214

Lamp post
Posted on September 6, 2018 by David M Willis
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214 thoughts on “Lamp post”

  1. AnvilPro

    Guy on the floor is my new favorite character. I ship him with Danny

    1. Yumi

      Danny deserves way better.

      1. King Daniel

        Yeah, let’s do better than shipping Danny with a guy who was planning on harassing and/or sexually assaulting whoever was in that house, please.

        (The fact that there wasn’t anyone actually at that address should be irrelevant.)

        1. Jago

          Pretty sure they were joking…?

        2. weirderthanweird

          They were definitely planning on harassing the person at least or why else would they be outside the house?

        3. geno

          Joking about shipping him with Danny

        4. HeySo

          They heard the girls in question were standing up for themselves, so they wanted to offer their genitalia as punching bags, in a perverse but ultimately necessary effort along their road to personal redemption.

          I mean.. it may not be a likely possibility, but it’s still somewhere on the list.

        5. Jago

          *Joking about shipping him with Danny.

    2. Dafydd

      Isn’t the guy on the floor the same bully AG had to save Danny from back in Book 1?

      1. King Daniel

        Yeah. He’s also fond of homophobic insults, last we heard him in a speaking role.

    3. butts

      “danny is a homosexual and will die alone and buttloved”?

      1. Clif

        If that happens, then all butts are off.

      2. Djaevlenselv

        Ah, I get that reference. Good times, good times.

    4. BarerMender

      That isn’t the floor! It’s the ground!

      1. HeySo

        Well, if you floor someone, you’re knocking them to the ground. Perhaps Anvil was coining a new variation of the term, in which someone is repeatedly knocked to the ground. I mean, we all know that definition would be quite applicable here.

        1. Clif

          So they’re grounded?

        2. Delicious Taffy

          They’re grounded grounded grounded, for one thousand years.

  2. bearfuz

    Silly thug.

    1. HeySo

      Hijinks are for superheroes?

  3. Sol Karas

    This is the sort of exchange I live for lmao

    1. LeslieBean4Shizzle

      Agreed.
      **continues to wait patiently for Sal’s now inevitable costume**

      1. Keulen

        I’m waiting for that and her superhero name as well.

        1. HeySo

          “Eff you, I don’t need a darned superhero name”-girl to the rescue!

          Even better, the short form of “Eff you Girl” does seem rather appropriate to her, given her openness to all of cursing, sexing, and effing others up.

        2. Delicious Taffy

          She’s had sex like, one time(twice?) since school started. Swearing and effing up, though, yeah.

        3. HeySo

          It was a mention toward the spontaneity and lack of inhibition of her actions, a reference that she’d be open to the idea of “effing you” in some way, not a reference toward any sort of habit of promiscuity. Again, as per the phrasing above, just a measure of her openness to the concept.

  4. Doctor_Who

    Joke’s on Amazi-Girl, this guy’s into bondage.

    1. Marsh Maryrose

      I was just thinking that, stripped of context, “the lamp post thing” sounds like something AG and Danny might have tried after the grappling hook thing got old.

    2. Daisy

      Mike used this tactic with great success: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/confession/

      I hope B) guy is an Always Has To Be On Top Complex kinda guy

  5. Stephen Bierce

    *plays The Alan Parsons Project’s “I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You” on the hacked P.A. speakers*
    For reasons.

    1. Stephen Bierce

      Today’s strip is brought to you by Best Buy. Where Amazi-Girl gets her zip ties and bungee cords.

      1. Clif

        I just assumed that she got them from Acme.

        1. woobie

          No, Amazi-Girl’s stuff works.

        2. Roborat

          So does ACMEs, as long as you are not a coyote, or using their products on a Road Runner.

    2. Matthew Davis

      Do you also use “Sirius” to block out mindreaders?

      1. Stephen Bierce

        “Hyper Gamma Spaces” is my go-to for that.

  6. jeffepp

    Flirting confirmed.

    Good at flirting… not so much.

  7. ShinyNeen

    AG, maybe don’t hang people from lamp posts for (presumably imaginary) commissioners to find. I mean, these shitheels probably deserve such a fate, but I’d like to keep pretending that you aren’t losing your grip on reality!

    1. BBCC

      Also, if you hang him up long enough, he’ll actually die.

      1. ShinyNeen

        Okay, fair, committing murder would wreak havoc on Amber/AG’s conscience.

        … And that’s the only reason that would matter, right?

        1. Clif

          Pretty much.

        2. MatthewTheLucky

          Also the commisioner would be furious!

