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It was suggested in last page’s comments that this could be Amazi-Girl pounding on the wall between her and Amber screaming “Listen to me, dumbass! This is important!”, so that’s kinda why I’m thinking that he’s dead right now.
Unlikely. If there was a death of a college student that close to campus, there would be a hell of a lot more going on today.
Mike and AG weren’t exactly subtle during the chase and fight with Ross and Blaine. Other people would have noticed, so there’s no real possibility that the death was hidden.
Robin didn’t mention (or show any indication) that Ross was wanted for a NEW assault, so clearly Ross and Blaine got away before any Police showed up.
Too many things don’t add up for the “Mike is dead” narrative to work for me. We’ll see what Willis can pull out of his hat, thoug
IIRC, it was that no major character dies, because otherwise everyone would be in mourning the duration of the comic, it moves so slowly.
On the other hand, would Mike be mourned?
I don’t think he’s dead because mourn him or not, It would be the end of Amber if she thought she were responsible for his death.
But maybe Willis it’s just Amber who will be in mourning until the end of the comic. Or the heat death of the sun.
As far as Ross goes, nobody actually saw him there aside from Blaine, Mike, and Amazi-Girl. Two people were shown who saw Blaine chasing Mike when they got to the park, but Ross had given up on trying to get a scooter working to follow and got in his car instead to cut Mike off at Dunn Woods, so he wasn’t running around in public like Blaine. And where the fight actually took place didn’t seem to have anyone around and wasn’t very well-lit. (Plus if there are people doing shit in that area often enough that it’s become a regular place for Amazi-Girl to watch, it’s probably a place that people who *aren’t* doing things of dubious legality like to avoid at night).
Also, you tend to see weird shit going on campuses a lot, so Mike yelling like that on a scooter may not have gotten anyone interested enough to investigate or call campus security/the police. From the outside, a one-speed chase with scooters and the guy being chased phrasing stuff the way Mike was (“Yep, definitely being chased by some mob stooge though campus!”) looks more like college bullshit than someone *actually* needing help.
Since Blaine seems like the type to assume the fall killed him, it’s probable that he and Ross took the opportunity to get out using Ross’ car after Mike hit the ground and Amazi-girl was too preoccupied with trying to check on/help Mike to stop them. And if Amazi-Girl say, called an ambulance, she wouldn’t have stuck around to be seen and questioned. (And probably would have used Mike’s phone rather than hers to keep the call from being traced back to hers/Amber’s).
So, if there was an anonymous call, depending on what she said and what the scene looked like at first blush, it could very well have been thought to be a suicide attempt initially and the emergency vehicles and such could be gone by morning. Schools don’t really like admitting when a student dies by or attempts suicide on/close to campus, and if they think that’s what happened, they’d probably try to keep it as quiet as possible. But even if emergency responders immediately go ‘this + anonymous tip is suspicious AF,’ it’ll take time to piece shit together, and word of a fight in an area with no apparent witnesses is a lot less likely to go all over campus as quickly as a guy with a rifle in broad daylight would, even if it did result in a death and there’s crime scene tape up.
Either way, it was nice of Blaine to leave so much evidence that he was involved. He dropped the hammer he was chasing Mike with when Amazi-Girl showed up (which he held before he put his gloves on), there are two scooters at the scene and he wasn’t wearing gloves when he used it, the app to rent the scooter was downloaded to his phone, and he used his card to rent it. Meanwhile, Mike’s scooter probably has paint from Ross’ car on it, and hopefully it did dent his car.
What I’ve been thinking lately is that Amber (or rather AG) found her way safe and sound to the dorm. Something went somewhat alrightish as in Blaine and possibly Ross were stopped. Mike might be dead either way, but he might have been incarcerated for killing the dad shit-show duo or hospitalized or any other terrible thing that would leave him out of reach. Including death of course.
“we” being AG and Mike I guess? Now I too am starting to wonder whether Mike ever existed… The tags are sacred and they dictate what we know as Mike is here.
Doubt the guardian angel thing. I think he’d get sent straight to hell the first time he met God or Jesus and made some sort of mom joke concerning Mary.
I wonder if this Amazi-Girl talking, pretending they’re Mike, or just her brain trying to rationalize why Mike jumped to her defense and his dead/major injury.
Nah, Mike’s resurrection WAS explained towards the end of Shortpacked, and in hindsight broadly hinted at for years beforehand. (Someone slipped Galasso a free resurrection chamber and a bloody shirt. Hm, I wonder who was in a position to get Mike’s blood on their shirt?)
… That said, if the ‘big rule’ Willis has broken wasn’t ‘no deaths’ but ‘no one has superpowers’ and he’s finally unable to resist the Triumphant Return of Head Alien, who subsequently takes over the strip because he’s Head Alien and a spotlight hog, that would be one HELL of a misdirect. I’m on board.
It’s 11:59 PM, DoA time. We’re at the climax of the protagonists vs evil dads fight. We’re finally about to learn Mike’s fate, but we hit the end of the chapter.
The entire next chapter is an in-universe episode of Dexter and Monkey Master. We pick the main story up again sometime in November.
Making convincing arguments for phrases like “Saving only morally good people is eugenics” is such a Mike kind of troll, I love that Amber just knows Mike THAT well to construct such a realistic Mike.
Milholland has done many cross-overs before. However, I think given the nature of S*P and Milholland’s sense of humour, Mike wasn’t crossing over (heh). Milholland was just giving a shout out to who could easily be his favourite DoA character.
