The legendary early-aughts webcomic that inspired a wave of webcomic creators.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Fantomestein
Beka Duke
Desperate for companionship, Frankenstein's Monster pretends to be the Opera Ghost. A grave mistake.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Slightly Damned
Chu
Rhea Snaketail returns from the dead, befriending a Demon who falls in love with an Angel. The afterlife ain't what it used to be!
Beeserker
TJ Cordes
This comic is about a robot powered by bees, but it's also about the kind of people who think filling a robot with bees is a good idea, and why they're wrong.
2 Slices
RJ Morel
After a case of mistaken identity, will awkward Daisuke find help from excitable Mamo, or will his love life be thrown completely off track?
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
Countdown to Countdown
Velinxi
Iris Black is a self-proclaimed inventor with the curious ability to bring his drawings to life, and yearns to find a space where he can use his powers freely.
The Otherknown
Lorian Merriman
Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
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Power Ring? Isn’t he the one that hangs out with Sea King, The Flying Rat, Token Woman, Bow Boy, The Kryptonian, Speedy and the rest of the Hero’s Club of America bunch?
Apparently so. I had it in my head that Blaine had figured it out the first time AG cleaned his clock, but I checked the archives and no go. Sorry, Willis.
I honestly thought he had figured it out when he put on his own mask in the last arc. I thought it was Blaine’s version of father daughter bonding. Apparently no, he just realized how ridiculously effective those masks are in this world.
It’s the Clark Kent thing: It’s not that Superman puts on glasses and suddenly everyone thinks he’s Clark Kent, it’s that he acts so much differently as Clark, much more timid, normal, weak and, well, mild-mannered.
Ethan’s face is turned a bit to his right (our left) to see around Sara’s head and so his eyes cut back to his left to look at Blaine. Just as Sara is turned to her left and so her eyes cut back to her right. I too originally thought Dorothy was squinting, but on closer examination, Willis is using his eyes-seen-through-hair convention that he frequently uses with Becky to show us Dorothy’s wide eyes up above the shadow lines just under her hair.
Is Blaine having both sides of that conversation? Because it sure looks like those are two different-styled speech bubbles with different speech patterns coming out of one dude.
Ah, never mind. Ran it by my partner, that’s Ross in the first panel responding to him, and the wiggly speech bubble I think just means his voice is shaking sometimes but not always. Still a yikes.
I think it’s just a representation of how fucked up he got in his fight that his speech is kinda off. He did that kinda cough thing mid-speech bubble in the one squiggly speech bubble he has.
Yeah, you can get around with a punctured lung, depending on the extent to which it collapses (driven by pneumothorax or haematothorax, the occupation of space in your chest cavity by leaked air or blood, respectively). You don’t feel well, but you aren’t prostrated and you generally recover, unless the pneumothorax is large or advancing.
Not every punctured lung causes tension pneumothorax.
Maybe not broken, but possibly cracked, definitely (hopefully) bruised. Hurts like hell, makes it hard to breathe/move without pain, but you can still be up and around (by comic book logic, at least).
Using the term ‘the spare’ sends a slight shiver up my spine. Anybody remember what “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” did to ‘the spare’ in ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’?
And when it comes to being evil, Blaine seems like he could give pointers to Voldemort.
“Zealotoe, my name is Hawkmoth. Your daughter has fallen into such a sinful life, and so I’m giving you the power to save her from herself. All I ask in return is that you bring me Amazi-Girl and Moto Bleu’s Miraculouses…”
The kind of dissociative episodes Amber gets tend to come from abuse. (They *can* come from genetic factors, just normally don’t.)
That having been said, abusive parents tend to have had abusive parents, so even if they’re not genetic, he could have them also. People with DID tend to not be as abusive as most abuse victims, but DID isn’t the only sort of dissociation one can get from having been abused as a child. Also, Blaine is far more consistently abusive than someone with DID would be.
(I’m only aware of having met one body with DID who was in any way abusive. They only really did it as a self-defense mechanism, and this was one of dozens of personalities, most of which got a lot more face time. Even when she did pop out, it was generally more of a ‘knee to the crotch then run away’ kind of abuse.
Note that I’m calling that abuse because those actions were basically always reactions to something that didn’t yet involve physical contact. “The bongo” (the name they had for that personality) always acted at the earliest signs of a battery being possible, so this was a plausible reaction to offering to hug them good night after a visit, and was the expected reaction if one opened their arms as their way of offering such a hug.
It was my understanding that she would also come out and do stuff to further ward off people who had previously triggered her, so she wasn’t just knees to the crotch. But I didn’t really know; by the time I met them, their friends were warning everybody about how to avoid invoking “The bongo” before any introductions were made to this system. As such, I never got to meet her.