      2. Regalli

        Once again, AG running on superhero logic and displaying remarkably little awareness of what that actually does to a human body. And while someone said yesterday this stuff gets ignored since Willis needs his periodic action sequence, Sal definitely has been reacting as though she’s thinking of realistic consequences. That means we can assume they do exist and can reappear when dramatically appropriate. AG isn’t just a goofy campus vigilante anymore, and while stuff like the car chase fudges a lot in the name of action and God answering lesbian prayers, the framing on her random patrols hasn’t been as pleasant for a while.

        1. Rowen Morland

          As much as people here have been enjoying the beatings on designated nameless bad guys who are doing something really wrong. Responding to a doxing of someone to put them in their place is bad because it is vigilantism. While I hate the idea that that might happen in the real world and would like for it to be thwarted matching it with mirrored vigilantism and violence isn’t really commendable outside of a fictional setting.

          So like you said, the goofy cartoon is rubbing up against the… progressive righteousness feels like a loaded but accurate description.

        2. not someone else

          It depends a little on the context. Like, if these dudes were there to commit violence against someone and you have reason to believe authority figures wouldn’t step in before it happened, or if (as I suspect is likely given Sal’s comment about her jacket) they just told the guys to fuck off and said dudes attacked first…

          *If* it’s self-defense or defense of others, at least the basic violence part is understandable. It’s a cycle that needs a better resolution, as Sal said, but what better options might be available I don’t think we can be certain of right now.

        3. Regalli

          As was suggested yesterday, AG could easily have put the dummy addresses to local police offices and campus safety, or notified Sal that they WERE dummy addresses so they only encountered an empty house. Neither of those options is perfect, but at least then there’s an attempt to solve things without unending violence. (And let’s be clear, ‘leave them with a note on the telephone pole for the police’ isn’t gonna work because there’s no reason for the police to know this is going on and come by, and a note is probably gonna be considered hearsay.)

        4. thejeff

          Harassing (or worse) women who’ve reported rapes is vigilantism in the same sense that going to lean on the witness against the mob boss is vigilantism – in other words, not at all.
          There are all sorts of problems with vigilantism in the real world, we don’t need to expand it to make it seem worse and create some weird parallel.

        5. Emily

          Vigilantism is not inherently just the perpetrator simply has to believe it’s just. Vigilante justice is frequently unjust and oppressive and targeted at minority groups who are getting “uppity.”

        6. Rabid Rabbit

          Exactly. Lynchings are vigilante justice.

        7. thejeff

          Lynchings are vigilante justice. Absolutely.

          Lynchings were generally based on false accusations of crimes or of offenses that weren’t legally crimes, but offended the racist culture.

        8. thejeff

          Certainly true. Hell, so is policing.

          But it’s still not so broad as to cover basically any violence. If so, it becomes so broad as to be meaningless.

        9. SpaceshipPilot

          AG isn’t sharing memories with Amber anymore. She doesn’t have her day-to-day experiences to keep her anchored. Superhero logic is all she’s got. She’s losing touch with reality, and that’s scary.

        10. Emily

          Even the car chase was framed in a realistic context by Sal after the fact when she chewed AG out for nearly getting everyone killed with her lack of grip on the realistic consequences of her actions.

        11. thejeff

          After the fact. After the actual sequence, including Sal’s actions, repeatedly laughed at those “realistic consequences”. But I suppose we can assume that Sal is the Author’s Voice here.

          As I’ve said before, realistically, AG never put anyone (but herself) at risk in that scenario, because realistically, she never got far enough into it to do so. She never caught the car on the skateboard or she got slammed into a wall on the first turn or she went under the wheels instead of into the windshield.
          That’s all assuming she didn’t seriously injured in one of the previous fights or just screwing up the crazy parkour.

          But no, Sal has spoken, AG just puts people at risk. Realism is king.

          Mind you, the car sequence was pushing her limits and it was risky, but already so far out of any realistic context, it doesn’t make any sense to frame it that way.

        12. Emily

          Well that’s why I think the the whole Amazigirl arc is a train wreck because Willis keeps dancing between superhero comic physics and then having Sal come in with a very realistic stance which implies realistic consequences that simply magically aren’t happening out of narrative convenience and it just ends up a jumbled mess that strains my suspension of disbelief.

        13. BBCC

          The only realistic consequence I can think of so far that hasn’t happened yet is nobody’s died. She DID throw those spike ball things in the road, which probably, bare minimum, shut the road down for a while and she almost certainly did scare the hell out of that trucker.