Certainly Milholland and Jacques and Willis all know each other, and Jacques and Milholland aren’t above dropping nods and easter eggs to other comics.
The wake reference in Peejees bar came out like 2 real world days after Mike’s fall. That was definitely a nod from Milholland to this Mike.
It was AGES ago, so no worries. (By which I mean around 2014 or so?) Back when Joyce was dating Ethan because Ethan was trying to closet himself again, Amber found out about it and the fact that Joyce knew and, well, flipped his table at the dining hall. This was after their disastrous prom night where they didn’t have sex because Ethan realized/acknowledged he was gay and then Amber spent the summer supporting Ethan’s coming out (and with it, their breakup) to Ethan’s shitty parents and an implied-to-be-generally-unsupportive town. So they were both kind of burned out on that relationship and Amber’s pain were understandable, but still, don’t flip tables at people.
I still love the gag with Amber bringing it up as an example of being awful, and Danny pointing out flipping a table in righteous anger was also something Jesus did. I am butchering it, but it was hysterical.
This weakly supports the “The Mike in this strip is a construct of Amber’s brain” theory. This Mike says the table-flip contributes to Amber being a terrible person. Other people let her off easier.
The entity talking in this strip is a construct of Amber’s mind, but to say Mike was never real because the hallucination bearing his face knows stuff the Mike from the beginning could not know has no causality.
There are tons of strips where mike is present and interfering without amber being there but I can’t check if Amber was anywhere else at that time.
So, let’s workshop some possible alternate tags for not-Mike:
Inner Mike
Anti-Mike
Ghost-Mike
Dropped Mike
Jiminy Micket
Little Nike
The Voice of Loathing
No Regrets Mike
Gameboy Mike
Fahrenheit Mike
Mike of Christmas Future
I’m still leaning towards ‘this is Amber’s subconscious on some level’ rather than Actual Ghost Mike, whether Mike’s dead or not, but that may just be because Actual Ghost Mike showing up right after Amber and Walky’s dry-humping session feels a bit too That One Creepy Funky Winkerbean With Ghost Lisa to me. (And I know Willis would get that exact reference, because he did a Shortpacked strip on it.)
Anyway, either way, that’s definitely a broad hint to Amber that something DID happen with Mike last night (‘I decided you were worth it anyway’) that hopefully will prompt Amber to figure out where the HELL Mike is and who saw him last. So maybe we’ll be getting answers by April?
So, pretty sure this is part of Amber guilt-tripping her for Mike’s choice to defend her. Notice that he says, “WE can’t go around only saving those…” but Mike isn’t typically known for saving people. He’s saying “we” as in “everyone in Amber’s head.”
What Mike is saying isn’t reporting of facts, it’s reporting of Amber’s interpretation of what happened. This doesn’t tell us that he’s dead, but it definitely tells us that he made a very very big sacrifice. It’s also possible that Amber thinks he’s dead but he’s actually in a coma etc.
You know a silver lining to the whole “Mike might be dead” conspiracy is that if he is dead Walky doesn’t have to worry about his grades anymore right? Entertainment media has led me to believe if your roommate dies you get passing grades for that semester. Walky could be in the clear!
Willis … I can’t even.
You get better at the gut shredding each time you do this, you know? For an atheist, this is some serious Bridge of San Luis Rey stuff. Yes, he’s beautiful, ok? They’re all beautiful. They’re all *young.* I want to tell this fictional multidimensional asshole that you don’t need a redemption arc for growing up. Becoming an adult is death enough.
Excuse me, I need to go quietly rage-cry now.
Mike doesn’t know about all those things, right? So we can be certain this is just amazigirl’s inner voice taking the shape of Mike (I have lotsa abusive inner voices based on abusers… but sometimes the in-my-head people comment on things that the actual people the voices are based on don’t know, because they’re actually all just based in my brain… … I’m starting to accumulate a few mind versions of a few nice people too, so that’s good. It’s been a long time coming.
I agree with your arguments but don’t see the relation to your conclusion…if it were based on what mike knows, it would be more likely mike talking and so mike being alive and able to disappear in an instant.
OK — I am still convinced that Mike lives. Although I think that the ‘Mike’ we are seeing here is merely an anthropomorphic representation of Amber’s conscience…. in much the same way that Jiminy Cricket was the anthropomorphic representation of Pinocchio’s conscience.
I think I read through all of Roomies, and I started It’s walky. Where do I have to read from to appreciate Amber and Mike’s relationship in the other universe? The beginning of shortpacked?
Yeah, Amber first shows up in Shortpacked. Starting from the beginning of that one will take you through her character development and their relationship. It’s a wild ride; hope you enjoy!
Bet: Willis only said that he broke one of his rules so that this arc would have tension that it wouldn’t have if we all knew Mike couldn’t be dead. But Mike isn’t actually dead and it’s some other rule he broke. And we’ve all been falling for it like chumps.
Maybe I’m remembering wrong, but I’m pretty sure Mike wasn’t there when Amber flipped Ethan’s table, and he definitely wasn’t there when she changed Walky’s grades.
I went back and read this one. Mike was a surprise for Amber in it like he is in this sequence, AND if my monitor is doing it’s job properly, he is the “Mike that doesn’t throw actual shade”. Just sayin’
We all keep mental models of the people we spend time with. In that sense, yes, they still exist within us after their physical existence ends.
