232

Gotcha
Posted on August 7, 2018 by David M Willis
The second bonus strip for July is now up at the Dumbing of Age Patreon for all Patrons to go check out! It's about Dina and dinosaurs and shopping. Sign up for just a dollar and get over 50 previous bonus strips to read from!

232 thoughts on “Gotcha”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    “yeah, I left a dump in your bed but somehow I don’t think that’s what you’re talking about”

    1. Ana Chronistic

      “NOT IF I KILL THEM FIRST”

      wait no

      1. Clif

        Logical though.

      2. Yet_One_More_Idiot

        And this is why in the present-day, Mike cares about no-one at all. So that Blaine can never threaten the ones he cares about.

        It suddenly all makes so much SENSE! xD

    2. Pizzafairy

      “I have so much in common with your wife. We both seem attached to turds.”

      1. Annonymouse

        Dingleberry or Daggs ?

  2. DailyBrad

    What happened to Mike, indeed.

  3. BBCC

    I hate Blaine. So so so much.

  4. butts

    oh boy blaine you always succeed at being the worst don’t you

  5. ShinyNeen

    Oh geez I do not like Mike hearing what Blaine has to say. Especially those last two panels! I can believe that part of how we have the Mike we have in the present is from a “never show vulnerability” mentality, and… ugh.

  6. PigeonPollyx

    Hoo boy

  7. tyranidswarm

    “HA! jokes on you I’m an asshole to everyone!’

    1. tyranidswarm

      Wait this is past Mike

      1. timemonkey

        “HA! jokes on you I’m gonna be an asshole to everyone!”

  8. Nono

    Anyone else fearing for Ethan’s safety?

  9. Inahc

    ohhhh. >.<

  10. woobie

    Surprise!
    I did not expect this.

  11. shadowcell

    “yes, i too, once upon a time, ambushed and beat up children half my size!”

  12. William Leonard Reese Jr.

    Guessing that Mike left the receipts out where Amber’s mom can find them? Oh dear. . . Wait this is on school grounds right? There are cameras. How is he not arrested or getting the shit kicked out of him by the security guards?

    1. Xujhan

      It makes me so sad that security guards at a public school are considered normal in some places.

      1. Needfuldoer

        It wasn’t when I was a kid. Of course that was 20+ years ago, pre-Columbine.

        1. Br44n5m

          There was one at the local Highschool in my area maybe ten years ago or so, if the other schools had a problem student, usually me, they’d call him in. He had either a razor or gun, not sure which, holstered at all times.

        2. Tualha

          I hope you mean a taser?

        3. Rhee

          Nothing like a close shave to keep the peace.

        4. Br44n5m

          If you run in the halls I’ll shave your legs?

        5. Mollyscribbles

          I went to school immediately post-Columbine. The security guards were more suspicious of students than adults.

        6. Leorale

          Pre- and post-Columbine, poor rural NY highschool, had a cop or two in the halls. I knew that anyone could get a gun if they wanted (it was a small town that liked hunting). We all knew it could happen here.

          In elementary school at that time, the biggest threat was an abusive parent breaking custody rules and kidnapping their kid. The teachers signed the kids out, and on occasion, secretly circulated a picture of the parent who was Not Allowed to pick up his or her kid.

          Nowadays I teach 3rd Grade private afterschool in NYC, and all the little kids are very familiar with lockdowns.

        7. autogatos

          This is so depressing to me. I think we had a security guard at my high school, but his job was mainly keeping an eye on the parking lot and I think he was only hired after a break-in (someone broke into the school at night and stole a bunch of computer equipment). This was back in the late 90s/early 00s though.

          I have a 3 year old daughter now, who will be starting kindergarten in 2 years, and the thought that she will likely end up having “lockdown” or “active shooter” drills just breaks my heart and stresses me out so much.

          All we had when I was a kid were earthquake and fire drills…

        8. buckybone

          Had a cop splitting time between the middle and high schools in my hometown when I was there (2001-08)…small town in northern WI, half of the guys (and some of the girls) had guns in their cars during the deer and duck seasons, wasn’t really a big deal.

          Also, yep, 2001 was around the time we started running lockdown drills, except we called it “Code Blue”.

      2. CJ

        That.
        Over here in Germany, if a school hires security, it still makes the news. And we learn a lot about schools with predominantly Arab background children with each.
        But then, we had only three school schootings in the last 15 years or so and none before that, though there were two cases of the police closing a school because someone threatened a shooting this year alone in my region. I don’t know if that was people playing with the power of threats or actually wanting to go on a schooting spree. (My autocorrect always makes schooling of it).
        In a way, it’s quite laughable that the right wingers over here get so many votes by people who feel their security threatened.

      3. Mr. Bulmbin

        It’s even worse when that security is completely useless. Take it from a guy who was shoved down a flight of stairs in elementary school.

      4. EJ

        I was a freshman when Columbine happened but we never got security guards. We did have security drills.

        We had fights, maybe once a week, and it always made me sad that it was the teachers job to break them up. We also had plenty of drug dealers but I dont know if any teachers or administrators did anything about them. Nat that the drugs were really impacting life, it just felt ridiculous that so many of us ignored the obvious smell.