So Blaine still hasn’t figured it out yet? Her mask slipped off twice while fighting him, once when he tricked Danny and again with Mike and he didn’t see either? She used her Amazigirl voice on the phone when Blaine called amber from Danny’s phone! And With how brutal she was that night what other short slightly thick karate trained teenage girl that goes to that school would have such a grudge against him? Her mask doesn’t even cover up that much of her face, it’s one thing for classmates not to recognize her, but she is his daughter, he’s known her her entire life. I thought Blain was supposed to be the smart one of the Deplorable Dad Duo.
Blaine can’t see Amber as anything but a giant disappointment who’s helped to drag him down. There’s no way someone like that could be a skilled, competent opponent like Amazi-girl.
It just occurred to me, since Amber has been dissassociating, and doesn’t remember times Amazigirl as of late, does she not recognize Blaine? because he put the mask on in front of her when she was Amazigirl
(I mean normally one would think she’d probably recognize her dad’s features but this comic plays by Clark Kent rules where having something in front of your eyes is sufficient to completely disguise a person.)
Actually, the effectiveness of the Clark Kent persona relies less on glasses and more on his behavior. Clark Kent is so mild-mannered, clumsy, shy, and apologetic that no one could possibly picture him as Superman. Throw in the fact that Mr. Kent has the constitution of a leper (always getting sick, severe sensitivity to foods, et cetera) as compared to the never-ill Last Son of Krypton, and it’s hard for people in-world to connect the two.
“…and if the BATMAN does not surrender and reveal his identity to the public within the next 24 hours, I will execute my hostage, billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne!”
Youth Pastor Powers from Joyce’s church, aka David Powers, the original identity of the Cheese in the Walkyverse. It’s even referenced in the hovertext of his first tagged strip.
Huh. Ball-Peen doesn’t look or sound good (even worse than usual, I mean). It would be super rude of him to keel over from internal bleeding before he even had a chance to get re-clobbered.
It’s like that sketch about NASA, where they did the math and figured it would be cheaper to actually go to the moon than it would be to fake it on a soundstage and pay off everyone involved.
Just paying the tuition would probably be cheaper, but the money isn’t the point.
So what happened? Did Amazi girl just watch Mike die and was like “welp, time to clock out. No sense in turning these guys in or crippling them or calling the cops or anything. I could leave a note to let prime-me know what she’s in for, but I can’t set up these sick plot twists without some contrived mystery.”
That’s what I wanna know too. I’m still betting Mike’s n the hospital because a violent death of a student would make the local news. But if he’s dead it really looks bad for AG’s decision making not many scenarios end with these two escaping looking good for her.
Willis said he broke one of his rules a while back soon before Mike’s fall so most people are assuming he broke the no death rule with no evidence for it specifically being that rule.
It could also be it breaks the no-death rule by having Blaine die. I mean, with how his speech is going, it sounds like he could be dealing with some internal injuries. What if grabbing the rope broke his fall, but he couldn’t hold on to it and still hit the ground? He could have broken ribs, punctured lung, internal bleeding, etc that wouldn’t kill him right away, but would if he doesn’t get treatment which seems to be the case here.
Willis teased us with something along the lines of “this chapter breaks the rules.” I would guess that Mike survives, and the teaser was just to introduce some drama from uncertainty. But it did introduce uncertainty, so that’s why it’s a guess.
I also thought Willis said so. A lot of people say he mentioned breaking a rule or the rule only counting for “major” characters because of all the cast grieving, but I can’t find those loopholes.
If it’s the end of the story though, anyone could die because there’s no time for grieving.
We might see a time skip after this arc is over. Probably not months, but I’d guess at least a week or two so to give the cast some time to process what happened.
There’s also a “winter is coming” preview panel on one of the official Tumblr pages.
Maybe I’ll finally have to recalculate the passage of time ratio once the dust settles.
There’s so many things wrong with this plan. Blaine is such a delusional psychopath that he is still wearing a mask even if it is obvious it is him, and he is laughing like a maniac while talking.
Also, why did Amazi-Girl didn’t beat him to a blood pulp after he killed Mike?
Yeah, what Aro said. Seems more like a power fantasy for someone who was always egomaniacal enough and sociopathic enough to be basically this beforehand, but always having to pass for normal. As an abuser, he’s had to pretend to be a good guy to most of the people around him. Now, wearing the outfit, he’s making a choice to stop pretending.
It’s a minor key – no, diminished key – reprise of Ben Folds’s “Learn to Live With What You Are”.
Blaine also put the mask on in the first place in full view of the people he was attacking. It’s not about actually hiding his identity. It’s just … freeing, apparently.
Did you bind the lot of them but leave their phones on them, Blaine?
Please tell me that’s what happened. As everyone has gotten to their feet they’d all have access to one another’s phones and any of them quickly calling 911 would end this. Hell, knowing her, Joyce would do it even at risk to herself.
Oh, wait, fire alarm. Probably none of them has their phone on them. No matter how this goes from here I’m not sure how they get out without some casualties.
My cardiologist insists that I take my phone everywhere, so I tend to be a bit surprised when I am reminded that most people often leave their phones at home, in other rooms, etc.