I suspect that these models underlie the reports of seeing and talking to loved ones during near-death experiences.
After my wife died, I several times dreamed conversations with her, which I remembered vividly when I woke. The first few times I was just delighted to see her again. Later on I was able to remember, and I asked her “aren’t you dead?”. She said yes, but that it wasn’t relevant.
I can’t say whether that is something that the real her would have said after death, but it is something my model of her said.
That is. Not how that works. Amber still has a fair bit of connection to reality – she knows where she is and what she is doing. Hallucinating a person does not destroy your entire grip on reality and she has hallucinated before by projecting AG’s voice outwards as if it was coming from the costume. Having hallucinations doesn’t make her a ticking time bomb, it just adds to her collective pile of mental health issues and degrading mental health.
Agreed that’s not how it works in real life, but the mechanism at work here is presenting full-of-repressed-anger Amber as an old ACME big black bomb with the spark inevitably approaching while we watch in growing horror. Hey, this makes us Wile E. Coyote!
So not only is Mike very much alive, he’s acquired Batman-style disapearing-in-the-middle-of-a-conversation powers? Very excited and positive about this development!
While I’m sure amber often ponders the question if she’s worth saving, I really don’t think Mike cares that much either way. I think his dilemma is much more in line with amazi-girls: how to cause more good than harm.
So I wouldn’t take amber’s mind-construct of Mike as a reliable source of information on real Mike’s perspective.
Just watching Charlie‘s Angels Season 2. It appears, being informed of someone who has attacked you being out on bail ranks with personal favors, and nothing being done is normal. That show aired 40 years ago.
I have a close friend who used to hallucinate (she no longer does – it just stopped one day and never started again). She would see certain people, real or fictional, alive or dead. These hallucinations were repetitive – if she had one of someone, she was bound to have hallucinations about them more than once, usually a few times a month. They were basically hallucinatory versions of that person or character.
She once had a hallucination version of me. We’re big emotional supports for one another, and she would hallucinate me comforting her during hard times. It was…sweet, in an awkward sort of way. One day, hallucinatory me just walked off gently smiling and was never seen again. In a good way. Like she no longer needed his support to keep going.
So, yeah. You can definitely hallucinate people who are alive.
People have been asking and speculating for weeks now. Or do you really mean, when are we going to get definitive answers from Willis? No one knows. Probably when he finally gets tired of the game.
Honestly, it’s kind of pathetic how easy most of you are to troll.
I think if mike were dead the school would have found the body by now and be on full alert unless toedad did a cover up but he doesnt seem smart enough for that. Mike might have been taken hostage though maybe, or hes hurt and hiding in his room.
This kinds of feels to me like Mike died trying to save Amber, and out of guilt, Amber has added his persona to her split personality (not sure if that’s what it really is or what it’d really be called).
So now there’s mild-ish mannered Amber, violent/black and white Amazi-girl, and now Mike, who doesn’t really take control of her body when conscious, but instead stays along side her and communicates with her (I’m assuming he could do the same for Amazi-girl).
Or maybe adding Mike as a persona isn’t quite correct to say, as he’s not really controlling her; maybe saying he’s a hallucination would be more correct?
The end result is that I think Amber now has a Mike in her head due to the guilt/trauma of watching her friend die while saving her.
“I’m just going to say it, shame on any of us who throws a trans child under the bus for thinking they’re going to get elected. That child deserves our support. Don’t worry about the pollsters calling it distractions, because we need to be the party of human dignity.”
Minnesota Star Tribune@startribune.com ⋅ 16h
Gov. Tim Walz is doubling down on trans rights — and criticizing members of his party who are retreating — at a time when the issue has become a political lightning rod nationally and back home in Minnesota.
they managed to get the arms and thighs to be different grays, which I wasn't sure they'd be able to do, the way the mold's set up
though maybe they're just producing a lot of extra thighs and/or arms in the wrong colors and throwing those away, i dunno
Cops are overgrown children cosplaying War, with all the rest of us forced into their stupid, childish game without our consent, consuming vast funds from the public treasury and ruining lives by the hundreds of thousands.
unknown@collie.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
I cannot get over these cops wearing night vision to arrest a dude on a Southwest Airlines flight in broad daylight.
Minnesota Star Tribune @startribune.com ⋅ 16h
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 17h
unknown @collie.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
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the Mike was inside you ALL ALONG
Surely you mean “inside your mother”.
Mike’s inside whatever you don’t want him to be inside of
sometimes he’s inside of what you do want him to be inside of, BUT not for the reason for which YOU want him to be there
Last time Mike was inside Amber, they woke up their child.
Like a ninja. In and out. Whoosh, whoosh.
For a nickel.
“But what about the stuff where he was Walky’s roommate?”
ALL ALONG
(Breaking continuity is something Mike would do, so)
Amber has a blonde wig, clearly.
I don’t buy it. At least not in the “mike never existed” – kind of way. Mike has been in too many conversations where amber was not there.
I don’t think anyone is seriously suggesting Mike never existed. They’re just doing a bit.
Amber didn’t entirely black out over what happened with her crazy mobster dad and Mike last night, did she?
Technically – no, Amber did not black out over what happened last night.
But that’s because Amber wasn’t there at all last night.
Maybe the real Mike was the friends we made along the way.
Amber: “OH MY GOD – Mike has the power to turn invisible!”