        I went to a “good” scool: high test scores, high graduation and college acceptance rate, lots of honors and AP classes, involved parents, successful sports and other extra curricular activities. So I always assumed our problems were pretty standard for a large high school and it seemed absurd that the only enforcer of the rules were teachers.

      5. Just for kix

        Wow, you guys are so pampered – not having to worry about getting kidnapped or bullied or molested or raped. Clearly, all your countries have only good people.

        1. badumtiss

          I don’t know why you reacted so defensively. Do you NOT think it’s sad that some places have this happen AT SCHOOL so often that it makes security guards necessary?

          Would you not like to live in a world where they weren’t?

        2. thejeff

          It’s actually not entirely clear to me that they happen frequently enough to make school guards necessary. Nor clear how much use they are, really.

          Partly it’s just that we are more aware of them now and partly that by selectively reporting on them, we think they’re more common than they are. We’re not properly wired to handle things that happen rarely in a population of hundreds of millions – if we hear about them semi-regularly, we react as if they’re likely to happen to us or someone we know. That’s how it was for most of history – if you heard of multiple attacks at schools, it was because they were happening multiple times in your neighborhood.

          Bullying and other internal abuse has always been common of course, but security guards aren’t a good solution to that. Security also tends to raise the stakes of any kind of punishment, especially when they’re actual cops. School discipline then tends to slide over into legal consequences. And as usual in this country, black kids wind up bearing the brunt of that.
          As they do of regular school discipline of course, but that’s still a lower level.

      6. Zee

        Wait did you not have security guards at your school??? Maybe this is became I grew up in a Jamaican private school (ie rich kids to protect from a very violent county) but not having security guards at a school just sounds unafe. What if some creep comes in pretending to be a parent, or someone come in to steal something (actual thing that happened at NY school)

        1. Jason

          Zee- in my school the doors weren’t open during school hours. The receptionist had to buzz people in, and anyone leaving had to sign out. Seems like a perfectly adequate security system to me, at least for the country I live in.
          And most things like kidnap, sexual abuse etc isn’t done by strangers. It’s far more commonly done by someone the victim knows. And a school would surely be an inconvenient place to try those things?

        2. Victor

          In my schools, all the doors were unlocked around 7am, and were all unlocked until at least 5pm, later if somebody was using the building, anybody could pay the janitor to stay late and use the building for meetings or whatever after school. It was a perfectly adequate security system, because it worked. Nobody got kidnapped.
          There were a few security guards in college, but that’s mostly because it was a big university and most of the buildings were open 24/7, in case somebody was working late or needed a quiet classroom to study.

        3. Victor

          Nope, none at my school. Small town, public school, nobody would have even thought of it back then. Nobody came in and stole anything, nobody pretended to be a parent, and all the bomb threats were kids wanting to get out of a test. (We had 3 or 4 bomb threats every year, they were treated like a fire drill, we’d go stand outside until whatever time the bomb was supposed to go off, then go back in. After all, if somebody really wanted to blow up the school they’d do it at night, like that one time they blew it up back in the ’50s.)

        4. Jon Rich

          “Like that one time they blew it up back in the ’50s.”

          Wait, what the hell? Don’t cut us off there, what happened?

          Also, am I the only one stunned at the regularity of bomb threats here? I never even had *one* in all my years of public school.

        5. Inahc

          at my canadian schools, not only was everything unlocked, most of the grounds were un-fenced – the trees and grass led to sidewalk, and then residential streets. (or ravines. 🙂 )

          and if kids wanted to get out of an exam, they pulled the fire alarm. I don’t remember bomb threats being a thing at all.

          in england there was a fence around the school, but I don’t remember there being any guards.

        6. Alanari

          Interesting. I’m scared by security guards in schools. If there are guards, there’s a thread that creates the need for guards. I grew up with safe schools.
          You never leave your wallet in the classroom and if someone wants to steal a bunch of books, well, they’re school property anyway. And you wouldn’t need to pretend to be a parent, schools usually are free to enter. During break, a teacher supervises the yard, if someone looks suspicious, he or she will take care of that. No need for a guard.

        7. thejeff

          Never had guards when I was a kid. Some 30ish years ago admittedly.
          Semi-rural US school – not private rich kids or urban poor.

          We had the usual problems, but nothing a security guard would help with. Bullying kids, probably teachers molesting (there were rumors at least), petty theft – mostly between kids, not outsiders breaking in, some drug use and sales, again between kids. No kidnappings, no mass shootings.

          During college I came back a couple times to visit teachers and friends from lower grades. Just wandered in and hung out.

          I think in the US, security guards started in public schools in urban schools worried about gang violence and heavy drugs. Partly of course because those urban schools were minority and thus obviously needed more cops to control them. Private schools likely had them already, to keep the riff-raff out.

        8. BBCC

          Never had guards until high school and even then I don’t think she actually did anything. She hung around the entrance by the lunchroom. That was it. I think occasionally she broke up a fight, but most of the time I believe it was teachers who did that.

      7. Chronos

        They had security officers in my high school, too. I didn’t like them being around; I felt trusted little more than a prisoner.