          I don’t think anybody’s going to die because of AG, but Sal’s not wrong that there’ve been a lot of near misses (partly because of superhero convention, partly because if someone dies Amber’s going to jail forever). The cops are after AG for questioning at the very least (and lbr, since vigilantism breaks the law, there’s a good chance that questioning would very quickly turn into an arrest).

        14. Emily

          Like the caltrops in the road thing should have resulted in some serious accidents simply because nobody would realize they were there until they hit them going high speeds in a car because who the hell is watching out for caltrops on the road. Hell, the cops coming to the scene should have hit them unless they were coming the other way. The comic really glosses over how bonkers dangerous that stunt was to literally everyone on that road.

          Nobody who isn’t a villain has even been seriously injured as a result of her recklessness even when it results in the car they’re in literally flipping.

          The cops looking for her has been mentioned in passing but has no real follow-up within the narrative to the point where it seems to be largely a non-issue despite her being a violent criminal who has nearly gotten people killed and her disguise being kind of terrible.

        15. thejeff

          I get you’re not happy with the action movie approach, but Sal talking about how risky it is, doesn’t mean Sal is the Author Stand in here. It doesn’t mean she’s right and Amazi-Girl really is a violent criminal responsible for deaths and crippling injuries, just because realistically* she should be.

          I get the tonal whiplash and I can see how people have trouble accepting it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an intentional choice. It works for me.

          For me, despite Sal’s qualms, this reads like a superhero comic or action flick. I don’t analyze those for “what would really happen”, because that’s not appropriate for the genre.

          *As I’ve said before, “realistically” we never even get to the caltrops. Or for another point – “realistically” Amber also gets cut up badly taking the knife from Ryan, rather than casually taking it from him without a scratch.

        16. Emily

          If there is no possibility of realistic consequences than what’s the damn point of having Sal draw attention to it other than to make these sequences feel even less believable. If it’s not building up to AG/Amber actually facing these consequences as part of their arc than it’s just bad writing that creates tonal whiplash for no purpose.

        17. BBCC

          I agree with Emily in that I believe this is building to something, but I also agree with thejeff in that a lot of this is action movie logic and for the most part, that works for me (although some stuff – like, say, Sal being there to catch her, would probably be counted as ‘lucky’ even in-universe in an action movie, which means Sal does still have a point, even if she’s not a Willis Stand In).

        18. thejeff

          Perfectly reasonable in terms of the cavalry arriving just in the nick of time. It’s a standard trope, if a bit creaky. And well enough forshadowed.

          I’m not at all saying it isn’t building to anything, just that the kind of “realism” we’re talking about here isn’t it.

        19. BBCC

          That trope usually involves people consciously teaming up. Sal and AG were not because AG didn’t even know Sal was involved in any way with this. Hence why, in universe (as in, if you could ask AG what she thought) it’s pretty lucky. Same for things like caltrops not causing any accidents – in universe, that’s pretty lucky. Out of universe, it’s because superhero logic applies and so the worst that can happen is, maybe, a couple cars popped tires which causes cool spins and maybe a flip or two and nobody is hurt. Trucker got a good scare but doesn’t have the guilt of turning an 18 year old into street pizza. Things like that.

        20. thejeff

          AG does work by superhero logic. That’s the point. Or at least action movie logic, like Sal does.

          But feel free to assume she’s leaving a trail of permanently injured, brain damaged victims across campus, because that’s realistic, despite there never being a hint of that in comic.

        21. BBCC

          At this rate, I wouldn’t be shocked if someone does get seriously hurt due to AG’s antics. Not permanent damage or death, because, again, she’d go to jail forever, but I do think someone’s gonna get hurt badly enough to snap her out of it – or at least be a cold hard splash of water. Otherwise, there’s not much reason to include Sal yelling at her for putting people at risk of being hurt. I don’t think anyone’s been disabled or killed yet, but with the robbery it’s been framed as blind luck.

          As for punching out randoms? Yeah, action movie logic.

        22. BBCC

          *Toedad, not the robbery

        23. Rabid Rabbit

          You’d think that “Random helpful woman who’s going to have to get her windshield replaced because you fell into it” would have had some effect. But I guess the fact that 1) she helped and 2) Amber/AG got hit on the head fairly hard and then had to deal with an encounter with Sal may have led them to forget about maybe thinking about that.

        24. thejeff

          Someone might, but it’ll be dramatically appropriate. Someone significant, not a mook getting brain damage.

          I still don’t buy even the chase being framed as “blind luck”, other than that even Amazi-Girl was pushing her limits there.