Nah, he can teleport
Or maybe he ducked out-of-frame…?
Nabbed one of Dina’s raptor hats? Those are known to give people the ability to turn invisible/unnoticeable.
Must’ve learned it from Joyce
We already knew he was bisexual so its not really a surprise.
The bigger surprise here is that Mike can turn invisible without stripping off all his clothes
Nah, Mike’s not Elan…he’s Nale!
He moonlights between these two webcomics. He’s off to grow out his goatee.
Can’t find upvote button! Need upvote, now!
Oh jeez that explains so much
*muffled ghost in the shell soundtrack playing on laptop next door*
Heh.
Glad nothing super ominous is happening or anything
Wait for it.
“Were” . . . he’s dead, isn’t he?
I mean, I’m not sure I consider Amber’s delusions a reliable narrator.
It was suggested in last page’s comments that this could be Amazi-Girl pounding on the wall between her and Amber screaming “Listen to me, dumbass! This is important!”, so that’s kinda why I’m thinking that he’s dead right now.
Amazi-Girl couldn’t just write her a note?
unreliable narrator best narrator
You’d have to ask Amazi-Girl.
Which is part of the problem.
Unlikely. If there was a death of a college student that close to campus, there would be a hell of a lot more going on today.
Mike and AG weren’t exactly subtle during the chase and fight with Ross and Blaine. Other people would have noticed, so there’s no real possibility that the death was hidden.
Robin didn’t mention (or show any indication) that Ross was wanted for a NEW assault, so clearly Ross and Blaine got away before any Police showed up.
Too many things don’t add up for the “Mike is dead” narrative to work for me. We’ll see what Willis can pull out of his hat, thoug
And from the Doylist side, I’m pretty sure we have WoG that no one dies in this comic (unless that’s changed since I last checked?)
It has maybe.
IIRC, it was that no major character dies, because otherwise everyone would be in mourning the duration of the comic, it moves so slowly.
On the other hand, would Mike be mourned?
I don’t think he’s dead because mourn him or not, It would be the end of Amber if she thought she were responsible for his death.
But maybe Willis it’s just Amber who will be in mourning until the end of the comic. Or the heat death of the sun.
Which ever comes first, …for a nickel.
I dunno, Mike has been a major character in every version of the Willis-verse. Even if he’s a jerk, he’s still important to everyone.
He said he’s recently broken one of his major writing rules and also that he reserves the right to change his mind.
Taking a cue from M. Night Shyamalan, Willis has Joyce’s mom show up during the fight, and Mike lands on her, breaking his fall.
“What a tweest!”
This made me smile
And then he rummages through her coin purse, and takes a nickel out, “on the principle of the thing.”
I feel like it adds up enough that it’s possible.
As far as Ross goes, nobody actually saw him there aside from Blaine, Mike, and Amazi-Girl. Two people were shown who saw Blaine chasing Mike when they got to the park, but Ross had given up on trying to get a scooter working to follow and got in his car instead to cut Mike off at Dunn Woods, so he wasn’t running around in public like Blaine. And where the fight actually took place didn’t seem to have anyone around and wasn’t very well-lit. (Plus if there are people doing shit in that area often enough that it’s become a regular place for Amazi-Girl to watch, it’s probably a place that people who *aren’t* doing things of dubious legality like to avoid at night).
Also, you tend to see weird shit going on campuses a lot, so Mike yelling like that on a scooter may not have gotten anyone interested enough to investigate or call campus security/the police. From the outside, a one-speed chase with scooters and the guy being chased phrasing stuff the way Mike was (“Yep, definitely being chased by some mob stooge though campus!”) looks more like college bullshit than someone *actually* needing help.
Since Blaine seems like the type to assume the fall killed him, it’s probable that he and Ross took the opportunity to get out using Ross’ car after Mike hit the ground and Amazi-girl was too preoccupied with trying to check on/help Mike to stop them. And if Amazi-Girl say, called an ambulance, she wouldn’t have stuck around to be seen and questioned. (And probably would have used Mike’s phone rather than hers to keep the call from being traced back to hers/Amber’s).
So, if there was an anonymous call, depending on what she said and what the scene looked like at first blush, it could very well have been thought to be a suicide attempt initially and the emergency vehicles and such could be gone by morning. Schools don’t really like admitting when a student dies by or attempts suicide on/close to campus, and if they think that’s what happened, they’d probably try to keep it as quiet as possible. But even if emergency responders immediately go ‘this + anonymous tip is suspicious AF,’ it’ll take time to piece shit together, and word of a fight in an area with no apparent witnesses is a lot less likely to go all over campus as quickly as a guy with a rifle in broad daylight would, even if it did result in a death and there’s crime scene tape up.
Either way, it was nice of Blaine to leave so much evidence that he was involved. He dropped the hammer he was chasing Mike with when Amazi-Girl showed up (which he held before he put his gloves on), there are two scooters at the scene and he wasn’t wearing gloves when he used it, the app to rent the scooter was downloaded to his phone, and he used his card to rent it. Meanwhile, Mike’s scooter probably has paint from Ross’ car on it, and hopefully it did dent his car.
Blaine picked the hammer back up after he put on the gloves (though he then dropped it again, so who knows where it ended up).
Otherwise, though, definitely agreed and I wish I could +1 this.
She’s been in the dorm since she awoke. They’re designed to keep the real world out.
What time is it, in-world? Walky’s only just gone off to his exam, so it could still be just mid-morning?