      8. Ed Rhodes

        I am old (no, probably older than that) When I started school in the second grade (November baby meant I was too old for kindergarten, and after two days in the first grade, they decided my reading scores indicated I should be skipped ahead -NEVER LET ANYONE DO THIS TO YOUR KID! I STILL have anxieties that I can trace back to that decision!) Where was I? Oh, second grade, I was there just for the end of the “Duck And Cover” period, where we would pretend an atomic bomb had just gone off and we would get under our desks and put our heads between our knees.

        1. biggo

          Duck and cover: almost as useful as security guards XD

    2. carms

      you have security guards?

      1. abysswatcher1993

        Schools are requiring them to deal with parents that kidnap their own children after a horrific divorce, or maybe the occasional psychopath that wants to shoot kids and be protected by trumpian ideologies. Even college campus need a lot of guards here in mexico because of drug dealers fighting the police.

    3. Tgape

      If Mike could find the evidence in a few bored minutes at Amber’s, Amber or her mom could also find them. Just saying.

  13. Reltzik

    …….

    So there’s been a running gag over in IW! Reloaded involving Mike kicking someone in the crotch over and over again, and I’m wondering if Willis is clever enough to have synced up the two storylines…

    1. ShinyNeen

      Well, if we don’t see how this scene resolves I’m definitely going to be headcanoning that!

    2. Bathymetheus

      This is supposed to be more realistic. It would be extremely dangerous for Mike to do that to Blaine unless there are other adults present. Which obviously there aren’t, or Blaine wouldn’t be doing this.

      1. Bathymetheus

        That said, Mike is remarkably self-possessed in panel 3. At that age, I would have been terrified in such a situation.

        1. Pat

          Keeping calm in a crisis doesn’t mean you’re not terrified.

        2. Felgraf

          Some people’s stress/crises/adrenaline reactions are very sort of-
          “.. I can tell that I am terrified, but those emotions also seem to be very far away and belong to someone else.”
          (It’s like my brain bifrucates, or sequesters them, or something. I tend to have my “OH GOD” flipout AFTERWARDS.)

        3. Tgape

          And then there are people with flattened affect.

          Oh, I’m in this situation. What’s the emotional response I need to give for that again so people don’t think I’m a robot?

          It’s kind of the same as what you’re talking about, but for kind of everything. It makes it difficult to connect with people, but at least you can look bad-ass in a crisis. Without meaning to.

  14. Stephen Bierce

    “You can’t kill me because of that moral thing of yours, and I can’t kill you because you’re too much fun!”
    Meanwhile, McDonald’s has announced they really are selling 48-piece Chicken Nugget buckets.

    1. laladoria

      Wait, wait. Let’s focus on the important part of this comment.

      When do these buckets go on sale?

      1. Stephen Bierce

        Stock up on sauce packets.

        1. a4lbi

          “The promotion has come about in collaboration with the J-pop group NGT48 but will unfortunately only be available in the city of Niigata.”

          *books a flight*

    2. Sunny

      But Walky had fity McNuggest earlier, FIFTY! Where did the two extra nuggets come from!?

      1. merbrat

        *shrugs* Hawaii and Alaska?

        1. Perry

          *slow clap*

      2. Mollyscribbles

        I figured he bought 5 10-packs.

        1. Benjamin Geiger

          Why would he do that when three twenties would be cheaper and give him ten more nuggets?

        2. Mollyscribbles

          Uh . . . the store’s supply was running low and they only had 50 ready to fry; if he wanted to get 60 he’d need to wait like 15 minutes longer and they were willing to give him a discount for the inconvenience.

  15. laladoria

    First off, let me say… what the fuck?!

    And now.
    Is he actually like. Publicly assaulting a child?

    I’m assuming Mike left some incriminating evidence out at Amber’s house to maybe let Stacy and Amber see that Blaine is a piece of garbage. Maybe cops came to his house after the stabbing incident, and they also saw the evidence? I doubt Blaine would be out and about if that were the case (although, bail does exist). Blaine probably NEEDED Stacy and Amber as a sort of…alibi? Cover story? For some of his mafia activities.

    But holy shit. Why am I surprised that he’s assaulting Mike, assumingly on the street? I shouldn’t be surprised. I know he’s a piece of shit. But somehow…. I’m surprised that he keeps doing things to throw himself farther ahead in the Worst Dad Contest.

    1. MatthewTheLucky

      He already attacked someone in canon. I mean, the focus of the scene was on Amber and her trauma, but he was on the midst of a violent crime against a bystander during that beatdown.

      1. alice

        whoa what? i don’t remember that, what happened?

      2. Needfuldoer

        Not during the robbery, he was filling the car with gas while that happened.

        1. King Daniel

          @Needfuldoer, alice:

          It wasn’t during the robbery, it was during the confrontation between Blaine and Amazi-Girl – Blaine grabbed and gagged Danny and tried to pull him away and back into the car, which is what triggered Amazi-Girl’s no-holds-barred beatdown on Blaine.

        2. Needfuldoer

          Oh yeah, that’s right! That time he held Danny captive under false pretenses and got his ass handed to him.

        3. alice

          oh right. thank you!

