Burton” reference.
Well, that’s definitely not Amazi-Girl (because Mazie or Amber would have knocked the guy’s teeth out first and done their Christian Bale impression second). Whoever it is, lacking training and discipline is a sure-fire way of getting themselves hurt.
Glad to see that we’re not the only one’s guessing that.
To be clear to others who are reading this:
The Mike that formed in Amber/Amazi-Girls system after Mike saved them.
So we’re not talking about Mike getting resurrected here, and this is Amber/Amazi-Girls(+now Mikes) body.
So the reason to guess that this is Mike:
– the hair would obviously fit
– Mike would likely enjoy dramatic posing like this
– we’ve seen hints that at a Mike now being part of our resident system for a long time, it has to be revealed at some point
Reasons against it would be
– the style does maybe not quite fit with Mike? But then again, replace the shadowy figure with the OG Mike’s body and suddenly it fits well.
– Walkie would have more resonance with Lucy here of course
– we’ve already had “headmate gets revealed through superheroics” once, or arguably a bunch of times.
Since no one else is doing it, I guess I’ll rattle off suspect lists.
Walky: Introduced the Nightguy persona last semester, had a thing for the previous masked vigilante, knows the movie reference, can’t treat this completely seriously, the girl being rescued has a crush on him, had a traumatic incident he refused to be traumatized by so obviously he’s traumatized by it, hair and height are close. He’s the obvious choice. TOO obvious. Can’t be him.
Amber/AG: NOPE. Neither of them would do the raised-cape thingy.
Billie: This is way, WAY too nerdy.
Ruth: She’s perfectly capable of suplexing people harassing students right outside her hall WITHOUT a cape and a mask, thankyouverymuch.
Mike in disguise: Build’s wrong, hair’s obeying the law of physics, no cutting remarks.
Sal: No accent, wouldn’t bother with a mask and cape before beating someone down.
Malaya: Hair’s wrong, wouldn’t bother with a mask and cap before beating someone down.
Booster: Wrong build.
Dina: Using contractions, referencing Batman instead of Jurassic Park.
Grace: Wrong build.
Mandy: Wrong hair.
Joe: Everything, EVERYTHING is wrong with this idea.
Danny: …. okay, I started this entry as a gag, but the more I think about it…. no, build’s wrong.
Rachel: Too short, wrong build.
Other Rachel: Maybe?
Sierra: Wearing footwear.
Ethan: Wrong build.
Jacob: Wrong build.
Ken: Wrong build.
Arnold: …. maybe?
Carla: Not wearing skates, and a mask would hide her awesomeness.
Rose: Maybe?
Nash: Wrong build.
Beatrice: Mmm… I think the build’s not quite right.
Sydney Yus: Not over-the-top enough.
Gallasso: Distinguished correctly between presented genders. Also, build’s wrong.
Marcie: Unless Marcie got a very convincing text-to-voice ap, probably not.
Leslie: Wrong build.
Anna: Not actively insulting the woman she’s saving.
Dorothy: Wrong MO. As I said above, Dorothy would fight crime in a way that would look good on her resume.
Becky: Vocabulary’s off.
Joyce: …. maybe. That actually makes sense. But the hair looks wrong.
Sarah: Build’s wrong, and she’d do a batter impression rather than a batman impression.
Lucy: …. huh. Okay, I could maybe buy the build, she knows old movies, she’s dorky enough, she was Amber’s successor to the AG title in SP!….
I was almost about to board the Walky train, but then I opened it up on a larger screen, squinted and went, “Ugg boots?”
Now I’m throwing my last $2 with Joyce.
Solution for hair conundrum: we’re seeing straight on from front/back. Her hair is in a ponytail doing the sticky-uppy thing and she’s wearing a blanket and is a short bean.
Also, becoming more familiar with pop culture via friends, would definitely be more into Burton Batman than Nolan (defo Walky’s influence), but also be not so savvy about knowing what would be effective IRL.
Also also, totes AG stan and this paralells her own past trauma with campus rape guy so it would be smart writings.
Joyce in a wig would make a lot of sense.
Is she not still traumatized from her encounter with Ryan though? I’m sure it’s not as much as before but surely seeking out people like that would be terrifying? Though maybe she brought mace or something, idk
Here’s the result of a little brainstorming on my part:
Mike – Willis has struggled for 10 years to make Mike plausible for the more realistic DoA universe and failed. The last effort to that end was his crush on Ethan but that just flatlined because Willis couldn’t plausibly write him suddenly as a romantic protagonist for one of the nicest characters in the strip in a believable way. Out of respect for the fact that he was based on a good friend at school, he was given a heroic exit but I don’t think that Willis thought there was any other way. Booster is his direct replacement in terms of narrative role but it is obvious from early on that Willis is trying to give them a more rounded personality that is easier to work with.
Ethan – Ethan has always been a problem to write. Now that the issue of his sexuality and publicly admitting to it has been resolved, it once again proved that he was almost impossible to write. The only two remaining quirks were ‘nice guy’ and ‘Transformers nerd’, neither of which are a recipe for a long-term character, so to the Bus with him.
Billie – Once again, the problem with Billie is that her narrative arc depends so strongly on her problems. Alcoholism and a prickly personality because of the amount of pain she’s gone through for a variety of reasons. As soon as her relationship with Ruth stabilised and she accepted therapy, there seems to be nothing to her except ‘smart, supportive girlfriend’ and maybe Willis decided that this was a little too bland for a core character. Billie’s character in the Walkyverse had a lot of the same problems in sustainability after she married Danny.