I also take it with me at all times unless and exclusively prohibited, like in areas with explosive atmosphere or food-safe areas (i used to work in production).
I feel like most college kids, when evacuating for a fire alarm, tend to immediately grab their phones. Amber doesn’t have hers, Dorothy might (running apps are very popular with joggers, and I could see her wanting podcasts or music while she’s running, plus it’s obviously a good safety tool to have when you’re a woman jogging alone before sunrise.)
I’m just imagining this storyline being resolved when it turns out someone has called 911 already and the authorities heard this whole conversation, and also Blaine collapses and dies of internal injuries. I know it’s not going to happen, but it makes me happy to think about it.
If you assume the main goal is “to discredit the b-word who beat the crap out of me,” then the plan gains sanity points, but is still solidly in the “bat-shit crazy” range.
I don’t think it’s about discrediting Amazi-Girl. Becky has a 24/7 bodyguard detail thanks to Robin and they would recognize Ross and Blaine before they got anywhere near Becky. Same with anyone else trying to get close enough to grab her. But Amazi-Girl could possibly get around them and/or lure Becky out of sight of the guards long enough to give them the slip.
And Amber doesn’t have her phone on her some if someone decides to call her, we won’t have a situation where suddenly Amber’s phone rings and the game is up.
wait….you mean to tell me….that dumbass doesn’t know HIS DAUGHTER IS AMAZI-GIRL?! or is he just trying to get Amber to switch to her? He can’t be that dumb….can he?
Pretty sure he doesn’t know. It’s been a running joke through the series that people don’t recognize Amber as Amazi-Girl despite looking just like her.
ISTR it’s been established that Blaine finds it particularly hard to make the connection, because he respects Amazi-Girl, in a twisted, “worthy opponent” sort of way. And obviously, anyone he respects can’t possibly be Amber.
Part of Blaine’s essential worldview and motivation is that Amber is completely weak, useless, and being forced to support her is a waste of his money since she’ll never actually amount to anything. He *can’t* believe that she’s Amazigirl because it would mean that he was wrong about everything this whole time.
One interesting idea I had – tell them Becky is Amazi-girl, and watch them tear each other apart. As sucky a dad as Ross is, I doubt he’d be fine with whatever Blaine had planned for Amazi-girl.
That’s a great plan. Except that the Toe was wrestling Amazigirl out the window of a speeding car while his daughter was in the passenger seat, so I don’t think he’s buying it. The thing I want to know is why Blaine didn’t go after kidnapping Danny when he knows Amazigirl showed up to protect Danny before.
This is gonna be like that time that Bruce Wayne got kidnapped by the Mad Hatter in order to manipulate Batman into springing into action, right? Glad to see that even DoA follows the trope of “Evil equals stupid”.
I just checked, and it looks like Dorothy wasn’t wearing glasses when the alarm was first pulled, which makes me think her vision is probably alright, if she was planning to go for a jog without glasses.
SO with the intent to ransom/use kidnappee as a hostage, that has upgraded this kidnapping to a level 2 felony punishable by a term of imprisonment of between ten and thirty years and a fine not more than $10,000.
Well now, stalking, kidnapping, assault and battery. About the only way that they’ll be found not guilty will be by way of mental disease or defect. With the way everyone’s evil supervillain is acting he might actually be able to put up the defense.
wow this is a legit superhero scenario, villains take hostages including the hero half the hostages know the heroes identity half doesn’t and reveling the heroes identity wont do anyone any good
Plus there is someone is in collateral danger here if the comic industry didn’t implode a couple of days ago (with Dimond closing) id say …somethings…now I say I’m interested to see where this is going.
I love how everyone in the group that knows Amber is AG is looking at her like oh my god guys.
Also are those who know her dad gonna recognize him or is literally everyone unable to tell who someone is because of a half-mask? On that note, who the hell mistakes thin caramel boy with thicc white girl?
Me if I ever see Tony Hawk: Hey you’re Tony Hawk the famous skateboarder. That’s right I recognise you. Won’t be able to get any content out of this will you, you piece of shit
How to read all 28 issues of my Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane run on Marvel Unlimited:
1: The first four issues were published as the miniseries "Mary Jane."
www.marvel.com/comics/serie...
today in #9chickweedlane i learned we have to be shown children learning and relearning what sex is, for Reasons, even though they already clearly know and have prepared nuanced questions about it!
also that Gran must hate, if she's still alive, how Old Juliette is the same but with gray hair
one of my favorite things is when a commenter explodes WHEN DO THESE CHARACTERS GET THERAPY but directed towards a character who canonically has a regular therapist
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btw if you're one of those rando bluesky weirdos who doesn't know me but sees me in the wild being sarcastic and don't know i'm being sarcastic because you haven't taken like 30 seconds to, like, maybe look at my user profile or something, keep walking, you're not going to score internet points here
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 1d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 12d
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well yeah I mean, do crimes and Amazi-Girl’s sure to be along shortly, best way to contact her
You also have to read Amber a bedtime story.