        25. BBCC

          I mean, she’s pretty lucky nobody got worse than burst tires on her tire busters and that nobody got hurt when she fell into the woman’s windshield. Again, the kind of luck that can be plausible but far far far more likely in comics.

          And yeah, it’s definitely not going to be a mook, it’ll be something that matters enough to AG to be a real wake up call.

        26. thejeff

          Not luck. Genre tropes.

          Things have to get pretty far out in comics or action movies to get concerned about what would “lucky breaks” in reality.

        27. BBCC

          I’m pretty sure if you asked Amber, she’d say she was pretty lucky, which is what I mean. In universe, she’s pretty lucky. Out of universe, she can’t cause catastrophic damage because, again, she’ll be in jail forever.

    2. foamy

      Maybe also don’t propose hanging people from lampposts to the black lady.

      1. Rabid Rabbit

        Yeah, possibly specify that you don’t mean “by the neck.”

        1. thejeff

          She did say “upside down”. It’s tricky to hang someone upside down by the neck. 🙂

  8. Passchendaele

    am I too late to make the lazy and obligatory “fuck batman” joke

    1. Clif

      No.

      How does it go?

    2. newllend(henryvolt)

      Didn’t stop me.

  9. BBCC

    AG, you disappoint me, as a comic nerd, on multiple levels.

    1) They’re only Dick’s work clothes. What’s everyone else’s excuse? And he only ‘worked’ there until he was 8-12, depending on the timeline. He was 20 when he gave the costume up. Again – what’s his excuse?

    2) Batgirl isn’t Batman’s sidekick. Comics have been pretty clear that Babs, Cass, and Steph all worked WITH him, not FOR him (especially because Batman’s got a huge case of batdickery with Steph and to a lesser extent Cass too).

    3) When there’s a vehicle to be had, it’s usually the hero who has it. You don’t have a vehicle. Also, Sal’s saved you twice and is generally more level headed than you. Again, if anybody’s the sidekick here, it ain’t Sal.

    And yes, Sal, like three Robins off the top of my head have hit Batman in the face.

    1. BBCC

      Also, those of you who live in the following states should really call your senators and tell them how much you don’t want Kavanaugh.
      Alabama, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin

      1. Mr D

        Kavawho?

        Wait, why is there a North Dakota and a west virginia?
        (googl’d)
        ….West Virginia is actually NORTH of virginia???
        North Dakota is a giant square!

        1. Dara

          No, Wyoming is a giant square. Colorado too, pretty much. North Dakota is a giant rectangle. Completely different.

          (¬ᴗ¬)

        2. Roborat

          They are all Saskatchewan wanna-bees.

        3. King Daniel

          The short version of West Virginia’s origins is that it was originally part of a then-larger State of Virginia, but became its own state during the Civil War when the rest of the state seceded over slavery, leading the West Virginians – who disagreed – to “secede” right back to the Union.

          Can’t remember much about the foundation of the Dakotas as states off the top of my head, except something about how it was originally Native American land that the federal government didn’t care too much about…until someone found gold, predictably ending with the expulsion of the native population from their lands to make way for white people (”manifest destiny”, and all that).

        4. Regalli

          I think the Dakota territory got subsequently split because it was generally preferred to break huge chunks of land into more manageable states when possible? That period of time and geography’s not my strong suit, but there was definitely conscious chunking of land and putting it into neat even rectangles when possible.

        5. thejeff

          And just to further confuse the West Virginia issue: It’s now considered a Southern State, proud of its heritage. Confederate flags are commonplace.
          I’m always like “Don’t you realize? Wasn’t that the whole point?”

        6. Rowen Morland

          Just wait until the 2300’s when up state starts meaning the floating overland islands of the power elite who have escaped the squalor of the ruined earth.

        7. Mr D

          Or actual islands in a sunken world.

          No wait that’s Waterworld ABORT ABORT

        8. Rowen Morland

          Oh come now, Mr. Blow Job Cat D, I think this is the future we’ve earned.

        9. Clif

          North Dakota is a giant square is a misprint probably caused by autocorrect. It should read North Dakota is a giant squirrel.

      2. BigDogLittleCat

        THIS.
        PLEASE.

    2. Regalli

      And given the amount of batdickery Bruce gets up to, he probably deserves to get punched in the face more often.

      Also I think Cass and Steph were working with Oracle almost as much as with Batman.

      (Seconded on calling your senators. Mine will vote no regardless but I am vibrating with anxiety over how bad Kavanaugh would be. Call your senators. Lives literally depend on this.)

      1. BBCC

        Cass definitely. I think Steph actually worked with Babs more than Bruce – certainly before the New 52 anyways.