We haven’t heard anything about Ethan yet, I think. He could still be back but… Who knows?
I am interested in seeing what happened to Billie. Did she transfer? Is she just at a different dorm? Did Ruth and her break up over the three months? Did something else happen that we will be flashbacking to? So many questions!
Mike sadly died. That much is obvious. I don’t see Booster as a replacement. They are awesome!
I really dig your analysis of the Mike stuff. tyvm.
(Still holding out that Billie makes a return, because the struggle with mental health and alchohol dependency is not easily wrapped up at all, but is compelling when you unwrap one layer (eg, the surface use of alchohol>the chemical dependence) and find another (like trauma, feelings of hopelessness/worthlessness, intergenerational issues, mental illness). Ruth demonstrates this pretty well with the need to still cover up who she is with performative anger. Billie’s an interesting character for more than just her addictions imo, and the off-screen disappearance feels too simple/easy [can’t think of the right word] for Willis’ writing when they’ve shown considerable respect for the characters and their journeys. Plus the tension and mystery screams “REVEAL TO COME”. Like, the Drama of her return is just too good to pass up on.
Good take. It’s interesting how Mike & Ethan were the two characters that had the same arc in DoA than in Shortpacked! with very few variations. Not sure about Billie, though, the reamining character in the main cast could be her.
Also, after the whole cast is revealed I would not put beyond Willis bringing back Ethan and/or Mike just for funsies.
This sounds like a good analysis! Sad for Ethan and Billie though – I liked both and think they could still be interesting well written characters given new stuff to work with.
Ethan will be back because there’s no way we’re losing two of the three queer dudes in the cast all at once.
Ethan’s Sad Gay Angst was a bigger focus for this character and that’s fine (there’s very little you could write for a queer man that’s an inherently wrong way to take them) but I’m all aboard for Ethan returning to his roots as a legendary thundering alpha nerd.
I have too high an opinion of David Willis as a writer and as someone who understands the importance of representation in fiction to just dunk all their queer dudes out of the story because… reasons?
One of the reasons that Amazi-Girl was and is needed is that IU obviously has a huge sexual harassment problem (especially after dark) that the campus administration is either unable or unwilling to tackle.
Apropos of something completely different, I note from my Timeline that when I posted on Facebook that I had voted and was now looking forward to discovering whether the Republicans or Democrats had stolen the election, it was tagged for inaccuracy. Our AI overlords have no sense of humor.
My guess is that it’s Billie, but that’s only because she’s one of the few major characters that hasn’t been reintroduced yet. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem plausible she’d turn superhero given the character’s past history in DOA. Everything implies it’s not Amber (including the lack of name tags other than Lucy) but none of the other characters would seem to work.
I already thought our new caped crusader here was Walky, but rereading this strip, I think Lucy’s reaction might be another point in favour of that theory. Of course, the “You!” could just mean she assumes this is Amazi-Girl, I’m sure she’s heard about the local superhero but possibly not seen her in person. But I think she’s familiar enough with Walky’s voice that she might be able to recognize it even when he’s disguising it?
Actually, that doesn’t mean much, there are a few other candidates for Mystery Superhero that Lucy could probably recognize by voice, like Billie. But I stand by my initial prediction.
As a side note, I like how the speech bubble backgrounds are a slightly different blue than Amazi-Girl’s for the (presumably) different voice.
It doesn’t look any worse than the other times we’ve seen this in the comic (I can think of two).
Also, clif is right, this is distressingly common at colleges. Not sure if it’s actually worse than anywhere else or if it’s just that we know colleges are terrible at handling it.
well at least Walkerton is going to get his ass kicked, not a wasted night
no joking aside who really belives Walky this version picking a fight isn’t the worst idea?
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The stupidest crime is standing out in the cold and freezing off one’s nuts on the off-chance a warm overpowerable body might come by
idk, criminals are stupid tho
like, I feel if you’re standing out in the cold, you ain’t keeping me half as warm as a nice kotatsu
I think it’s probably more likely that he was walking and happened to come upon her.
also superstitious and cowardly.
One-dimensional strawman villains are very stupid, yes.
Because criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot.
Plot twist: that isn’t Amazi-Girl.
NIGHTGUY assumes the mantle!
(I mean, only Lucy is tagged, so nothing’s off the table yet)
It’s Nightguy. Look at that hair.
Nonsense. It’s obviously Mary out trying to discredit Amazigirl in the mistaken belief that Carla is Amazigirl based on mishearing Billie’s dying words.
Mary has never seen a Tim Burton film.
Don’t confuse me with logic.
Why would I confuse you with logic? You and logic don’t look alike at all. Logic’s hair is different, for one.
Or it is Amazi-Girl, just not exclusively.
If they’re talking and have worked their shit out they might be co-fronting.
Well, neither Amber or AG is tagged, which is automatically suspicious.
Place ya’ bets!
I got $20 on Galasso! No reason, I just want more Galasso!
We all want more Galasso.
FOOLS!
Gonna take the outside bet and say…. I dunno, Faz.
More reasonably, Dina.
No known dinosaurs wore capes. But your theories are faztastic. Please keep ’em coming.
Retract this heinous untruth at once. No caped dinosaurs indeed!!!
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3009409/could-caped-dinosaur-found-china-glide-batman
Joyce in a wig working out her frustrations.
Yup. One way or another…
Blondie never sounded so … ominous.
my guess: Iiiiiit’s Walky!
It ain’t Walky.
The shoelaces aren’t flopping loose.
Boots.
The bootlaces aren’t flopping loose, either.