      3. Batman

        He attacked someone with a canon?

        1. King Daniel

          Unless you’re accusing Blaine of grabbing a priest and using him as a weapon, you’re thinking of cannons.

        2. 3-I

          What’s better, a normal bludgeoning tool, or one with papal infallibility?

        3. HMRC4EVR

          I’d rather have Megatron shoot him with his fusion cannon.

        4. Benjamin Geiger

          Maybe we can shoot him with Pachelbel’s Cannon. (In the D.)

        5. adjudicus

          This seems like a relevant place to put this.

          https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Cannon_(disambiguation)

          (read down to the bottom)

        6. thejeff

          That’s my new head cannon.

    2. HMH

      I actually doubt Mike actually did that. The way he’s being portrayed in these flashbacks, he wouldn’t willingly give up future leverage on someone he could end up needing to manipulate again. I just assume whatever was found on Blaine here is actually unrelated to Mike, but Blaine is just experiencing a combination of recency bias, narcissistic rejection that he could have made a mistake, and a general desire to strike back at the dude who just wounded his pride a single time, for which any excuse will do.

      Also…wait, when was it established that Blaine is in the freaking mob?

      1. Psi Baka Onna

        Joe’s dad told him Blaine was a mob stooge, so yeah… that’s a thing…

        1. BigDogLittleCat

          Wha–? When was that?!

      2. thejeff

        Though my current theory is that he’s not actuallyin the mob, he’s just a stooge – letting them launder money through his construction company or some such.

    3. thejeff

      I suspect it wasn’t Stacy or the cops that found something, but his mob associates.
      Because of course Blaine is skimming from the take.

    4. Krys Brynhildr

      I’m more weirded out by the distinct possibility that somehow despite all the windows no one is around to see this at all.

      At least when I was in Junior High it was pretty rare for all the adults to already be gone before kids were generally picked up or had gotten on the bus/walked home.

      But at the same time if he was about to get sent to jail for assaulting a child in public…I’m not sure that’d fit with the timeline this series of flashbacks lead to either. So yeah, less weirded out by Blaine doing this and more by Blaine not being stopped from doing so?

  16. Doctor_Who

    Mike, with him lifting you up, and your relative heights, you are in optimal crotch-kicking position. Please take note.

  17. Passchendaele

    wow Amber knifed the wrong person

    1. Stephen Bierce

      If you can’t knife the one you Loathe, Knife The One You’re With!

      1. Marsh Maryrose

        You can’t do it right with the one you loathe.

    2. 3oranges

      If it helps, she puts him in the hospital later.
      (And even if doesn’t help.)

      1. Deanatay

        It’s not her fault he didn’t die! Danny stopped her!

        Oof, that’s dark to joke about. Maybe not.

    3. alice

      there can be more than one right person to knife!

      1. alice

        …oh, just realized what you meant. i thought you meant ryan. yeah, sal wasn’t the right person to knife.

    4. Jason

      I stand by my theory that Amber’s violence towards Sal and later Ryan was because she had so much repressed rage and homocidal feelings towards Blaine that she had no escape for. So eventually it EXPLODED out, but still not towards the person she WANTS to be able to stab, to get vengeance on, to punish.

      1. Nikolai Geier

        Especially if she finds out about this, and blames herself for letting Blaine hurt one of her only friends.

  18. Kyrik Michalowski

    Well Mike, you knew this was a possibility, and you knew that you’d have to ctually deal with him at some point. And still, it’s scary how accurate that statement is, and yet even at his worst Mike is not Blaine. At least not yet?

    1. HMH

      I actually don’t know that Mike knew this was a possibility, or that he’d have to deal with it at some point. I have sincere doubts anybody he’s provoked this way – at this young point in his life, remember – wields the kind of vindictive rage that would make a full-grown adult see a barely-teen as a viable target for complete and utter destruction. I figure when he does his schtick, he usually just wins. This might literally be his first experience with his manipulation playing out in a way that’s actually seriously detrimental to him or his goals.

      1. thejeff

        Though the other time we saw him try his schtick in flashback, he got slapped and thrown out the door by Amber’s teacher.

        1. HMH

          Which, like, sucks, but I guess my point is that there’s no long-term or greater consequence to that. Mike went to bat and that was practically the worst thing that could happen. That’s his barometer for “negative consequences.” I doubt it really had any effect on him; it’s not like he had a positive opinion of that woman, but I would presume he doesn’t care about getting hit by a grumpy old bag. This is a big fucking escalation in what is possible to go wrong in terms of his past experience.

      2. Kyrik Michalowski

        Based on Mike’s attitude, I feel like he’s had similar experiences. Perhaps not with an adult at this point, and/or with this level of violence but Mike didn’t seem shook by getting slapped by the teacher, only being abandoned by Amber. He’s also not showing any shock here, though that could be just a really good poker face. Granted this is all theory but Mike seems like he at least had an idea of what Blaine was capable of, not just to him but to Amber and her mother, and maybe that is why he stepped in. My big question now is, what are they both going to do?

        I’d love Mike to stab Blaine in the neck but since this is a flashback and I know he’s alive I guess that won’t happen, will it? Also not really Mike’s style I guess.