        1. Regalli

          And really, can you blame Steph after her last interactions with Bruce?

        2. BBCC

          I’ve considered making the scene she slaps him my icon on various sites more than once, yes.

    3. 3oranges

      The sidekickest of vehicles is a motorcycle’s sidecar. I’m pretty sure that what’s they were invented for.

  10. Jamie

    That poor lamppost.

  11. newllend(henryvolt)

    Sal: Fuck Batman? No fuck Amazi-girl.

    1. Proxiehunter

      Coming to a Slipshine near you.

  12. Tacos

    I’m pretty sure every Robin has punched Batman in the face Sal.

    1. SgtWadeyWilson

      Do Elseworlds count? Because the Batman and Robin in Robin 3000 actually had a pretty stable friendship IIRC.

      Also they were both around the same age and Bruce’s Batdickery had died along with him in that timeline, so less reason to punch Batman in the face, really.

  13. butts

    GEE SAL IT’S ALMOST LIKE SUPERHEROES ARE NERDS OR SOMETHING

  14. Mistergray

    Omg AG is green arrow, not batman, plus robin did punch batman in batman the animated , plus heroes have vehicles or some way they can get places fast, you don’t. AG you disappoint me.

    1. Inahc

      Well, she has those wheelie-shoes.

      Sal can run faster than them. 😛

    2. Tenzhi

      From the context, AG knows that Robin has punched Batman. Hence why when Sal was trying to assert she wasn’t a sidekick by basically threatening to punch AG in the face, AG told Sal she was embarrassing herself (because that would, in fact, be an appropriate sidekick act).

    3. Reltzik

      AG doesn’t do archery, so definitely not green arrow.

      AG is out beating up random criminals because of serious psychological issues. I think that makes her Rorschach.

      1. MatthewTheLucky

        Or Batman!

        1. Reltzik

          Amber’s not rich enough for Amazi-Girl to be Batman.

  15. Larkle

    Sal, you lost once you engaged in the conversation.

  16. Shiro

    Awwwww. They’re flirting!

    1. PB

      More like quadrant vacillating but I’ll take it

      1. Khyrin

        What is flirting but the flushed quadrant equivalent of sniping at each other? (WHY DOES MY AUTOCORRECT RECOGNIZE THAT WORD?)

        1. Andrusi

          You didn’t use any words in this comment that it would be unusual for autocorrect to recognize.

        2. Kamino Neko

          Like Andrusi I don’t see anything in that post that I wouldn’t be surprised if autocorrect didn’t recognize it (save, ironically, ‘autocorrect’), so I’m really wondering which you were expecting it not to.

    2. Stoodmuffin

      I.

      Screw you.

      That’s there forever

      1. Stoodmuffin

        Oh good lord with Amber’s issue’s, AG and sal WHILE Amber and Walky? JESUS, it’s like an ESPECIALLY bad written porno.

        And yet here I am. Shipping folks. UGH.

        (As long as they only kiss Amber/Amaze girl and it doesn’t go full weird)

        1. Reltzik

          Welcome to crack ship hell.

    3. Emily

      The trope where a woman arguing with a man is treated as flirting is so creepy and it doesn’t actually get much less creepy when you change the gender dynamics.

  17. Irredentist

    You know, I thought Amber throwing the mask away was a rejection of Amazigirl. But now she’s back stronger than ever, and her campaign has escalated. She’s not just reacting to events, she’s manipulating them to her advantage, setting traps to ambush her opponents. Sound tactics, but what’s the end game? She can’t end the threat all by herself. She needs support, and direction. Sal could provide that. I hope Walky does too.

    1. Diner Kinetic

      Honestly, I’m pretty confident amber no longer has agency over Amazi-Girl at all… Even if this is helping defeat Ryan and his peeps; it’s also certainly putting Amber in danger and more than a little alarming given Ambers established inability to consistently remember what AG does on her own time. There’ve been strips where AG and Amber have been tagged seperately and outright _argued with each other_, if memory serves- Amber is trying her hardest to deal with her alter ego, and honestly with the police as an alternative this doesn’t seem good or healthy…

      1. Irredentist

        Someone needs to put that poor girl back together

        1. Regalli

          AG and Amber definitely need to talk and work together again. You can’t really undo the amount of trauma that makes a person fracture like that, and now they’re both unique beings with a right to their body, but they have to be able to share it before AG gets them both killed doing something risky. And they both need to learn better ways to deal with their anger.