He’s fine.
He’s as fine as the dog whose house is burning down around him while he sips from a mug.
Or Willis is just toying with us, which seems much more likely to me at this point.
What I’ve been thinking lately is that Amber (or rather AG) found her way safe and sound to the dorm. Something went somewhat alrightish as in Blaine and possibly Ross were stopped. Mike might be dead either way, but he might have been incarcerated for killing the dad shit-show duo or hospitalized or any other terrible thing that would leave him out of reach. Including death of course.
Geez I can’t wait to finally know.
*plays Joe Jackson’s “Invisible Man” on the hacked Muzak*
*doublehacks the musak to replace it with Queen’s “Invisible Man” … 12″ version, not that weak 6″ nonsense*
Quick get a resurrection chamber
The strangest things happen in garbage bed.
No one’s gonna point out Amber has “There’s Something About Mary” jizz hair?
How dare you. Some of us can have that hair without needing body fluids to pull it off!
I was just assuming it was general JBF hair.
… but now I can’t unsee it. Damn you ReFlex76!
Justin Bieber Fan?
Judged Before Faraoh?
Jell-O Butter Flour?
Just Been Fucked.
Just been fucked
Congrats on getting laid, you two, but I’m not sure what it’s got to do with this abbreviation.
Wait… DoA comment section hook-up?
*snort*
The smart asses around here.
Worth something, but not exactly a lot. Then again, no one can ever be truly perfect, no matter what.
This is the path you committed to, Willis, the tag stays in the twilight zone.
Oh god Mike please don’t be dead
No regrets.
Yes, Mike, worth what?
Saving. We can’t save everyone, but you were worth it because you’re garbage.
“we” being AG and Mike I guess? Now I too am starting to wonder whether Mike ever existed… The tags are sacred and they dictate what we know as Mike is here.
I just now read the mouseover, so nvm
The tags for this one should read: “Amber, Mike (?)”
Oof
“We can’t run around saving…”
Mike has passed, and is now a guardian angel. It’s practically right out of Central Casting, isn’t it?
I was just thinking that we need to stat him up as an In Nomine Angel. Except in that case he was never human, per the setting.
I’m gonna say either:
A Malakite of Destiny, verbally abusing you because in the long run it pushes you towards being a better person.
or
A Seraph of Judgement, telling you the exact unvarnished Truth about yourself. For your own good.
The most jerkish Mercurian of all time. It goes with being a Social Engineer.
Maybe he’s a Mercurian of War.
“Your Mom got Touched by an Angel, for a Nickel”
Every time you drop a nickel, a Mike earns his wings.
Doubt the guardian angel thing. I think he’d get sent straight to hell the first time he met God or Jesus and made some sort of mom joke concerning Mary.
Maybe he should be called Brain Ghost Mike.
Hm, a gay blonde asshole who fancied himself a Mastermind, with a massive crush on a dorky dark haired main character who everyone wants to fuck…
I don’t think Mike deserves to be compared to Dirk. Mike is WAY less sociopathic
Callled it!
Literally no other medium would get this kind of mileage out of a cliff hanger whilst continually putting out content. Outstanding. Amazing.
I wonder if this Amazi-Girl talking, pretending they’re Mike, or just her brain trying to rationalize why Mike jumped to her defense and his dead/major injury.
Those are not mutually exclusive . . . or “por que no los dos?”
But… But Willis promised nobody important would die! He promised!
He also reserved the right to change his mind…and stated on Twitter a while back that he had broken one of his Major Rules.
He’s killed Mike before.
It’s been implied so far, that many of those with abductie powers in the last universe MAY just have some in this one.
And Mike could apparently self-res in the Walkieverse.
Nah, Mike’s resurrection WAS explained towards the end of Shortpacked, and in hindsight broadly hinted at for years beforehand. (Someone slipped Galasso a free resurrection chamber and a bloody shirt. Hm, I wonder who was in a position to get Mike’s blood on their shirt?)
… That said, if the ‘big rule’ Willis has broken wasn’t ‘no deaths’ but ‘no one has superpowers’ and he’s finally unable to resist the Triumphant Return of Head Alien, who subsequently takes over the strip because he’s Head Alien and a spotlight hog, that would be one HELL of a misdirect. I’m on board.
It’s 11:59 PM, DoA time. We’re at the climax of the protagonists vs evil dads fight. We’re finally about to learn Mike’s fate, but we hit the end of the chapter.
The entire next chapter is an in-universe episode of Dexter and Monkey Master. We pick the main story up again sometime in November.
Please don’t give Willis ideas.
Eh, he’s not that important!
Making convincing arguments for phrases like “Saving only morally good people is eugenics” is such a Mike kind of troll, I love that Amber just knows Mike THAT well to construct such a realistic Mike.
Imaginary Mike didn’t say ‘morally good’, he said ‘people we deem to be perfect’. There is a vast difference between those two.
Mike’s not dead, he’s just in a permanent coma.
like ash pokemon?
So he is wandering the world in his astral form?
It’s Mike, so, ASStral form? No?
That’s what I was thinking, yeah.
Pretty sure he’s dead, or in a coma. There was a wake for him on Something Positive. Could be trolling, could be a puzzle piece. I’m not sure.
S*P is in a different universe, though. I seem to recall seeing somewhere that it’s for Walkyverse Mike.