I mean, they do, but NOT THE POINT.
Amaz-Girl’s not available right now, but we do have the number for her backup. Oh, wait, she’s busy too.
Email? It’s Email right?
She’s does game streams on Youtube. Anyone got some money so we can do a Super Chat to get her attention? Ross, hand over your credit card.
Man, Hal Jordan’s seen better days.
I believe he’s going by Parallax at this point.
I think it’s the douche from that other universe, the one with evil superheroes.
Power Ring.
No, seriously. His name is Power Ring.
Power Ring? Isn’t he the one that hangs out with Sea King, The Flying Rat, Token Woman, Bow Boy, The Kryptonian, Speedy and the rest of the Hero’s Club of America bunch?
Speedy is Green Arrow’s sidekick, just FYI if you were not aware.
YIKES ON BIKES, someone’s seen better days
Still better than Mike’s.
Who DID it, though? Was it Mike? Or did AG kick his ass, and Amber simply doesn’t remember it?
I bet Amber WANTS to remember it, now…
Didn’t he used to have a nose?
The Amazi-Signal, of course.
Yeah, about that...
Guess Amber’s alter ego is still foolproof to the worst people
Amber’s gonna confess, won’t she?
What’s to confess. She’s the only one there not on speaking terms with Amazigirl.
Apparently so. I had it in my head that Blaine had figured it out the first time AG cleaned his clock, but I checked the archives and no go. Sorry, Willis.
I honestly thought he had figured it out when he put on his own mask in the last arc. I thought it was Blaine’s version of father daughter bonding. Apparently no, he just realized how ridiculously effective those masks are in this world.
Realising Amber was Amazi-Girl would require him acknowledging that Amber was strong.
This.
It’s the Clark Kent thing: It’s not that Superman puts on glasses and suddenly everyone thinks he’s Clark Kent, it’s that he acts so much differently as Clark, much more timid, normal, weak and, well, mild-mannered.
And there’s Walky. The only one looking at Amber.
Dorothy and Ethan are as well. The ones who aren’t are Sarah and Joyce, neither of whom are aware of the Amber/Amazi-Girl situation in any form.
Ethan and Dorothy are in front of Amber and so whereever they are looking it certainly isn’t at Amber.
They’re looking at least as much in her direction as they can.
Yeah, it’s comicbook conventions applying here. Same reason why Joyce could tell Dorothy was looking at her a couple of days ago.
What do you think Ethan and Dorothy are doing? (Dorothy’s eyes have fucking migrated.)
Dorothy’s probably squinting a lot, unless she’s farsighted.
Ethan’s face is turned a bit to his right (our left) to see around Sara’s head and so his eyes cut back to his left to look at Blaine. Just as Sara is turned to her left and so her eyes cut back to her right. I too originally thought Dorothy was squinting, but on closer examination, Willis is using his eyes-seen-through-hair convention that he frequently uses with Becky to show us Dorothy’s wide eyes up above the shadow lines just under her hair.
Dorothy’s eyes freaked me out for a bit, I had trouble figuring out what I was seeing.
Does this mean Blaine’s now getting tagged in the strip from two days ago?
Yup!
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/03-when-it-crumbles/smol/
Maybe the other goons will also get retroactively tagged as they’re revealed.
But Ash still isn’t being tagged in today’s comic. (Assuming it’s him.)
And it’s not. Ross is clearly tagged and is closer than silhouette guy next to Blaine that I assumed was speaking.
Is Blaine having both sides of that conversation? Because it sure looks like those are two different-styled speech bubbles with different speech patterns coming out of one dude.
Ah, never mind. Ran it by my partner, that’s Ross in the first panel responding to him, and the wiggly speech bubble I think just means his voice is shaking sometimes but not always. Still a yikes.
I think it’s just a representation of how fucked up he got in his fight that his speech is kinda off. He did that kinda cough thing mid-speech bubble in the one squiggly speech bubble he has.
Broken ribs, you think? Punctured lung?
If Blaine had a punctured lung, would he be in any situation to stand right now?
Yeah, you can get around with a punctured lung, depending on the extent to which it collapses (driven by pneumothorax or haematothorax, the occupation of space in your chest cavity by leaked air or blood, respectively). You don’t feel well, but you aren’t prostrated and you generally recover, unless the pneumothorax is large or advancing.
Not every punctured lung causes tension pneumothorax.
He caught himself before falling, he probably has a dislocated shoulder.
I know how to reduce those!
Maybe not broken, but possibly cracked, definitely (hopefully) bruised. Hurts like hell, makes it hard to breathe/move without pain, but you can still be up and around (by comic book logic, at least).
Spare…? That’s probably mike actually.
The “spare” is prolly Walky, based on context. They’re talking about the “kid wearing the bath towel” being taken by mistake.