    2. DailyBrad

      Mike would have a ways to go to get down to the Blaine, Ross, and Ryan level of awful. He hasn’t even fallen to the Mary and Ethan’s mom level yet.

  19. Defensor

    Willis, have you ever known anybody like Blaine?

    1. Rosicrucian

      Apparently the “bunches of illegitimate children and trouble with the Korean mafia” part was… real?

  20. Kernanator

    I mean, it could just be that you aren’t as clever in covering your tracks as you think you are. Don’t attribute to the malice of others what can be easily explained by your own stupidity.

  21. Danielle

    big time false equivalency

  22. Goki

    Man, just when you think Toe Dad is the worst, Blane puts down his beer and starts doing stuff. Depending on what happens next, it could be anyone’s game…

    1. HMH

      Toe Dad is a brainwashed idiot whose life experience and trajectory convinced himself to believe in garbage which let him justify acting like a monster, because he convinced himself he was doing good. Blaine doesn’t believe in anything other than his own goals and his own happiness, and doesn’t care whether any of his actions are justifiable beyond serving that core drive.

      They’re both disgusting. But they are very different kinds of disgusting, and which is worse depends on personal opinion.

      1. thejeff

        Clint needs to step up his game or people are going to forget about him.

        1. Chronos

          …who?

          I’m not being funny; I genuinely don’t know who you’re talking about.

        2. thejeff

          “Sir”

          Ruth’s grandfather.

        3. Chronos

          …Oh!

          So that’s his name. I don’t know I ever connected it to him before…

        4. Benjamin Geiger

          Oh, the “Clint” that should be spelled all-caps with the L and I kerned together. That Clint.

        5. Khyrin

          Clint is ruth’s grandfather. Mister “falling in love with a drunk driver means you didn’t really love your parents.”

  23. C.T Phipps

    I’m assuming Blaine is actually wrong here and attempting to blame Mike for the fact running a second life is actually difficult.

    1. BenRG

      I’m thinking that Blaine has the sort of personality where he needs to blame other people for his every mistake.

      1. HMH

        Ding ding ding.

        You could even say that’s the core difference between Blaine and Amber: Blaine externalizes every outcome he doesn’t want as being because of someone else. Amber internalizes every consequence she sees around her as evidence that she didn’t do the right thing, or do it well enough. It’s probable that the former is a core cause of the latter.

  24. newllend(henryvolt)

    I wouldn’t say your exactly the same considering unlike you he’s smart enough to know not to go for intimidation tactics right in front of the school.

    1. HMH

      Blaine fundamentally sees himself as bulletproof. He literally can’t adequately conceptualize the potential consequences of his actions. He’s so flagrantly narcissistic, he just assumes he is always capable of overcoming them without ever thinking about it.

      1. DailyBrad

        Given him doing stuff like assaulting Ruth in front of a bunch of people that one time she had to flip him, loudly declaring he physically abused Amber’s mom right in front of Dina and her parents like it was no big deal, and other shit he’s pulled, yeah, he has zero concern for appearances.

        1. HMH

          Oh, I wouldn’t put it that way. He does everything he can to cultivate the appearance of “I will do bad things to you and I will definitely get away with it, and there’s nothing you can do to change that” any time the chips are down and he’s out of other options. How he appears is very important to him. What he has zero concern for are the potential consequences of his actions…because his internal compass for morality is permanently set to “I will do bad things to people and I will get away with it, and nobody can do anything to change that.”

  25. QueerCat

    Hopeful Theory: Mike has an endgame revenge plan on Blaine that is just taking years and years to make happen. Can’t kill an adult easily as a child…waiting a few years tho? Shouldn’t be too hard

    Not so happy theory that probably is actually the case: Mike gave up on caring about anyone after this and then spent too much time online where he grew edgier and edgier til he became a massive dickwad himself

    1. Mollyscribbles

      Oh yeah. It takes a lot of advance planning to make a plan involving a steamroller, an open elevator shaft, and elephant tranquilizers look like an accident. Get him on one of those “Most undignified death” lists without taking the easy way out with staging it to look like autoerotic asphyxiation.

      Oh, and he has to remain in position to give Amber and/or her mother advice on choosing the headstone.

    2. Blackbird

      Mike’s plan already came to fruition. He fucked Faz’s mom for a nickle. Now he’s just playing the waiting game.

      1. abysswatcher1993

        That is the best plan I have heard since Lex Luthor’s 1490 failed plan to kill Superman.

        1. Mr D

          FORTY WHOLE CAKES!

    3. Foxhack

      Willis already said there’d be no deaths.

      1. Agemegos

        There has already been one: Becky’s mother.

        1. adjudicus

          But that was in flashback, in the past. Willis has said that no-one would die because the mourning period would take over the comic. Becky’s mom died years before the main characters went to college.

        2. thejeff

          Or in Blaine’s case, the celebrations, not the mourning.

        3. Jon Rich

          ^This.

      2. Mollyscribbles

        Okay, fine, Mike’s got an elaborate plan to humiliatingly *injure* Blaine in a way that is technically survivable but eternally devastating.