Milholland has done many cross-overs before. However, I think given the nature of S*P and Milholland’s sense of humour, Mike wasn’t crossing over (heh). Milholland was just giving a shout out to who could easily be his favourite DoA character.
Certainly Milholland and Jacques and Willis all know each other, and Jacques and Milholland aren’t above dropping nods and easter eggs to other comics.
The wake reference in Peejees bar came out like 2 real world days after Mike’s fall. That was definitely a nod from Milholland to this Mike.
Worth giving you the self validation to mack on mcnugget boy guilt free!….ALSOMAYBEDYING!
Flipped Ethan’s table? I’m drawing a blank what that’s a reference to.
Amber once rage-flipped Ethan’s table when he told her that he’d agreed to Joyce’s plan to “date [him] straight”.
Scrolled for this, thank you for the reminder
Yes, thank you.
I half thought it was a weird metaphor for having sex with him in highschool.
But then I was like, no, wait, I remember Amber flipping a table one time…?
When he was dating Joyce.
It was AGES ago, so no worries. (By which I mean around 2014 or so?) Back when Joyce was dating Ethan because Ethan was trying to closet himself again, Amber found out about it and the fact that Joyce knew and, well, flipped his table at the dining hall. This was after their disastrous prom night where they didn’t have sex because Ethan realized/acknowledged he was gay and then Amber spent the summer supporting Ethan’s coming out (and with it, their breakup) to Ethan’s shitty parents and an implied-to-be-generally-unsupportive town. So they were both kind of burned out on that relationship and Amber’s pain were understandable, but still, don’t flip tables at people.
Not her best moment for anyone who wants to remember.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/promised/
I still love the gag with Amber bringing it up as an example of being awful, and Danny pointing out flipping a table in righteous anger was also something Jesus did. I am butchering it, but it was hysterical.
This weakly supports the “The Mike in this strip is a construct of Amber’s brain” theory. This Mike says the table-flip contributes to Amber being a terrible person. Other people let her off easier.
Stronger support would be the mention of changing Walky’s grades, which no one but Amber herself knows.
+1
+1
+1
The entity talking in this strip is a construct of Amber’s mind, but to say Mike was never real because the hallucination bearing his face knows stuff the Mike from the beginning could not know has no causality.
There are tons of strips where mike is present and interfering without amber being there but I can’t check if Amber was anywhere else at that time.
I don’t think the people in this thread are talking about Mike as a whole never being real? Just flat!Mike.
“I’m Mike the critic, I act like an asshole so you don’t have to”.
I doubt Mike has deliberately kept quiet about a friend grooming teenage girls for years to save his own reputation, the way Doug Walker did.
So, let’s workshop some possible alternate tags for not-Mike:
Inner Mike
Anti-Mike
Ghost-Mike
Dropped Mike
Jiminy Micket
Little Nike
The Voice of Loathing
No Regrets Mike
Gameboy Mike
Fahrenheit Mike
Mike of Christmas Future
Toonverse Mike
Exkim.
Full-size shoulder devil Mike?
Mike Mourner?
Phantasmike?
Greg?
I vote Greg.
HE DEAD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYjig6EoCMI
*breathes in*
*big breath out*
Oooooookay. Okay. This is okay. This is fine. Totally not foreboding and tension building. Just cool beans all around.
Cool beans.
i was so ready for him to not be dead but then me and ambers minds were like oh shit thats right he plunged
what if mike was never real
Then he might be a character in a web comic.
I’m still leaning towards ‘this is Amber’s subconscious on some level’ rather than Actual Ghost Mike, whether Mike’s dead or not, but that may just be because Actual Ghost Mike showing up right after Amber and Walky’s dry-humping session feels a bit too That One Creepy Funky Winkerbean With Ghost Lisa to me. (And I know Willis would get that exact reference, because he did a Shortpacked strip on it.)
Anyway, either way, that’s definitely a broad hint to Amber that something DID happen with Mike last night (‘I decided you were worth it anyway’) that hopefully will prompt Amber to figure out where the HELL Mike is and who saw him last. So maybe we’ll be getting answers by April?
April? I think you are being wildly optimistic, but who knows what plans Willis has for this.
(Jake Peralta voice) Coolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcool
So, pretty sure this is part of Amber guilt-tripping her for Mike’s choice to defend her. Notice that he says, “WE can’t go around only saving those…” but Mike isn’t typically known for saving people. He’s saying “we” as in “everyone in Amber’s head.”
What Mike is saying isn’t reporting of facts, it’s reporting of Amber’s interpretation of what happened. This doesn’t tell us that he’s dead, but it definitely tells us that he made a very very big sacrifice. It’s also possible that Amber thinks he’s dead but he’s actually in a coma etc.
Ah, yes. Good old AG guilt-tripping her ‘bad self’ again. We haven’t had that in a while, honestly.
I’m still hoping to see Mike rolling around in a wheelchair. It’s directly addressed but that’s just who he is now!
You know a silver lining to the whole “Mike might be dead” conspiracy is that if he is dead Walky doesn’t have to worry about his grades anymore right? Entertainment media has led me to believe if your roommate dies you get passing grades for that semester. Walky could be in the clear!
Walky actually brought that up a couple of weeks ago in in-comic time as what he believed would be a bonus for him should Mike ever die.
That’s some creepy foreshadowing
Willis … I can’t even.