Using the term ‘the spare’ sends a slight shiver up my spine. Anybody remember what “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” did to ‘the spare’ in ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’?
And when it comes to being evil, Blaine seems like he could give pointers to Voldemort.
Of course. Surely this is homage to that?
That’s my assumption.
It follows pretty logically from the first panel that by “spare” he means “spare person wearing a cape.”
Speaking of which: thank god Robin hired those goons, or they would’ve just kidnapped Becky right off the bat.
You mean the Becky who has large armed men guarding her?
Do you mean the large armed men who are goons hired by Robin?
Not only is that the Becky in queston, that’s actually exactly what Radiance just said.
I think Agemenos means that the hired guards are probably about as smart as Ross, and won’t be very capable.
Maybe, but we were both replying to Ray.
The irony is that Blaine and Robin hired the same goons.
It’s a great time to be in the Hired Goons industry.
“Hired Goons” — A subsidiary of “Legitimate Business Associates”.
Are you sure they aren’t a subsidiary of Acme Products?
Took me a moment to remember Robin is the senator and not the “spare person wearing a cape” in this context
It would be cool if Mike came out of nowhere and sucker punched Blaine, Toedad and the other people who helped with the kidnapping.
Now, that Amber face in panel 3 >.>
I still think “supervillain” Blaine looks kinda like Le Papillon from Miraculous Ladybug. Something about the eyes.
“Zealotoe, my name is Hawkmoth. Your daughter has fallen into such a sinful life, and so I’m giving you the power to save her from herself. All I ask in return is that you bring me Amazi-Girl and Moto Bleu’s Miraculouses…”
I laughed out loud
how is this your plan blaine
are you literally insane
Signs point to Yes.
All of this started just because Blaine wanted to stop paying for Amber’s college expenses. So yeah, he’s insane.
One too many concussion?? Maybe the kind of dissociative episode Amber gets is genetic?
The kind of dissociative episodes Amber gets tend to come from abuse. (They *can* come from genetic factors, just normally don’t.)
That having been said, abusive parents tend to have had abusive parents, so even if they’re not genetic, he could have them also. People with DID tend to not be as abusive as most abuse victims, but DID isn’t the only sort of dissociation one can get from having been abused as a child. Also, Blaine is far more consistently abusive than someone with DID would be.
(I’m only aware of having met one body with DID who was in any way abusive. They only really did it as a self-defense mechanism, and this was one of dozens of personalities, most of which got a lot more face time. Even when she did pop out, it was generally more of a ‘knee to the crotch then run away’ kind of abuse.
Note that I’m calling that abuse because those actions were basically always reactions to something that didn’t yet involve physical contact. “The bongo” (the name they had for that personality) always acted at the earliest signs of a battery being possible, so this was a plausible reaction to offering to hug them good night after a visit, and was the expected reaction if one opened their arms as their way of offering such a hug.
It was my understanding that she would also come out and do stuff to further ward off people who had previously triggered her, so she wasn’t just knees to the crotch. But I didn’t really know; by the time I met them, their friends were warning everybody about how to avoid invoking “The bongo” before any introductions were made to this system. As such, I never got to meet her.
So Blaine still hasn’t figured it out yet? Her mask slipped off twice while fighting him, once when he tricked Danny and again with Mike and he didn’t see either? She used her Amazigirl voice on the phone when Blaine called amber from Danny’s phone! And With how brutal she was that night what other short slightly thick karate trained teenage girl that goes to that school would have such a grudge against him? Her mask doesn’t even cover up that much of her face, it’s one thing for classmates not to recognize her, but she is his daughter, he’s known her her entire life. I thought Blain was supposed to be the smart one of the Deplorable Dad Duo.
Blaine can’t see Amber as anything but a giant disappointment who’s helped to drag him down. There’s no way someone like that could be a skilled, competent opponent like Amazi-girl.
It just occurred to me, since Amber has been dissassociating, and doesn’t remember times Amazigirl as of late, does she not recognize Blaine? because he put the mask on in front of her when she was Amazigirl
Yeah… that’s entirely possible.
(I mean normally one would think she’d probably recognize her dad’s features but this comic plays by Clark Kent rules where having something in front of your eyes is sufficient to completely disguise a person.)
*adjusts glasses and clears throat*
Actually, the effectiveness of the Clark Kent persona relies less on glasses and more on his behavior. Clark Kent is so mild-mannered, clumsy, shy, and apologetic that no one could possibly picture him as Superman. Throw in the fact that Mr. Kent has the constitution of a leper (always getting sick, severe sensitivity to foods, et cetera) as compared to the never-ill Last Son of Krypton, and it’s hard for people in-world to connect the two.
Her reaction shows she does recognize him. He’s not using a special voice, maybe that gives it away.
Ah, yeah, that makes sense too. You’re right, he’s not using The Voice.
I’d rather use Dancing with the Stars.
Competition for the title is not strong.