    4. HMH

      More reasonable supplementary theory that gels perfectly with this exact comic: Mike literally started acting in a way that alienates absolutely fucking everyone around him so that people like Blaine wouldn’t have victims to use against him.

      Also, heavy doubt on Mike having any plans to KILL Blaine. In line with this current theory, he’s heavily in favor of justice. If he has some kind of long-term plan, it’s to trap Blaine in something so stupid that it either forces him out of the lives of his victims, or lands him in prison.

  26. cbwroses

    If a Red panel occurs in the middle of a blue flashback scene, does it become purple?

    1. Mollyscribbles

      No, but you might want to put on your 3D glasses.

  27. Axel

    So maybe he’s a ‘smart’ abuser now because he was stupid enough to assault a child in public ~5 years ago.

  28. Mollyscribbles

    Hey, I said Blaine would strike back at Mike; the shit Amber went through wasn’t the only consequence. Blaine is not the type to accept that someone has something on him and not respond in a stupid way.

  29. Chaucer59

    Damn, Willis you’ve done an outstanding job of making Blaine the complete villain. He’s vile. In fact, it’s hard to believe he could have any redeeming attributes. That said, you’ve got me wondering: how has no one killed this guy?

    1. Fart Captor

      Because he makes sure to only do this stuff when there’s nobody around who can stop him

    2. Sam

      Because abusers very often hide it better from outsiders. Remember back when he managed to convince Danny he was a caring father briefly? And how he was able to turn off the worst when Billie actually caught him that one time? Yeah.

      To an outsider, he might just look like someone with an anger problem who needs to get some help and if someone offered that advice, he might even take it with a smile. He’s not the smartest villain, but he really doesn’t have to be because in real life people are not that observant and he can condition people to see him as the victim or in a sympathetic position by simply reframing events. A lot of abuse victims get advice that leaves them stuck because the way the abuser told the story might sound ‘fairer’ or ‘less judgemental’ or ‘show more desire to work it out’.

      1. ischemgeek

        Yeah this.

        People who have met my father don’t ever believe me about him because he is great at seeming like a really nice guy. If they do hear about the shit he has done, they tend to make excuses for him.

        Abusers are masters at obtaining bystander support.

        1. Pat

          I was afraid of this the first time a certain friend of mine met my mother. I made a point of, prior to the meeting, spending a week mentioning some of the horrible things she’s done and reiterating how manipulative she is.
          Five minutes after the meeting, “Your mother’s so nice!”

          Of course, I later did a lot of thinking and realized how similar that “friend” really was to my mother.

    3. BBCC

      I’d imagine a lot of vile people are alive because nobody wants to go to jail.

  30. TemporalShrew

    Imagine being pathetic and stupid enough to be this unreasonably angry at a minor.

    This is your brain on Blaine.

    1. ego

      i get it, but mike is not exactly the most realistic 13 year old character. both the blackmail sequence and mike’s reaction to being physically threatened here would indicate really remarkable self-possession in a grown man.

      1. Zach

        Not in a major introvert. Self might be all Mike has, he’s not doing well, you know.

  31. abysswatcher1993

    Basically Blaine fucked himself up and because he can’t accept his own flaws he is blaming the last person that threatened him like some desperate brat. Blaine probably is going to threat Ethan, or Mike’s parents. If Blaine existed I would kick him in his crotch and break his nose with a wrench.

  32. Mr. Random

    I like how he accepts that a child could figure out everything that was going on but not the authorities.

    1. JessWitt

      Blaine’s such a Scooby Doo villain.

    2. Fart Captor

      The authorities can’t figure out something they weren’t looking into

      1. Mr. Random

        … but isn’t he involved in organized crime?

        1. King Daniel

          Doesn’t mean they know or can prove he’s involved in organized crime.

    3. Jago

      You try to fool the authorities harder than a kid, though. A lot of adults think kids are stupid, but they’re not really stupid. And Mike’s Mike, he’s pretty perceptive.

  33. Clif

    Somehow I feel certain that Blaine was never Mike.

  34. Keulen

    I just happened to be listening to Duel of the Fates when I read today’s strip and it seemed oddly fitting.

  35. JessWitt

    Darn it Blaine.

  36. brasca1

    Does Mike have someone he cares about? Ethan seems obvious considering the last strip and I think he has some love for his parents, but I’m not sure who Blaine thinks he can threaten. Perhaps he will go after his Dad only to learn the hard way that appearances aside Mr. Warner is a former marine.

    1. wwwhhattt

      I’m wondering if his storyline is coming to a clash between him actually caring about Ethan but refusing to admit it to himself because that could give Blaine et al ammunition

      1. HMH

        That’s what I’m seeing here. This is the turning point where Mike learned that having ties makes you vulnerable, and that if he wants the freedom to duel with reprobates like this, he’d better not set anybody up to be caught in the crossfire. He clearly knows how manipulation works, he’s not going to give bad people a screw to turn against him.

    2. Jago

      He is? I did not know that.

    3. DailyBrad

      He knocks them, but he clearly, even at this stage, has at least some affection for Ethan and Amber. Like, sure, he also went after people targeting them for spite, but it definitely seems like there was more to it than that.