You get better at the gut shredding each time you do this, you know? For an atheist, this is some serious Bridge of San Luis Rey stuff. Yes, he’s beautiful, ok? They’re all beautiful. They’re all *young.* I want to tell this fictional multidimensional asshole that you don’t need a redemption arc for growing up. Becoming an adult is death enough.
Excuse me, I need to go quietly rage-cry now.
Not everyone needs a redemption arc based on heroic sacrifice, but I guess Willis can’t get rid of old habits after the Integrity incident.
No regrets.
Don’t do that to me.
I wanted to believe, but… I guess he really is gone? This is one things fall apart, and not just for Amber, but for the whole story.
Not necessarily, but Amber/AG might believe he’s gone.
Not looking good though.
Fascinating strip. I don’t know what I expected, or still expect, but this is something else entirely.
Mike doesn’t know about all those things, right? So we can be certain this is just amazigirl’s inner voice taking the shape of Mike (I have lotsa abusive inner voices based on abusers… but sometimes the in-my-head people comment on things that the actual people the voices are based on don’t know, because they’re actually all just based in my brain… … I’m starting to accumulate a few mind versions of a few nice people too, so that’s good. It’s been a long time coming.
But also – since this conversation is based on what Amber and amazigirl know, maybe Mike is not actually dead?
I agree with your arguments but don’t see the relation to your conclusion…if it were based on what mike knows, it would be more likely mike talking and so mike being alive and able to disappear in an instant.
I ….don’t remember.
“You are worth Hell.”
*Mike takes over hell when he arrives*
I thought Hell rejected him which is why he’s there.
Hallucination Mike?
OK — I am still convinced that Mike lives. Although I think that the ‘Mike’ we are seeing here is merely an anthropomorphic representation of Amber’s conscience…. in much the same way that Jiminy Cricket was the anthropomorphic representation of Pinocchio’s conscience.
And that’s the story of how Amber was saved.
Worth what? Saving. Bet you didn’t realize Mike was a Christ figure.
This is the <Touched By An Angel reboot we need.
I hope not, I absolutely loathed that show.
Maybe he’s dead, maybe he’s in the hospital or something, maybe he’s fine. WHO KNOWS.
Oh, by the way: we are now officially 61 days – over two months – since Mike’s fall.
(For Amber, it took 45 days from when she gutted Ryan until we found out what had become of her.)
Who else could maintain that level of tension over such an extended time.
And yet it feels like moments ago. Webcomics are good at distorting your sense of time.
Maybe the real Mike were the friends we made along the way
Surely you mean “the friends your mom made along the way.”
If Mike is dead then Walky wouldn’t have to worry about grades until the next semester.
That’s an urban myth.
On the other hand, it’s one that Walky himself has said he believes.
I hear Pope Urban started a lot of myths.
Ah well, I much prefer Pope Hilarius’s sense of humor anyway.
Over two different universes and two different types of relationship, Mike thinks Amber is worth it, and now I am actually crying, dammit
Correct protocol is to shake your fist at the sky and scream “DAMN YOU WILLIS!” Only then can he properly feed on your tears.
Im so over the predictable, performative frustration.
Protocol schmotocol. I’m a loner, Dottie, a rebel
I think I read through all of Roomies, and I started It’s walky. Where do I have to read from to appreciate Amber and Mike’s relationship in the other universe? The beginning of shortpacked?
Yeah, Amber first shows up in Shortpacked. Starting from the beginning of that one will take you through her character development and their relationship. It’s a wild ride; hope you enjoy!
DANG IT!!!
Bet: Willis only said that he broke one of his rules so that this arc would have tension that it wouldn’t have if we all knew Mike couldn’t be dead. But Mike isn’t actually dead and it’s some other rule he broke. And we’ve all been falling for it like chumps.
My favourite theory is the rule is superpowers and/or Head Alien’s about to come back.
Bring on Head Alien.
Bring on Heady Alien, and don’t forget to bring on Monkey Master with her.
Maybe I’m remembering wrong, but I’m pretty sure Mike wasn’t there when Amber flipped Ethan’s table, and he definitely wasn’t there when she changed Walky’s grades.
Ok I guess she told him about changing Walky’s grades, but I’m still pretty sure Mike wasn’t there when Amber flipped Ethan’s table.
I went back and read this one. Mike was a surprise for Amber in it like he is in this sequence, AND if my monitor is doing it’s job properly, he is the “Mike that doesn’t throw actual shade”. Just sayin’
Its cause its a halucination…or a ghost both could know everytrhing Amber knows..
Booooo~
Amber was and that’s who is speaking: A part of Amber’s own fractured psyche, speaking using Mike’s face and voice but still in her head.
My guess is that Mike isn’t dead, but that Amazi-Girl thinks he is, and is trying to tell Amber that.
You were worth dying for, Amber. Which is something worth thinking about, I suspect.
oh dear…
They already had a wake for him over in SP
https://www.somethingpositive.net/sp01272020.shtml
He should be tagged “Mike’s force ghost”
+1 Ditto – Especially if having Mike’s echo around starts a process of positive change for her.
What was the ultimate upshot of the January 7th strip?
I think so, but there is room for reasonable disagreement.
Okay, I thought I was replying to Fogel below.
Isnt [Mike] alive — in an important sense — if he lives in Amber’s mind/conscience?
We all keep mental models of the people we spend time with. In that sense, yes, they still exist within us after their physical existence ends.
I suspect that these models underlie the reports of seeing and talking to loved ones during near-death experiences.