Given the hair, I’d vote for It’s Walky, the boots seem to be without laces.
(would be a wise move, else he’d fall over them).
It’s not Walky. It’s the Duke of Thingy.
Thingly. Thingy is the weird island nation just south-south-left of Panama.
My mistake, but instead of admitting it I’m going to double down by pointing out that islands can damn well have Dukes.
I mean look at the Earl Islands.
Walky as a superhero? Nah, nobody would want to read that.
Would Walky follow Lucy to make sure she arrived at her dorm safely? I think not. Having eliminated the known characters, we are left with the inescapable conclusion that this is the new character, Booster’s twin sister.
It really wasn’t THAT long ago that Walky was so incapable of talking to girls that he started throwing action figures at them, you know.
Further, he wouldn’t own a second pair of shoes, much less boots.
It’s the right shape for Amazigirl. Do you think it’s Amber?
Roller Derby.
Roller Derby could have been an excuse. That might be why she stumbled over “she … I’ve”.
I suspect it’s AG, but in in a thick parka with winter gloves, and the cape over that. It’s Arctic Action Amazi-Girl.
Lots of people guessing Walky, and that’s a good fit for comic book logic, he dated Amazi-Girl and that makes him a viable spinoff character.
Obviously Booster.
Booster Gold
Booster Gold in the Frigid Cold
Plot twist: It’s Faz.
Please no. Much as I want to see what’s happening with Faz (sentence I never thought I’d type), I don’t want there to be a pattern of Blaine’s younger victims becoming violent thugs.
in fairness, he might not be a violent thug. He could base his ‘superpowers’ around “I am documenting all of this to a Livestream. Say Hello to the Internet. “
Not Faz. Whoever-it-is referred to themselves in the first person.
Well said. Thank you.
Also has visible whites of the eyes
Yeah, I’m like 99% sure it’s Walky as Nightguy. He’s the only person I can think of whose hair matches, and Amber just said AmaziGirl was going out to do roller derby so they probably wouldn’t be out patrolling.
Ah – I was ninjaed.
From… one minute in the future? And why is my post labeled as coming from six minutes in the future?
Weird.
Your clock is slow.
The Universe is fast.
I mean, it isn’t. Sets itself automatically. Plus I just checked it to make sure – my clock is only off by 0.04 seconds to the national atomic clock. So… yeah.
I choose to interpret your words as saying that the universe sets its time automatically, and you checked that it was running correctly.
There’s another interpretation?
Oh, also going to note that the speech bubble is a different color than the normal Amazi-Girl speech bubbles, so definitely not her if there was any doubt.
That’s only because Willis can’t get the post office to deliver the usual colors.
Wait. I think Willis artists on computer now.
… because Willis can’t the post office to deliver the proper colors of electrons.
If it were there would be no reason for Willis to not have tagged her.
Except this is Willis, and look at the discussion generated by the lack of tag.
I don’t know why but “posthaste” makes me think Dina
Booster.
Head Alien.
Contraction in the third panel.
Hair extends down too far to be Walky. My guess is the unrevealed silhouette.
Not Walky’s new do. His hair is longer now, certainly long enough for that silhouette.
Nah, it cuts back in toward his head higher up than the person in today’s strip. Compare it to an earlier look at his hair and check around his ears.
Yeah, that looks like Walky
Amazi-Girl isn’t tagged, sooo…. my first thought was Dorothy based on the hair, but Walky seems more likely.
Finally, Billie is revealed!
Obviously it’s Sal.
At first I thought it was Amazi-Girl, but she’s not tagged and there’s several other people it could possibly be.
20% Walkie
25% Dottie
30% Sal
25% Amber or AG
I don’t see Sidney on that list.
My money is on Walky, for whatever reason.
My guess is Dorothy taking up the mantle
I mean that would explain why it’s specifically framed not to show who it is.
Well, hm…no AmaziGirl tag.
challenger approaches!
Hey Walky.
I don’t know why, but this new person reminds me of Walky. Hmmm.
the fact that this is untagged tells me we have a new amazi person™ taking up the amazi mantle™
It’s Pajama Lad!
Who knows where he came from.
It’s said he showed up and escaped from Amazi-Girl herself!
Jeez, the current poll is really close, ‘2nd and 3rd place are tied’ close.
Excuse me, I’d like to add another option to the poll: Where TF is Ethan?
I’m sure we’ll find out in due time.
Also “All of the above”.
Without that option, it’s a false choice.
There’s also no “Booster is behaving obnoxiously”
Welp, “Mike’s dead” really took off, last night it was barely ahead of the other two, which were tied, 36%, 32%, and 32%.
Two things.
One: That’s Walky.
Two: How are there still guys like this on campus!?!? How has there not been some sort of formal crack down on this after the Ryan incident and also a bunch of students getting kidnapped and a bunch more students involved in said kidnapping and potentially arrested for it! What?!
You seem new to America.
I don’t think it’s that much different elsewhere but yes. The “crack down” probably went as far as telling young women to not walk alone and not dress so revealingly.
Lucy: I’m NOT dressed provocatively!!
Cop: No gloves in this cold? You’re practically wearing lingerie, you tart.
I know assaults against women are often looked over in general especially on college campuses but this has been consistently happening in some form since the start of the comic. Has no one reported any of this ever? Creeps are just prowling around IU campus at night looking to beat up nerds and force themselves on women, it’s been 3 months since a bunch of students were kidnapped and it was even on the news. Becky tweeted it on a congresswoman’s twitter! Fucking Linda a total “Karen” wanted Amber expelled over it! The school has to have gotten some negative attention for this shit!