I thought that Blaine realised who Amazi-girl was a while ago
Hey I know: “Blaine, we ask Mike to find her. Find Mike Warner, find amazi girl. i think Mike is blackmailing over something”
Worst poker faces ever.
“…and if the BATMAN does not surrender and reveal his identity to the public within the next 24 hours, I will execute my hostage, billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne!”
this is where Superman swoops in right
maybe Super Ruth in this case?
Maybe an “I am Spartacus” moment where the entire campus wears boiler suits and domino masks.
Or maybe just Lucy, in another Shortpacked! callback.
Lois Lane aka Mike Warner disguised as Superman because he’s temporarily decided to be a normal guy?
Clark decided to be normal, not Mike (that’s impossible)
Superman wearing Batman’s clothes.
God, Knighttime was a fantastic episode.
That scene where he takes out Bane. Beautiful.
“He’s been working out.”
“Kal-El. This development was highly improbable.”
Well there’s some Dramatic Irony for y’all
I just noticed Amazigirl fucked him out, knocked out a tooth
In the first panel I momentarily mistook Blaine for The Cheese.
In this universe the Cheese is the youth pastor from Joyce’s old church. He’s…not the best person.
Is this cannon? If so where did you see it!
It’s not “cannon”, but it is canon: https://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/youth-pastor-powers/
Youth Pastor Powers from Joyce’s church, aka David Powers, the original identity of the Cheese in the Walkyverse. It’s even referenced in the hovertext of his first tagged strip.
The best part is that his breathing is labored, he’s missing teeth… And Amber looks like she hasn’t even been in a fight recently.
Yeah, he definitely ended up the worse off from that fight.
Huh. Ball-Peen doesn’t look or sound good (even worse than usual, I mean). It would be super rude of him to keel over from internal bleeding before he even had a chance to get re-clobbered.
What about pneumothorax? That be okay?
NO. He requires MORE PUNCHING. From EVERYBODY.
Allow me to recommend the advantages of kicking shit out of him when he’s done.
… when he’s down.
Of course!!
Now some people would say that that you shouldn’t kick a man when he’s down, but OTOH can you think of any better time to do it?
It’s actually a lot harder to kick a man in the face when his face isn’t at foot level.
Hires. Bail for Ross. Avoiding paying Amber’s tuition does not come cheap.
It’s like that sketch about NASA, where they did the math and figured it would be cheaper to actually go to the moon than it would be to fake it on a soundstage and pay off everyone involved.
Just paying the tuition would probably be cheaper, but the money isn’t the point.
“We?” I’m very skeptical that any of the church people signed on for this bullshit if they are involved. Like this is sooo extra.
So what happened? Did Amazi girl just watch Mike die and was like “welp, time to clock out. No sense in turning these guys in or crippling them or calling the cops or anything. I could leave a note to let prime-me know what she’s in for, but I can’t set up these sick plot twists without some contrived mystery.”
That’s what I wanna know too. I’m still betting Mike’s n the hospital because a violent death of a student would make the local news. But if he’s dead it really looks bad for AG’s decision making not many scenarios end with these two escaping looking good for her.
As far as I know, word of god is no one dies in DoA? Though if that’s changed, please let me know ^^
Willis said he broke one of his rules a while back soon before Mike’s fall so most people are assuming he broke the no death rule with no evidence for it specifically being that rule.
It could also be it breaks the no-death rule by having Blaine die. I mean, with how his speech is going, it sounds like he could be dealing with some internal injuries. What if grabbing the rope broke his fall, but he couldn’t hold on to it and still hit the ground? He could have broken ribs, punctured lung, internal bleeding, etc that wouldn’t kill him right away, but would if he doesn’t get treatment which seems to be the case here.
Willis teased us with something along the lines of “this chapter breaks the rules.” I would guess that Mike survives, and the teaser was just to introduce some drama from uncertainty. But it did introduce uncertainty, so that’s why it’s a guess.
Maybe it was some unspoken rule not to go a whole chapter without letting the readers know whether a character is alive or not.
Or two whole chapters? We’ll see.
I also thought Willis said so. A lot of people say he mentioned breaking a rule or the rule only counting for “major” characters because of all the cast grieving, but I can’t find those loopholes.
If it’s the end of the story though, anyone could die because there’s no time for grieving.
We might see a time skip after this arc is over. Probably not months, but I’d guess at least a week or two so to give the cast some time to process what happened.
There’s also a “winter is coming” preview panel on one of the official Tumblr pages.
Maybe I’ll finally have to recalculate the passage of time ratio once the dust settles.
My guess is that Amazi-Girl broke off the fight to spirit Mike away to a hospital, which is the only reason Daddy Dearest is still breathing
Yeah, that sounds plausible.
That’s a shame, I still have two half gallon bottles of hand lotion for you, Agemenos… ya’ know, for the Mike thing.
Thanks. People have been panic-buying, and the shelves are empty.
Mike could have survived and escaped on his own. (And has been in hiding for the past day out of self-preservation).