After my wife died, I several times dreamed conversations with her, which I remembered vividly when I woke. The first few times I was just delighted to see her again. Later on I was able to remember, and I asked her “aren’t you dead?”. She said yes, but that it wasn’t relevant.
I can’t say whether that is something that the real her would have said after death, but it is something my model of her said.
Last panel leads me to think I am right!
There goes the last bit of Amber’s connection to reality. She’s now a tickling time bomb.
That is. Not how that works. Amber still has a fair bit of connection to reality – she knows where she is and what she is doing. Hallucinating a person does not destroy your entire grip on reality and she has hallucinated before by projecting AG’s voice outwards as if it was coming from the costume. Having hallucinations doesn’t make her a ticking time bomb, it just adds to her collective pile of mental health issues and degrading mental health.
Agreed that’s not how it works in real life, but the mechanism at work here is presenting full-of-repressed-anger Amber as an old ACME big black bomb with the spark inevitably approaching while we watch in growing horror. Hey, this makes us Wile E. Coyote!
The tickling time bomb is sort of the opposite of the Dork Bomb, I guess.
The Dork Bomb looks like a bomb, and has a large sign saying “Dork Bomb”.
It is voice activated. If someone reads the sign and says “Huh?” it explodes.
Is he came one last time to say goodbye? Now I’m really scared! But is kinda beautiful and sweet.
This is Mike’s eleventh regeneration. Only one left.
Yep. He ded.
Well, Shit.
So not only is Mike very much alive, he’s acquired Batman-style disapearing-in-the-middle-of-a-conversation powers? Very excited and positive about this development!
But can he breathe in space?
And she was all watched over by Machines of Loving Joy?
Now for Amber to run around looking for Mike.
Called it.
Oh no.
This is going to be one of those days I think about this too long, remember the patreon has a day ahead strip, and debate it again, isn’t it.
DYW!
But tomorrow the strip will cut to other characters.
And now, she’s haunted…
D:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e__1KU7lg-4
Someone referenced that a few pages back. I was going to bring it up again.
While I’m sure amber often ponders the question if she’s worth saving, I really don’t think Mike cares that much either way. I think his dilemma is much more in line with amazi-girls: how to cause more good than harm.
So I wouldn’t take amber’s mind-construct of Mike as a reliable source of information on real Mike’s perspective.
Just watching Charlie‘s Angels Season 2. It appears, being informed of someone who has attacked you being out on bail ranks with personal favors, and nothing being done is normal. That show aired 40 years ago.
I am going to predict that Mike’s “death” is going to be him going into witness protection due to Amber’s dad’s Mahia connections.
I’m just going to mention that I have, while febrile and quite drugged, hallucinated people who were STILL ALIVE.
I assume that the same is possible for the mentally ill.
So this proves nothing, IMO.
I have a close friend who used to hallucinate (she no longer does – it just stopped one day and never started again). She would see certain people, real or fictional, alive or dead. These hallucinations were repetitive – if she had one of someone, she was bound to have hallucinations about them more than once, usually a few times a month. They were basically hallucinatory versions of that person or character.
She once had a hallucination version of me. We’re big emotional supports for one another, and she would hallucinate me comforting her during hard times. It was…sweet, in an awkward sort of way. One day, hallucinatory me just walked off gently smiling and was never seen again. In a good way. Like she no longer needed his support to keep going.
So, yeah. You can definitely hallucinate people who are alive.
Oh he dead
He dead for sure
Ms. O’Malley you’re bad hero
How you gonna pay for the new super suit after the lawsuit?
I vote he be tagged as both “mike” and “mike?”
OK… WTF
I get that he wasn’t there from the beginning, but when are we going to address the elephant in the room of what happened to him?
People have been asking and speculating for weeks now. Or do you really mean, when are we going to get definitive answers from Willis? No one knows. Probably when he finally gets tired of the game.
Honestly, it’s kind of pathetic how easy most of you are to troll.
Worth a nickel.
DON’T LIKE THAT.
Guess that explains why “Mike” wasn’t casting a shadow.
Meanwhile in hell. Mike’s got a Hell-Pass and is f88king shitastic-dad’s mom as shitatstic-dad has to watch.
So, Mike is in traction at the ICU and just had an out-of-body/astral-projection experience solely to fuck with Amber? I’d buy it.
Already been done, it’s called Kanon.
My guess is Mike said those things to Amazigirl as he died, that’s why it sounds so Mike-like despite being in Amber’s head.
I think if mike were dead the school would have found the body by now and be on full alert unless toedad did a cover up but he doesnt seem smart enough for that. Mike might have been taken hostage though maybe, or hes hurt and hiding in his room.
… Where are Danny and Ethan in all this? I know they’re not exactly the height of shown cast members, but I do wonder.
This kinds of feels to me like Mike died trying to save Amber, and out of guilt, Amber has added his persona to her split personality (not sure if that’s what it really is or what it’d really be called).
So now there’s mild-ish mannered Amber, violent/black and white Amazi-girl, and now Mike, who doesn’t really take control of her body when conscious, but instead stays along side her and communicates with her (I’m assuming he could do the same for Amazi-girl).
Or maybe adding Mike as a persona isn’t quite correct to say, as he’s not really controlling her; maybe saying he’s a hallucination would be more correct?
The end result is that I think Amber now has a Mike in her head due to the guilt/trauma of watching her friend die while saving her.