This is some alternate high-crime version of IU, like Gotham, or the Japan of “Death Note”.
Dude, I get the alerts. IU isn’t exactly that low crime. There is at least one reported rape each week, and considering that statistically only 30-35% of all rapes get reported in the first place, that means that things like this creep is likely pretty common on campus. Things have slowed down a little due to the pandemic, but I still get alerts like this weekly all the same, so some things just are inevitable.
WTF is the population of IU to support 1 to 4 rapes per week!?! That’s appalling.
Google says total enrolled population is just shy of 50,000.
The ‘pedia reports national annual average for 2010 was ~28 per 100k.
Using the /lower/ bound that means that IU has rapes occuring at
1/wk x 2(population factor) x 52 week/yr = 104, roughly four times the national average of rapes per year. (none of this is intended to imply IU is notable in this regard. One might suppose this is representative of/influenced by the sexualized portrayal of college youth in media)
Though I’d guess that most of those rapes, like rapes everywhere, are date/acquaintance rapes rather than stranger danger attacks like this. Or at least like this seems to be.
Which probably has more to do with the higher numbers on college campuses than anything about media portrayal – more dates, more parties, more proximity -> more rapes.
Yep. You get way more Ryans (or even more insidious rapists) than you do This Guy. But I’m not remotely shocked here. Why would I be? There’s a serious bubble of apathy toward sexual predators by basically every power structure of the country, and colleges not taking allegations seriously is common. Honestly, I think that if Ryan hadn’t decided to bring a knife to the dorm and be such an Undeniable Threat, the college and police wouldn’t have been anywhere near as willing to side with Amber even if she had just beat him up. (He has such a promising future, after all.) Robin immediately taking the allegation seriously and being horrified is actually the more uncommon option.
Rape culture: Yes, this IS the fear drilled in our heads of what could happen every time you go outside at night for AFAB people.
There is an entire industry built around putting young women in situations where they can be raped and then blaming the victim. No, I can’t tell you anything at all about this industry or how they make their profit, but it’s the only thing that makes any sense.
Yes, I’m aware that that’s pretty out there, but so is an entire industry built around polluting the air, an entire industry built around addicting people to nicotine, or an entire industry built around convincing women that they are ugly.
That makes little sense. At least in the other cases, we can point to who profits.
And frankly, there’s no need for one. This has been going on for basically forever. In many ways we’re far better now than in the past. It’s just more visible and that’s partly because we give women far more freedom and partly because despite the victim blaming that still happens, it’s nothing like it was historically.
That’s the fear that’s drilled in, but the danger is more real with the nice boy who offers to walk you home than the stranger who attacks when you go out alone.
@ thejeff’s last point: Oh, absolutely. Honestly I think that might’ve been what this dude was going for, he’s just completely terrible at it.
Haha, no, ask us still IU-affiliated readers. A quick search of my email for “rape” brings up five IU notify reports of rape this year. And those are just reported cases.
Dean McHenry finally managed to secure funds for campus security, but as he was walking to the bank to deposit them, he passed a Lego store and, well, i happens to us all.
But the new Millennium Falcon on his desk looks boss as hell, so it was a fair trade-off.
I’m sure it’s implied that he bought more sets, but I’ve inferred that the security funding was all of $800 (plus tax), and that seems more likely based on what I remember of my school’s campus security.
I would believe you except for the fact that $800 wouldn’t pay for a month’s salary of anyone running campus security, much less anyone for them to run. I mean, on-campus parking tickets alone should raise more than that, and student fees can pretty much be raised at will to support whatever cool security toys you want.
Nobody who does this ever thinks they’ll be caught so consequences won’t apply to them.
The authorities (and teachers) at this university are uniformly awful at everything.
TVTropes explains why.
I mean it’s also just an accurate depiction of university authorities
Certainly in The US, sure! I cannot say about anywhere else.
Sexual assault is fairly common on campus, but to my knowledge it’s highly skewed to assault within relationships/problems at or relating to party events. “Street” violence seems over-represented, but if we’re going to have superheroes mucking about, we need to have that enough of those villains.
That’s true of sexual assault in general, not just on campuses, despite the common theme of rapists jumping out of bushes.
Interesting that he thought AG was gone. Hmmm.
Yeah, definitely good to hear that AG’s been laying off the heroics, probably ever since the kidnapping.
Definitely interesting.
Good for Amber, probably. Good for the campus? Maybe not.
… okay, who else is humming the theme music?
Daring duck of mystery….
Wait, not that one?
Man yer gettin nearly as dangerous as the new Duck Tales has been recently…
…. well it WASN’T that one.
This mysterious stranger will strike terror into the hearts of criminals when they tell them that Schumacher’s Batman & Robin was more enjoyable than the Nolan trilogy.
Don’t turn around (oh oh!)
Herr Kommissar is in town! (oh oh!)
You’re in ‘is eye and you’ll know why
The more you live the faster you will die…
Don’t turn around, bright eyes…
I see you, and you see me
But you’re blowing your line and making a scene…
Not to nitpick, but it’s ‘DER’ (the) Kommissar, not ‘HERR’ (Mr.) Kommissar.
Alles klau, herr Kommissar?
That’s funny because “klau” is the root of “klauen” which means “to steal”. The line from the song is “Alles klar, Herr Kommissar?”
Well, ****
If only Representative DeSanto was there to save them!
I would like to see what she’s up to. Has the noble sacrifice of her career for Becky caused her to turn her life around, devote her time to helping others, and start a new career that no longer requires her to kowtow to Indiana’s worst elements to maintain their support?