      Outside of them or his parents or something, uhh, no idea. Maybe he likes the football player kid, we didn’t get to really see much of that.

    4. Mollyscribbles

      I think Blaine’s assumption is that Mike cares for Amber, given that he asked Blaine to be nicer to her. So, even the threat of a drawn-out custody battle and plans to move her away would technically qualify.

    5. BigDogLittleCat

      Amber. “Back off, kid, or it’ll be worse for Amber.”

  37. Platypus King

    While i know that they both walk away from this encounter, I can’t help but feel that (maybe in the future) this very encounter is gonna come back to haunt one of them.

    “You’ve made a powerful enemy this day, asshole!”
    -Either one of them.

  38. Needfuldoer

    Openly assaulting a minor in public. See, Blaine, this kind of stupidity is why you’re a low level stooge and not a Don.

    1. Amelie

      And doing it to give the kid “threats” can only weaken his position. Does Mike have any loved ones? Can Blaine find out? Can he get to them? Then why isn’t he doing that instead of threatening to do it? Why give Mike time to prepare his defense?

      This is why he’s such a crappily low-functioning psychopath as well.

    2. Jago

      But it’s the Korean Mafia, I doubt he’d get anywhere if he was smarter anyways, he’s not very Korean.

      1. Jago

        (Kind of assuming here, but that went through my head.)

        1. BigDogLittleCat

          No, you’re right. Blaine is not very Korean.

  39. ADLegend21

    Does no one see the grown ass man holding a child up by his collar????????????????????????????????????

    1. BenRG

      Most of Willis’s educational institutions seem to have an attitude towards its students that is only barely this side of openly advocating abuse if it makes adults’ lives easier.

      1. Brian K. Pittman

        In my experience, this is a very accurate depiction of educational institutions. Adults never intervened in anything and often actively ignored problems.

      2. HMH

        Willis’? Sorry, that’s my experience with every educational institution I’ve ever witnessed, public or private, religious or secular.

      3. Vulcanodon

        My high school, and this was one of the teachers. Lived a whole career and had a nice retirement party. I work at an educational institution now and the threat of lawsuits with sharp pointy teeth is the only thing that brings change.

    2. stoodmuffin

      I had this happen to me from a Cop at our school back when I was the closet, for yelling the F word.

      And I’m in no way POC and was a very scrawny tiny person. Only put me back down cause he saw I was in no way a threat and scared shit less.

      I’m not surprised.

      1. Charles Kuhman

        I had this happen to me. The assistance principal grabbed me just like this from out of a crowded hallway between classes, and pushed me against the wall, yelling that he never wanted to see me do “that” again. To this day I have no idea what he was referring to, but I made sure to never walk by his office again, even if it meant that I went down a floor and up a floor to get where I wanted to go.

  40. BenRG

    That’s interesting, Blaine. Who was the person that you cared about that ‘they’ used against you?

    1. stoodmuffin

      I feel like if we did find out, it’d actually make him worse of a character not better.

    2. ego

      look at the last panel. mike is going to find the Secret Spawn that blaine cares about *now*.

  41. Jago

    HOW is Mini-Mike not even scared, he’s dangling in the air there, being like “I’m not sure what this is about Sir”. What?
    Also, generally, what?

    1. Eldritch Gentleman

      Sociopaths do not feel fear.

      1. timemonkey

        Mike is not a sociopath.

      2. Pat

        Who told you that?

    2. DailyBrad

      I don’t know that he isn’t afraid, but he definitely wouldn’t want to give Blaine the satisfaction. He’s 13, but that’s plenty old enough to be defiant.

      1. ischemgeek

        Also some abusers just get more enraged by expressing your fear. If you have experience with that kind you learn to go expressionless when scared.

        1. Inahc

          and then there’s those who will get angry if you’re *not* visibly upset. >.<

        2. Pat

          Why not both?

    3. Zee

      He looks stressed, more than usual. I don’t think its that he’s unafraid, just good at hiding it

    4. Lex

      He looks noticeably alarmed in the panel where Blaine is grabbing him. However, it’s entirely possible to be defiant in the face of a threat. Some people’s fight or flight instincts lean more heavily toward “fight”.

  42. stoodmuffin

    I really think at SOME level there’s a false equivalence here

  43. King Daniel

    Starting this month, WoW’s new level cap is 120 – seven years after original publication, the sliding timescale has finally caught up to this strip:

    http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/digit/

  44. Ray Radlein

    This is Mike’s opportunity to answer, “Yeah: Your mom”

  45. Siyajkak

    “Yes, police? Some man is manhandling a 13 year old boy in the middle of a public area”

    Seriously, I know the legal system has major blindspots for domestic abuse, but how has Blaine not been arrested several times by now.

    1. Rowen Morland

      I saw a school bus driver do this to a 13 year old once in the UK. Pretty sure he got away with it.

    2. ischemgeek

      Growing up the cops were literally never called on my folks, even when my I ran out of the house at midnight cuz my dad threatened my life or when my father publicly threatened to beat me senseless in the mall or I could go on.

      Plenty of times the bystanders took it upon themselves to tell me I needed to see it from his pov and learn to be more cooperative so he wouldn’t get mad tho.