If Mike is already dead and these two fucks got away, there isn’t much she can do. Getting arrested mean she can’t stop them.
I dunno why she wouldn’t leave a note though unless she literally got home and just collapsed into bed.
There’s so many things wrong with this plan. Blaine is such a delusional psychopath that he is still wearing a mask even if it is obvious it is him, and he is laughing like a maniac while talking.
Also, why did Amazi-Girl didn’t beat him to a blood pulp after he killed Mike?
Has Bad-Dad had a psychotic break?
I wouldn’t be keen on the “like father, like daughter” implications if Blaine were dissociating, but his behaviour is very strange.
I’m guessing he was always this bonkers on the inside, the mask just lets him stop suppressing it.
Yeah, what Aro said. Seems more like a power fantasy for someone who was always egomaniacal enough and sociopathic enough to be basically this beforehand, but always having to pass for normal. As an abuser, he’s had to pretend to be a good guy to most of the people around him. Now, wearing the outfit, he’s making a choice to stop pretending.
It’s a minor key – no, diminished key – reprise of Ben Folds’s “Learn to Live With What You Are”.
Amazi-Girl might have been too busy getting Mike safely away to give killing Bad-Dad the attention it deserved.
Pity about the well and the lotion, though.
Blaine also put the mask on in the first place in full view of the people he was attacking. It’s not about actually hiding his identity. It’s just … freeing, apparently.
Yeah… he is not well.
Did you bind the lot of them but leave their phones on them, Blaine?
Please tell me that’s what happened. As everyone has gotten to their feet they’d all have access to one another’s phones and any of them quickly calling 911 would end this. Hell, knowing her, Joyce would do it even at risk to herself.
Oh, wait, fire alarm. Probably none of them has their phone on them. No matter how this goes from here I’m not sure how they get out without some casualties.
Dorothy probably does at least. She was up and leaving anyway
Well, that’s assuming she takes her phone with her when she goes for a jog.
My cardiologist insists that I take my phone everywhere, so I tend to be a bit surprised when I am reminded that most people often leave their phones at home, in other rooms, etc.
I also take it with me at all times unless and exclusively prohibited, like in areas with explosive atmosphere or food-safe areas (i used to work in production).
She does, uses it for music.
Amber *had* her phone… Don’t know if she still does…
No she didn’t, she left it in her room during the fire alarm. She didn’t notice until she was outside.
I feel like most college kids, when evacuating for a fire alarm, tend to immediately grab their phones. Amber doesn’t have hers, Dorothy might (running apps are very popular with joggers, and I could see her wanting podcasts or music while she’s running, plus it’s obviously a good safety tool to have when you’re a woman jogging alone before sunrise.)
I’m just imagining this storyline being resolved when it turns out someone has called 911 already and the authorities heard this whole conversation, and also Blaine collapses and dies of internal injuries. I know it’s not going to happen, but it makes me happy to think about it.
I’m afraid that kidnappings are a recurring theme but that Becky’s call to 911 during her first is not going to be.
Amazi-Girl and Amber still aren’t sharing information are they? It’s possible Amber doesn’t know how Blaine got trashed or what happened to Mike.
The way masks and costumes work in this comic (and many comics, don’t get me wrong), Amber may not realize that’s Blaine.
Wait…. Blaine still doesn’t know who Amazi-girl is?
I was not aware of that.
and to think that I doubted Ross for going along with Blaine’s plan.
This is a great plan and not in any way, shape or form a stupid plan.
If you assume the main goal is “to discredit the b-word who beat the crap out of me,” then the plan gains sanity points, but is still solidly in the “bat-shit crazy” range.
I don’t think it’s about discrediting Amazi-Girl. Becky has a 24/7 bodyguard detail thanks to Robin and they would recognize Ross and Blaine before they got anywhere near Becky. Same with anyone else trying to get close enough to grab her. But Amazi-Girl could possibly get around them and/or lure Becky out of sight of the guards long enough to give them the slip.
And Amber doesn’t have her phone on her some if someone decides to call her, we won’t have a situation where suddenly Amber’s phone rings and the game is up.
Hello, Super-Douche.
I’m gonna throw up.
Ah, I think this is where I stop reading until the storyline is over. Maybe I will set a calendar reminder.
Less talking, more punching evil dads in the face!
I love how Dorothy tries to inject some normality in the insanity and ask for their motive, thus setting up a negotiation situation.
Sadly their motive is stupid and DadMan(tm) is an idiot, but points for trying
Oh dear. Looks like Blaine may have gone all mentally-unstable supervillain on us.
…man, Blaine is legit gone. There is only Ball-Peen now.
Oh damn it’s hereditary.
…hang on. “You want Amazi-Girl? I’ll tell you. But first, do me a favor: take the mask off that idiot and put it on me.”
I do not like the implications of Amber’s DID being hereditary.
Neither do I.
Sorry. Can I change that to “propensity to go comic book character” and leave the DID out of it?