Or is she now on her fourteenth re-watch of Steven Universe and so firmly adhered to Leslie’s couch by a layer of Skittles residue that Leslie has offered the couch free to anyone on Craigslist if they will cart it out with the former congresswoman attached, no questions asked.
I could’ve sworn it’s Amazi-Girl. Get rid of that creep.
The dramatics seem a little out of character. AG typically goes right from warning to kicking butt.
Who is this mysterious new vigilante??
It’s Anna. She’s in the hole financially and she needs some emergency-dental repair bucks.
I’m guessing it is Gash McScarface.
His name is Druggo “Ryan” McStabbed. This has been established in-universe.
It billie!
Is anyone in the cast even old enough to appreciate the Tim Burton Batman? I mean that movie came out before I was born and I’m almost 30. Most people college age grew up with the Nolan films right?
People can grow up watching movies that aren’t just The Latest Version.
People watch movies from before they were born, funnily enough
I do understand that people can watch movies older than they are yes. What I’m more surprised by is that this assumedly college aged shadowy figure “Probably Walky” Made a reference to it. Especially considering their assumed age they’d have to actively seek out the Burton film since it has long been passed it’s time of mainstream relevance for them growing up.
Older stuff comes on the TV all the time, and public places often have movie channels playing as background noise. Also, stores routinely have DVDs and such of all sorts of movies. There’s no need for a person to seek things out on purpose, is all I’m saying.
I get it, but I do think it’s a little obscure considering the age. You have to start considering how they get exposed to certain stuff. It’s a really interesting concept I could talk at length about. For example I wouldn’t be surprised if at one point someone said they didn’t know what an Nintendo 64 is because they just didn’t grow up in a time it was relevant.
I’m in college and I would and do reference that movie–to be fair I AM a huge comics nerd so if it is Walky who doesn’t seem to be, that doesn’t really make sense, but for someone like Amber that reference would totally be legit.
I mean, they could have just caught it on tv. I never saw it because I avoided it but it did get reruns on tv when I was a kid
It’s really not obscure. TV reruns, seeing the Dvd for sale somewhere, it being available on a streaming service somewhere, finding it online, etc. are all possibilities and only one requires you to specifically search for it. Even then, I can easily see Walky googling ‘batman movie’ and running across it that way. This REALLY IS NOT hard, especially since pop culture these days tends to have a longer shelf life anyway.
Walky references a lot of stuff. Including stuff that references other stuff. If he had one real area of competence not related to his lifestyle-physique disconnect, it’s probably pop culture trivia.
Tim burton absolutely would’ve been mainstream for them growing up. Maybe not his love action movies but I’m on like two years older than most of the cast and Tim burton was my whole childhood
I’m 31 and I watched the Tim Burton Batman movies when I was a kid.
Yeah, NOT gonna help Lucy’s fixation on Walky.
I’m not quite convinced yet its Walky. The hair doesn’t look quite right, and I can’t imagine Walky pulling off a convincing woman’s voice.
Pretty sure Amber did her best Christian Bale’s Batman impression for her super-heroics.
Whoever it is they’re taking a big risk if they have no fighting skills. Amazi-girl’s rep will scare some creeps off, but it will also attract some. Either they’ll be someone wanting revenge, or someone wanting to prove how nasty they are by taking out her out.
I think I find it even harder to imagine Walky pulling off the bat growl.
I mean this isn’t an auditory medium, we don’t know what this mystery man of mystery sounds like
Yeah, but considering everybody knew of the hero as Amazi-Girl, I doubt they’d be going, “I thought you were gone!” in response to a male voice
Mind, we also don’t know what Walky sounds like, he could very well have an androgynous voice, letting him, if he does a Christian Bale impression without lowering it, sound close enough that one could think he’s Amazi-Girl
Walky strikes me as the kind of guy whose attempt at a girl voice would be talking in a squeaky and entirely unconvincing falsetto
I thought that was his attempt at a mouse voice.
Nah, that was just because he was little.
What about walky’s attempt at a girl imitating a man imitating a bat on steroids?
Conveniently enough, the reports of Amazi-Girl say she talks in a funny voice.
I know everyone’s guessing Walky, and it makes the most sense aside from someone new, but I can’t help but think it’s Billie, having graduated from thinking Sal is Amazi-girl, to thinking *she* is the new Amazi-girl
Yeah, Walky is the safe guess but I’m a gamblin’ man, I’m also putting my five bucks down on Billie.
Not unless Billie shrunk.
? billie and walky are the same height.
Billie and Walky are taller than Amber, who’s “maybe five-foot-five (in her boots)”.
That reminds me of a comic I read ages ago where one of the heroes was outraged when she realised a newspaper had shooped a photo of her and some others to make her look taller. She was very adamant about being within 1 standard deviation from the average height.
I was gonna say the same thing. She talks differently, for one thing.
I’m in the Walky / Night-Guy camp. Perhaps driven by Mike’s sacrifice…?
And trauma from the kidnapping that he refuses to admit he was traumatized by?
I vote Dorothy.
Yeah, I’m having that thought a bit as well. She strikes me as the kind of person of her generation who’d know Burton, and the hair would fit her.
No way. She’d fight crime by organizing a student-based neighborhood watch and campaigning for cameras and lights around the dorm. That looks good on the resume, after all. She WOULDN’T fight crime by picking fights when she doesn’t know how to fight, and she wouldn’t learn to fight when that time could be spent studying instead.
Schtickshift? Is it finally you?