      I am not surprised at all Blaine got away with this.

      1. Rowen Morland

        Bystander fail.

  46. Brian K. Pittman

    Blaine, you were never Mike. You were one of those “women are ruining Star Wars” types, most likely, judging by your “blame everyone for what I did” mentality. You’re a toxic void in human skin.

  47. Judas Peckerwood

    “Officer, the bad man touched me in a bad place. His name is Blaine, and I am prepared to testify in court. Just put him away for a long time.”

  48. NinjaNick

    Blaine needs a kick in the face.

  49. Crumplepunch

    WE CAN RULE TOGETHER

  50. CianM1301

    Threatening a 13 year old boy in what appears to be broad daylight. Guess keeping up appearances just went straight out the window, huh Blaine?

  51. Justaian

    Someone really needs to sort Blaine out but that wont happen because people like him get away with stuff like this..

  52. Darkoneko

    Blaine : “I’m gonna f your mom for a nickel”

  53. Xccj

    Okay, I was completely lost here for a moment, but then I checked back and realized I missed the flashback where Mike threatened Blaine.

  54. Zaxares

    OK, wait, I’m confused here. Due to the way these flashbacks aren’t necessarily time linear, I’m not sure just what Blaine is mad at Mike about. (Not that it matters that much. Blaine’s still a P.O.S. either way. :P)

    1. Zee

      He’s referring to when mike was going through Blaine’s receipts. And I did believe the flash backs are linear

    2. Fart Captor

      The flashbacks for this storyline all seem to be in chronological order. They skipped over the actual robbery, since we’d seen those in another storyline, but other than that I think they’ve all been linear

  55. Alex

    Good lord, you’re still around? I remember when you used to be hosted on Keenspot!

  56. BenRG

    “You’re making a serious error of judgement here, Mr O’Malley. Because it currently suits my whims, I am fighting on the side of angels in this single, narrow issue. This does not make me an angel.”

    1. abysswatcher1993

      Then Blaine kills hismelf (sorta) and make a convoluting plot across two seasons of a British show.

      1. BenRG

        Ooh! Ooh! Including a weird special episode where everyone is in Victorian period costume! Sal would KILL a bustle!

  57. Vulcanodon

    Back in ’74 a PE teacher did approximately this to me because I was wearing a hat in the presence of an American flag and did not immediately remove it when he went all patriot on me about it. He assaulted kids all the time, and somehow there was never a penalty for it.

    So believe me when I say, I would be happy to see Mike turn around years later and bring the sky down on Blaine.

  58. FacelessDeviant

    “…I was you. Taking cheap shots and scurrying away to safety.”

    Buddy, you’re assaulting a child. And you are constantly harassing your own daughter. Both of these things in secret. Your scurrying skills would shame a rat.

  59. MutantSentry

    I’m confused about the time line, this is all before the confrontation with Sal so I assume this is about his affair but I missed what young Ethan was upset about yesterday. How long after the birthday party is this?

    1. Emily

      No this is after the convenience store robbery and that’s what Ethan was upset about.

      1. King Daniel

        To be fair, these flashbacks are only set after the robbery starting with yesterday’s strip. The birthday party was right before the robbery (possibly as soon as the night before the incident).

  60. HMRC4EVR

    I’ll admit I get way too involved in the lives of fictional characters (does explain why the epilogue of Digimon 02 still incites an unholy rage in me) but I really, REALLY hate Blaine and wish he would get put genitals first into a industrial shredder.

  61. Doom Shepherd

    The one person I care about is all that keeps me from being much, much more dangerous.

    Do. Not. Break. The. Morality. Chain.

    1. King Monster

      NEVER BREAK THE MORALITY CHAIN.

  62. Tealjoy Grove

    Blaine just has no redeeming qualities. Just fucking disgusting.

  63. adjudicus

    Blaine is a pain.

    1. thejeff

      That is the truth.

  64. HeatherJean

    Mike, gazing into an abyss after battling monsters, vows never to be seen to care about someone else. Problem solved.

  65. Hari

    My own father was exactly like Blaine and ALL my friends were TERRIFIED of him.

    1. BigDogLittleCat

      I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope you’ve been able to put it behind you.

    2. Valerie

      I’m sorry.

  66. stoodmuffin

    HE HAS TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE HE DOESN’T CARE SO HE DOESN’T FALL FOR WHAT EVER BLAINE DOES TO HIM. THAT’S HIS MOTIVATION. FOR THE ASSBUTT-NESS

  67. BigDogLittleCat

    Panel 3, Blaine’s last line: does Blaine only suspect Mike “left something”? Like, associates are treating him differently and Blaine assumes it’s bc something Mike did?
    Damnit Willis- you better not cut this arc off short. This is killing me.

  68. Sambo

    I KNOW WHO YOU ARE, BOY… BECAUSE YOU’RE ME!

  69. CMasta

    I want to look at this another way: Blaine is admitting he had something he cared about (and presumably lost it for doing something like what he figures Mike did to him)

    What was the thing?

  70. BrokenEye, the True False Prophet

    Spoiler. Mike’s wearing a wire.

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