No need to apologise — it’s not your fault. I just hope that the story doesn’t end up going that way.
There’s an old joke:
Insanity IS hereditary. You get it from your kids.
WHY would he say “we want amzi-girl to grab amber” when amber is right there they already snatched her i’m confused
Ross’s daughter is Becky.
oh i misread all of that
Blaine’s definitely looking more deranged than he used to. Looks like he’s going full supervillain.
wait….you mean to tell me….that dumbass doesn’t know HIS DAUGHTER IS AMAZI-GIRL?! or is he just trying to get Amber to switch to her? He can’t be that dumb….can he?
Pretty sure he doesn’t know. It’s been a running joke through the series that people don’t recognize Amber as Amazi-Girl despite looking just like her.
ISTR it’s been established that Blaine finds it particularly hard to make the connection, because he respects Amazi-Girl, in a twisted, “worthy opponent” sort of way. And obviously, anyone he respects can’t possibly be Amber.
Narrator: He is that dumb.
Part of Blaine’s essential worldview and motivation is that Amber is completely weak, useless, and being forced to support her is a waste of his money since she’ll never actually amount to anything. He *can’t* believe that she’s Amazigirl because it would mean that he was wrong about everything this whole time.
Check the title.
Have you been reading the strip? Because it’s a fully entrenched part of the strip’s canon.
I just find it amusing everytime someone’s amazed that some character doesn’t just know Amber’s Amazi-Girl.
So, can we say that Blaine has gone around the bend?
Around the bend?? This may be his third time around the block.
This story is gonna have so many Cinema Sins by the end of it
One interesting idea I had – tell them Becky is Amazi-girl, and watch them tear each other apart. As sucky a dad as Ross is, I doubt he’d be fine with whatever Blaine had planned for Amazi-girl.
That’s a great plan. Except that the Toe was wrestling Amazigirl out the window of a speeding car while his daughter was in the passenger seat, so I don’t think he’s buying it. The thing I want to know is why Blaine didn’t go after kidnapping Danny when he knows Amazigirl showed up to protect Danny before.
Dang, forgot about that. Guess the next strip makes the plan moot anyway.
Blaine isn’t looking too hot. Find myself hoping he’s Willis’ ‘rule break’.
Well he’s alive, but it looks like he lost a tooth although I think Amazigirl did that.
Panel 4 looks very Gorillaz for some reason.
Seriously, wtf is wrong with the O’Malleys? Better not to know about Amber’s grandad.
Blaine, consider her… contacted.
I think the Rollerderby crew are going to have to bail amber out of this jam.
Carla will be sooo smug but have cool toys.
dANNY CAN RIDE shotgun
This is gonna be like that time that Bruce Wayne got kidnapped by the Mad Hatter in order to manipulate Batman into springing into action, right? Glad to see that even DoA follows the trope of “Evil equals stupid”.
Yeah, evil geniuses don’t become supervillains, they become corporate CEOs.
WE want? Even Blaine has a second personality now? This is going worse and worse! Please Mr. Wiillis, continue. I really enjoy this♡.
“Me and the asshole behind this mask” want. We still talk to each other, you know?
Could be “we” = “Ross and I”.
They could sure use a deus ex Mike-ina right about now.
Also I hope Dorothy’s vision isn’t as bad as mine otherwise it’s the worst time for her to not have glasses.
I just checked, and it looks like Dorothy wasn’t wearing glasses when the alarm was first pulled, which makes me think her vision is probably alright, if she was planning to go for a jog without glasses.
Ohhh, okay then. That’s a relief.
In one of the early Patreon strips Dorothy was wearing glasses while jogging.
SO with the intent to ransom/use kidnappee as a hostage, that has upgraded this kidnapping to a level 2 felony punishable by a term of imprisonment of between ten and thirty years and a fine not more than $10,000.
I repeat, there are six counts of this crime.
wow she did a number of Blaine
(also Dorothy’s eyes creeps me out in the last panel)
Well now, stalking, kidnapping, assault and battery. About the only way that they’ll be found not guilty will be by way of mental disease or defect. With the way everyone’s evil supervillain is acting he might actually be able to put up the defense.
I hope Toedad realizes Blaine will kill everyone who witnessed his crime.
No…seriously…WTF HAPPENED TO MIKE?
He didn’t feel so good.
wow this is a legit superhero scenario, villains take hostages including the hero half the hostages know the heroes identity half doesn’t and reveling the heroes identity wont do anyone any good
Plus there is someone is in collateral danger here if the comic industry didn’t implode a couple of days ago (with Dimond closing) id say …somethings…now I say I’m interested to see where this is going.
I love how everyone in the group that knows Amber is AG is looking at her like oh my god guys.
Also are those who know her dad gonna recognize him or is literally everyone unable to tell who someone is because of a half-mask? On that note, who the hell mistakes thin caramel boy with thicc white girl?
Void spiders. All humans look alike to them.