I feel guilt over not choosing Mike’s death as the thing I’m mad about in the poll but I’m more so sad than mad
personally i’m mad less about mike being written out of the comment and more about ethan and possibly billie
I’m not 100% convinced Mike is actually dead, and I don’t think Ruth and Billie are going to stay broken up.
So Halloween, without regrets.
People saying it’s Walky are forgetting that there was one person missing still from the new semester cast poster. So I’m going to say it’s either a new person or possibly an older character we haven’t seen yet since the new semester started.
I agree with you, and further I suspect that they are not in an Amazi-girl costume but using shadow and their winter coat to try to scare away the dude.
hi walky
Hmm, only one tag at present.
HMMMMMMMMM….
Proving that Lucy is alone and imagining the rest.
The current poll is missing the option: Making Booster too similar to Mike
also “wtf happened to ethan?”
(but asked angrily i guess)
Lucy recognizes mystery person, but says “You!” not “Walky!” Are we saying Walky is pulling off an AG impersonation good enough to fool Lucy?
Maybe she’s seen NightGuy / didn’t want to blow Walky’s cover
“No I literally meant I’ll keep her warm. I’ve got a car with the heater running right over there. Hypothermia is no laughing matter. Even if she doesn’t come with me I have pockets upon pockets of hand warmers. Hypothermia can have long ter consequences on your blood flow and joints!”
you want her to get into his car?? but stranger danger!
This message brought to you by the Stranger Danger Ranger. He was born in a manger?
(admittedly the song on the radio is an absolute banger
but fuck sight rhymes amirite)
“I’m also wearing thermals under my clothes, so I could just give her my coat if she wants!”
“You may be a force of Justice but I am “The Heater” seasonal hero, enemy of winter cold!”
“Yeah, okay, but why are you calling her Babe like a creep?”
“Because I just want to swaddle her up all warm and toasty in blankets like a little babe. Look, it’s a perfectly harmless fetish.”
“….”
“… crap, did I say fetish again? I meant altruistic impulse.”
actually with the inexplicable glowing hornrim glasses, it might just be someone who went as AmaziGirl for halloween, bluffing
Oh yeah, there’s a new hero in town!
But not in the tags. Not yet, anyway.
OK, if this dude messes with Lucy he’s going down.
As soon as I saw the Alt Text, my brain immediately jumped to song lyrics:
“Rush, rush, got the yeyo?
Buzz, buzz, gimme yeyo”
(Debbie Harry – Rush Rush)
New possibility: Sydney Yus. They’re exactly the kind of person who’d use posthaste. Why they’d want to pretend to be Amazi-girl is another question.
I’m going to pretend that doesn’t make sense
But it does. I’ll take a long-shot flyer on it.
I can’t imagine Sydney Yus saying anything as mundane as “Yes, and it’s very scary, according to Tim Burton!”
She’d say something more like “Indeed! And as the master of the cinematic macabre Tim Burton knows well, scarcely anything else could strike more terror into the moral fibre of villainous rogues! Begone, fiend! You have not seen the last of Sydney Yuuuuoops…”
That’s gotta be walky….
Walky?
It’s Walky, isn’t it?
None of my whack ideas ever pan out, so I’m just throwing this out for the shits and giggles:
It’s Marcie. Now, wait, I can hear you say “But isn’t she mute?” Ah, but the skipped Halloween story line had a Very Special Drama involving Marcie, Sal, and Carla, and once Carla found out that Marcie had a sad backstory involving a throat injury that could be fixed with surgery, she (anonymously) arranged for funding for the surgery to take place. Voice for the voiceless!
Marcie sounds like Batman because her throat is still healing from the surgery.
/confabulatory verisimilitude
I know that is Walky, but this is a serious situation. This college has a scary amount of sexual predators lurking at night, and AMAZI-GIRL WAS THE ONLY ONE DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THAT!!!! The fact that a mentally ill vigilante was the only one actively fighting rapists just adds to the corruption and incompetence of the college security and police in that town, and they haven’t improved after two kidnappings.
Seriously, I studied in Monterrey, Mexico, and the guards watched the campus at night with dignity. I mean, the guards, the military police of Mexico are corrupt.
For some reason I don’t think that person belongs to the Amber collective
Pfft. Tim Burton??? Tim Burton is an expert it kinda creepy and uber-weird, but the man wouldn’t know scary if jumped him in an alley and stole his wallet.
“I am the terror that flaps in the night!”
Proving that, whoever this is, they’re a 90s cartoon nerd…
Walky?
LOL! I was thinking the same thing.
“I am the pebble lodged in your shoe that makes walking VERY uncomfortable!”
I am the Google search for Mike and your mom fan fiction.
Does this upstanding citizen need a swift boot in the Cajones, while he is distracted?
I mean, yes, but be quick, Lucy, while he’s distracted.
I don’t mean the Caped Crusader, I mean the guy asking for a victim to some predatory physical assault.
Damn it, Walky!
What about Leslie? Her hair is a similar shape, and the color might be obscured by the dark. Keeping women on campus safe seems like a cause that would be pretty important to her, especially if she felt at all responsible for not protecting Becky enough from everything that happened. That would also explain the older “Tim Burton” reference.
Well, that’s definitely not Amazi-Girl (because Mazie or Amber would have knocked the guy’s teeth out first and done their Christian Bale impression second). Whoever it is, lacking training and discipline is a sure-fire way of getting themselves hurt.
only scary when you’re tall AF lmao
……
…………
Hi, Mike.
DAMMIT I had to scroll ALL THE WAY DOWN to the very end of the comments to find someone making my guess
Tempting, but not Mikes style.