        2. Irredentist

          I disagree, they are different aspects of the same person, a result of too much compartmentalization of conflicting emotions. Amber needs to accept who she is and how she feels instead of running away from it. But likely someone else will need to help her do it.

        3. Regalli

          Amber literally lost control of her body, and this was before she and AG weren’t sharing memories anymore. Amber flat described things to Stacey and Richard as dissociation and talks to AG. It’s really hard to see AG as anything but an alter, and the personal accounts from some of our commenters basically say ‘integrating into a single whole won’t work’. I’m inclined to believe lived experience that you can’t force someone neurotypical over the people studying from the outside. Hell, Amber is TRYING to get rid of AG, and not only is it not working, it’s making them split further and harder.

          Yeah I’m gonna keep linking that strip until it stops being relevant.

        4. Irredentist

          Link didn’t work, but I found the page. I don’t think it’s a fair example tbh. You could easily chalk up all her memory issues to the head injury and persistent insomnia, with the personality shift just an emotional coping mechanism. Not that it’s less important, but I don’t think it’s really multiple people in one body.

        5. Regalli

          The one where she’s talking to Danny right after the car chase, from December 10, 2015? She remembers everything that happens, she just remembers it through a filter of dissociation including points about where AG differs from her and referring to AG as separate from herself. The first part can happen without DID, but taken with recent events it looks pretty clear it’s NOT head trauma and a lack of sleep.

        6. Fart Captor

          Head injuries do not work that way.

          Forgetting or having only fuzzy recollections of a couple minutes of time immediately before or after a hard enough blow to the head would be plausible. Like, if she had trouble remembering exactly what happened during the car chase, that would be explained by a mild concussion like she may have sustained there.

          COMPLETELY losing at least an hour or two of time entirely, WEEKS later, would not, even if she were also chronically failing to get enough sleep.

          A head injury severe enough to do that would have put her in the hospital whether she wanted to go or not.

        7. Irredentist

          We should probably all cool it on the armchair psychoanalysis anyway.

        8. Fart Captor

          Sure. We can just accept the text as presented instead of assuming Amber is lying or incorrect when she describes her own mental state.

        9. Irredentist

          Your view is just as much interpretation as mine.

        10. thejeff

          Short of actually presenting us with a formal diagnosis, how much further could he go to make it clear?

          She’s talked about disassociating. She’s talked to her other self. She doesn’t remember what her other self has done – apparently from both sides. She’s talked about them both sharing “this 5’2″ meat puppet”.

        11. Inahc

          Nitpick: it wasn’t ‘integrating into a single whole won’t work’. Integration isn’t always a bad idea, but it requires the full informed consent of all participants (and r/did can tell you stories of how it backfires without that consent).

          But yes, Amber is definitely dissociating, and recent comics have made DID the most plausible diagnosis. Willis wouldn’t add that stuff in just to mislead us; to me it reads like almost a neon sign saying “I’ve decided this will be full DID now”.

          Of course, knowing those signs requires knowing a bunch about DID. Which most of us got from Cerberus’ comments.

        12. Inahc

          Hmm. Actually, from the symptoms shown, Amber and AG are similar enough that I could see her getting diagnosed under one of the OSDD variants (although my memory of where that line is is a bit foggy). But from what I know of Willis I think he’s going for DID, and treatment would be exactly the same anyways (ie, don’t fucking force integration), so it’s really an academic distinction.

        13. Regalli

          Good to know, stand corrected.

          But yeah, clearly not happening right now. Probably not in the context of the strip itself since Amber and AG easily have YEARS of shit to work through first.

        14. Clif

          If AG stops doing stuff that’s risky, then she’s no longer AG.

        15. Regalli

          At the very least if she’s gonna continue superheroing, she should be doing it with Amber’s awareness and proper sleep. Bare minimum. If you and someone else jointly own a car and take turns driving it, it’s a seriously dick move to take the car to an underground racing ring without telling the other person.

          And I mean, there was a whole period of time between AG starting to come into existence (assuming the robbery was the catalyst, and all indications say yes) and her being a vigilante, unless her home town is wondering where THEIRS went. (And if they are, that would make it a lot easier for authorities to figure out where this vigilante came from, if there’s a paper trail.) She had to be channeling things SOMEHOW then.

        16. thejeff

          Near as I can the disassociation has progressed drastically just since coming to college. There was much more overlap at first, not just sharing memories, but changes even before that.
          AG likely existed, but letting her out to play like that seems to have strengthened here, especially in combination with repeated trauma – the encounters with Sal and Blaine at first and then Ryan, which seems to have been the catalyst for the full split.