I’m relieved someone else thought of it first.
Glad to see that we’re not the only one’s guessing that.
To be clear to others who are reading this:
The Mike that formed in Amber/Amazi-Girls system after Mike saved them.
So we’re not talking about Mike getting resurrected here, and this is Amber/Amazi-Girls(+now Mikes) body.
So the reason to guess that this is Mike:
– the hair would obviously fit
– Mike would likely enjoy dramatic posing like this
– we’ve seen hints that at a Mike now being part of our resident system for a long time, it has to be revealed at some point
Reasons against it would be
– the style does maybe not quite fit with Mike? But then again, replace the shadowy figure with the OG Mike’s body and suddenly it fits well.
– Walkie would have more resonance with Lucy here of course
– we’ve already had “headmate gets revealed through superheroics” once, or arguably a bunch of times.
Something’s… Off…
That blue is way lighter
Since no one else is doing it, I guess I’ll rattle off suspect lists.
Walky: Introduced the Nightguy persona last semester, had a thing for the previous masked vigilante, knows the movie reference, can’t treat this completely seriously, the girl being rescued has a crush on him, had a traumatic incident he refused to be traumatized by so obviously he’s traumatized by it, hair and height are close. He’s the obvious choice. TOO obvious. Can’t be him.
Amber/AG: NOPE. Neither of them would do the raised-cape thingy.
Billie: This is way, WAY too nerdy.
Ruth: She’s perfectly capable of suplexing people harassing students right outside her hall WITHOUT a cape and a mask, thankyouverymuch.
Mike in disguise: Build’s wrong, hair’s obeying the law of physics, no cutting remarks.
Sal: No accent, wouldn’t bother with a mask and cape before beating someone down.
Malaya: Hair’s wrong, wouldn’t bother with a mask and cap before beating someone down.
Booster: Wrong build.
Dina: Using contractions, referencing Batman instead of Jurassic Park.
Grace: Wrong build.
Mandy: Wrong hair.
Joe: Everything, EVERYTHING is wrong with this idea.
Danny: …. okay, I started this entry as a gag, but the more I think about it…. no, build’s wrong.
Rachel: Too short, wrong build.
Other Rachel: Maybe?
Sierra: Wearing footwear.
Ethan: Wrong build.
Jacob: Wrong build.
Ken: Wrong build.
Arnold: …. maybe?
Carla: Not wearing skates, and a mask would hide her awesomeness.
Rose: Maybe?
Nash: Wrong build.
Beatrice: Mmm… I think the build’s not quite right.
Sydney Yus: Not over-the-top enough.
Gallasso: Distinguished correctly between presented genders. Also, build’s wrong.
Marcie: Unless Marcie got a very convincing text-to-voice ap, probably not.
Leslie: Wrong build.
Anna: Not actively insulting the woman she’s saving.
Dorothy: Wrong MO. As I said above, Dorothy would fight crime in a way that would look good on her resume.
Becky: Vocabulary’s off.
Joyce: …. maybe. That actually makes sense. But the hair looks wrong.
Sarah: Build’s wrong, and she’d do a batter impression rather than a batman impression.
Lucy: …. huh. Okay, I could maybe buy the build, she knows old movies, she’s dorky enough, she was Amber’s successor to the AG title in SP!….
Yeah, that settles it. The new AG is Lucy.
I was almost about to board the Walky train, but then I opened it up on a larger screen, squinted and went, “Ugg boots?”
Now I’m throwing my last $2 with Joyce.
Solution for hair conundrum: we’re seeing straight on from front/back. Her hair is in a ponytail doing the sticky-uppy thing and she’s wearing a blanket and is a short bean.
Also, becoming more familiar with pop culture via friends, would definitely be more into Burton Batman than Nolan (defo Walky’s influence), but also be not so savvy about knowing what would be effective IRL.
Also also, totes AG stan and this paralells her own past trauma with campus rape guy so it would be smart writings.
I’m sold. It’s Batjoyce.
And I am worried about her exposure to Amber’s LITERATURE!
Me too, if she bases her dialogue off Amb’s SuperBat fic this could go so so so so wrong
Joyce in a wig would make a lot of sense.
Is she not still traumatized from her encounter with Ryan though? I’m sure it’s not as much as before but surely seeking out people like that would be terrifying? Though maybe she brought mace or something, idk
You forget that Amazi-Boy main superpower is making Mike’s hair obey the laws of physics (how else did Booster got their hairstyle?)
Here’s the result of a little brainstorming on my part:
Mike – Willis has struggled for 10 years to make Mike plausible for the more realistic DoA universe and failed. The last effort to that end was his crush on Ethan but that just flatlined because Willis couldn’t plausibly write him suddenly as a romantic protagonist for one of the nicest characters in the strip in a believable way. Out of respect for the fact that he was based on a good friend at school, he was given a heroic exit but I don’t think that Willis thought there was any other way. Booster is his direct replacement in terms of narrative role but it is obvious from early on that Willis is trying to give them a more rounded personality that is easier to work with.
Ethan – Ethan has always been a problem to write. Now that the issue of his sexuality and publicly admitting to it has been resolved, it once again proved that he was almost impossible to write. The only two remaining quirks were ‘nice guy’ and ‘Transformers nerd’, neither of which are a recipe for a long-term character, so to the Bus with him.
Billie – Once again, the problem with Billie is that her narrative arc depends so strongly on her problems. Alcoholism and a prickly personality because of the amount of pain she’s gone through for a variety of reasons. As soon as her relationship with Ruth stabilised and she accepted therapy, there seems to be nothing to her except ‘smart, supportive girlfriend’ and maybe Willis decided that this was a little too bland for a core character. Billie’s character in the Walkyverse had a lot of the same problems in sustainability after she married Danny.
We haven’t heard anything about Ethan yet, I think. He could still be back but… Who knows?
I am interested in seeing what happened to Billie. Did she transfer? Is she just at a different dorm? Did Ruth and her break up over the three months? Did something else happen that we will be flashbacking to? So many questions!
Mike sadly died. That much is obvious. I don’t see Booster as a replacement. They are awesome!
I really dig your analysis of the Mike stuff. tyvm.
(Still holding out that Billie makes a return, because the struggle with mental health and alchohol dependency is not easily wrapped up at all, but is compelling when you unwrap one layer (eg, the surface use of alchohol>the chemical dependence) and find another (like trauma, feelings of hopelessness/worthlessness, intergenerational issues, mental illness). Ruth demonstrates this pretty well with the need to still cover up who she is with performative anger. Billie’s an interesting character for more than just her addictions imo, and the off-screen disappearance feels too simple/easy [can’t think of the right word] for Willis’ writing when they’ve shown considerable respect for the characters and their journeys. Plus the tension and mystery screams “REVEAL TO COME”. Like, the Drama of her return is just too good to pass up on.
Good take. It’s interesting how Mike & Ethan were the two characters that had the same arc in DoA than in Shortpacked! with very few variations. Not sure about Billie, though, the reamining character in the main cast could be her.
Also, after the whole cast is revealed I would not put beyond Willis bringing back Ethan and/or Mike just for funsies.
This sounds like a good analysis! Sad for Ethan and Billie though – I liked both and think they could still be interesting well written characters given new stuff to work with.
Ethan will be back because there’s no way we’re losing two of the three queer dudes in the cast all at once.
Ethan’s Sad Gay Angst was a bigger focus for this character and that’s fine (there’s very little you could write for a queer man that’s an inherently wrong way to take them) but I’m all aboard for Ethan returning to his roots as a legendary thundering alpha nerd.
> Ethan will be back because there’s no way we’re losing two of the three queer dudes in the cast all at once.
You saying that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
I have too high an opinion of David Willis as a writer and as someone who understands the importance of representation in fiction to just dunk all their queer dudes out of the story because… reasons?
Because he can’t write a story with them making them dead weight and empty tokens, even more disrespectful than not having them at all.
I doubt Ethan and Billie are out of the comic for good.
Wow that’s super creepy, and I’m not talking about Amber.
One of the reasons that Amazi-Girl was and is needed is that IU obviously has a huge sexual harassment problem (especially after dark) that the campus administration is either unable or unwilling to tackle.
Are we talking in-comic, or… in real life?
Uh… in comic? Why would I be talking about anything else?
Apropos of something completely different, I note from my Timeline that when I posted on Facebook that I had voted and was now looking forward to discovering whether the Republicans or Democrats had stolen the election, it was tagged for inaccuracy. Our AI overlords have no sense of humor.
He’s not even blocking anything. He’s just standing there in the middle of a wide sidewalk.
It’s very easy to continually to step into someone’s path if they try to walk past you.
Which is especially true if they have a longer stride and are faster than you.
My guess is that it’s Billie, but that’s only because she’s one of the few major characters that hasn’t been reintroduced yet. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem plausible she’d turn superhero given the character’s past history in DOA. Everything implies it’s not Amber (including the lack of name tags other than Lucy) but none of the other characters would seem to work.
Well at this creep doesn’t get a character tag.
*Well at least
I feel like that’s Faz. Making my guess here.
Title drop
BUT NOT FOR THIS COMIC!!!
(It’s Walky)
Sorry, Amber.
I’m getting more Darkwing Duck vibes than Batman right now.
Phew, nice to have my fears for Lucy being deconfirmed after being confirmed.
Are they really?
It’s Walky or Amazigirl?
I feel that it is obviously Walky.
Oh, Christ, Wally, really, what?????
*Walky
If this is Walky, I’m done with this comic for a while
i bet it’s Nightwalky.
Night Guy only comes out at night.
Winter Warmth Guy!
Stalks the winter!
When the cold sinks into your femurs, who ya gonna call?
i’d like to submit in evidence: the text box is 100% a different color than Amazi-girl’s
I already thought our new caped crusader here was Walky, but rereading this strip, I think Lucy’s reaction might be another point in favour of that theory. Of course, the “You!” could just mean she assumes this is Amazi-Girl, I’m sure she’s heard about the local superhero but possibly not seen her in person. But I think she’s familiar enough with Walky’s voice that she might be able to recognize it even when he’s disguising it?
Actually, that doesn’t mean much, there are a few other candidates for Mystery Superhero that Lucy could probably recognize by voice, like Billie. But I stand by my initial prediction.
As a side note, I like how the speech bubble backgrounds are a slightly different blue than Amazi-Girl’s for the (presumably) different voice.
I’ll throw my guess into the lot. Getting Dina vibes here
Wow, this strip makes IU look really bad from the viewpoint of a father of soon to be college aged daughters.
Understandable, but probably no different from almost any other major university.
It doesn’t look any worse than the other times we’ve seen this in the comic (I can think of two).
Also, clif is right, this is distressingly common at colleges. Not sure if it’s actually worse than anywhere else or if it’s just that we know colleges are terrible at handling it.
well at least Walkerton is going to get his ass kicked, not a wasted night
no joking aside who really belives Walky this version picking a fight isn’t the worst idea?