          And yeah, it’s a dick move to risk the meat puppet, but it’s also a dick move for Amber to try to lock her down entirely and never let her out.

        17. Regalli

          Oh yeah. AG and Amber need to work together before anything gets fixed.

    2. PB

      In the 90s Batman cartoon, when Harvey Dent is seeing his psychotherapist, she tries talking to his original alter, Big Bad Harv. She explains to Harv what he is and he assumes the end goal of therapy is to make him go away. She actually tries to explain further (presumably about assimilation rather than extermination) but he’s not having it. That’s what this comic reminded me of. But both Amber and AG are mistaken on what to do with each other, instead of just AG.

      DISCLAIMER: Yes, I know Two-Face isn’t an accurate portrayal of most DID patients, but the BTAS cartoon was one of the first to show the symptoms with any accuracy at all. So he’s my go-to example.

      1. Ed Rhodes

        You might want to find the manga “Othello.” The title isn’t based on the Shakespeare play, but on the concept of the Othello playing pieces, black on one side, white on the other.

        Yaya is a quiet, unassuming girl who’s picked on constantly by bullies. Her one outlet is cosplay. When that outlet is taken away from her, a secondary personality named Nana is formed and the two of them have to come to grips with each other’s existence.

        1. PB

          Thank you! I’ll look that up.

    3. Emily

      Her tactics are terrible. Sal could have been seriously injured fighting 4 dudes alone out of a mistaken desire to protect the people in an empty house because AG was too stupid or inconsiderate to fill her in on the plan.

  18. mschmidt62

    These last three strips just don’t make any sense to me. I keep waiting for the strip that fills in the gap between the Descent from Garbage Roof and the present episode, but they still seem to clash.

    Once again I am reminded that I am probably too old for this comic. Over and over people comment on what a strip is about or what a certain facial expression means and I say “What? No.” And then the next strip confirms the interpretation. I think maybe the commenters and Mr. Willis have some shared understanding (perhaps gained through shared experience of other comic literature?) that I do not have. More frighteningly, I sometimes think different generations may in fact have different assumptions about life itself.

    1. Regalli

      Best guess: an hour or two passed, Sal went on her own when AG wasn’t available because she thought people were really in danger, and AG took over and headed there after Amber went to sleep.

    2. Jon Rich

      Different generations absolutely have different assumptions about life itself. As an example, I’m a millennial, my mother is a boomer. I have noticed that for her, and for a lot of boomers, wrapping their heads around the idea that an online community is as real as one in physical space is very difficult. Similarly, my mom doesn’t quite understand the point of writing fanfiction when people don’t get paid for it. The existence and perception of online communities is a huge difference between how the average boomer and average millennial or Gen-Z member see and experience the world.

      1. Clif

        Having been born in the late 1940’s to parents that lived through the great depression and WW2, I absolutely agree that different generations have different assumptions about life itself. On the other hand, I’m inclined to believe that not valuing things you find important, particularly if there is no money involved, is more of a Mom thing.

    3. Agemegos

      I’m closing on the same conclusion. 🙁

    4. Emily

      I totally feel you on these strips feeling completely out of left field.

    5. thejeff

      I’m with Regalli – Amber went to sleep and AG took over, like she’s been doing. Sal had been looking for AG, so there’s that connection to the previous sequence.
      It’s quite possible that not only did AG lose time looking for and improvising her mask, but that Amber was already went to sleep because of her time with Walky. If Sal was up there looking for AG, that could be a clue that Amber was expected to be asleep by then, but went to bed late because she waited up for Walky.
      As for it being generational, I’m early Gen X and I don’t think I’m too old for this comic. I’ve got no idea why people find this transition jarring.

  19. Roger Sterling

    Gee I wonder why the biracial POC would get irked by the idea the white superhero thinks of her as a sidekick? Or why the idea of dangling people from lamp-posts to make an example of them would totally freak her out?

    1. Irredentist

      Good points

    2. King Daniel

      Oh jeez, didn’t even think about that second thing until you just mentioned it.

      1. PB

        Oh fuck wow

        1. PB

          That… that is a bad.

    3. Diner Kinetic

      oh yeah wow AG that is not reading the room, yikes. I know you’re a comic book nerd but some things have connotations when spider-man isn’t doing them

    4. Regalli

      AG continues to have a blind spot on racial subtext the size of a semi, and no amount of shifting blame onto Amber changes that.

      1. Clif

        That does bring up an interesting question. Does Spiderman/Marvel have a blind spot on r the racial subtext, or is that somehow different?

        1. Regalli

          I’m not a sociologist, but probably a bit of both. A lot of it is grandfathered in from a time where comic creators probably weren’t as aware or thinking of the undertones there. For Spider-Man in specific, though, his web material evaporates automatically after like half an hour (so they’re not trapped indefinitely), and I seem to recall he either delivers people straight to the police (meaning they can be promptly processed) or leaves them as the police are coming because it’s a high profile thing. At least I’m pretty sure, my Spidey knowledge is all secondhand. Both of those things mean it’s a bit more direct and utilitarian than ‘leave them tied up upside down on some random street corner for someone to find them at some indeterminate point’.

          Similarly I’m pretty sure Batman leaves the unconscious crooks directly for the police. He also takes the actual supervillains back to Arkham himself if he’s the one available and has some degree of police cooperation and approval, so Gordon already knows about the mob weapons deal or whatever Batman’s planning to disrupt.

        2. Diner Kinetic

          Also; Spider-Man is normally shown to leave people webbed to walls; or to lampposts but I’m the ground; etc. At least in most of what I’ve read recently; the earlier comics still mostly averted lynchy imagery by making it look like a cocoon more than like anything more uncomfortable. Spider-Man individually hasn’t brought up any parallels to hate crimes in this context, but is unrealtedly real sensitive to… Sudden *snap* judgments leading to web based injury

        3. Emily

          Really the whole “superhero leaves a detained criminal for the police and vanishes thing” completely falls apart upon examination because like “the masked vigilante says they committed a crime but didn’t even stick around to make a statement or provide any evidence” isn’t really solid grounds for arrest.

        4. thejeff

          Often it’s either someone the police are already looking for or they’re at the scene of a crime with other witnesses. The webbed to the lamppost or tied with the Bat-rope thing is just a way to keep them there until the police arrive.
          If they were caught leaving the bank with sacks of money, the vigilante’s testimony isn’t really needed.

        5. Fart Captor

          It’d still have kinda messed up implications for their fictional legal systems

          Even if a super hero is officially given authority to act as any kind of law enforcement by the government (perhaps especially in that case), the jury simply learning of their involvement in a defendant’s arrest would inevitably result in prejudicial bias

          In real world courts, there’s already a major bias problem with testimony from police officers, since even people who should know better are less likely to doubt the word (or competence) of an officer than anyone else, even though cops are just as human as anyone else. Testimony from some superhero who’s literally saved the world would be even more prejudicial

          Not to mention how tempting it would be for bad cops to just lazily pin whatever crime on somebody they found wrapped up for them. That guy Batman dropped off musta been responsible for ALL the muggings in that area!

        6. thejeff

          Not really any different than the bias you mention with cops.

          They’ll try to pin random crimes on anyone they arrest for anything similar. They lie in court all the time, plant evidence and still get treated as far more credible than anyone else.

        7. Kamino Neko

          Even if a super hero is officially given authority to act as any kind of law enforcement by the government (perhaps especially in that case), the jury simply learning of their involvement in a defendant’s arrest would inevitably result in prejudicial bias

          This is actually the core of the last arc of Batman. (Bruce thinks he’s screwed up, so he pulls some strings to get him onto the jury for that trial, and talks them out of just assuming ‘Batman said it, so it’s true’. He later acknowledges that it wasn’t a great way to fix things.)

        8. thejeff

          Comics are also a visual medium and the usual comic visuals for that kind of thing are much more clearly not-lynchings than just the words “hanging from the lamp post” would imply.

      2. Emily

        I mean it’s not like AG was injected into Amber’s brain by an outside force, she’s very much a manifestation of things that are already a part of her.

    5. Jon Rich

      I also did not immediately think of the racial subtext. I thought Sal’s objection was purely rooted in the idea of “this isn’t a comic, people could get seriously hurt or killed if you do that. What the hell is wrong with you?”

      But yeah, the racial subtext definitely makes it a hell of a lot more cringe-inducing, and it was already pretty bad to start with. Amber needs professiinal help before she straight-up kills someone. (I know, there’s supposed to be no death in this comic because of how the aftermath would drag out forever, but I can’t help but picture a guy dying from the lamp treatment offscreen as soon as the story proper ends. Amber is really playing with fire here.)

    6. BenRG

      Race has nothing to do with it. Sal’s big concern is that whoever Amazi-Girl really is seems to be living out a comic book fantasy rather than really treating this line of work seriously.

      1. Fart Captor

        While it might be that, it’s highly unlikely that Sal isn’t also irked by that a white girl is calling referring to her as her lackey instead of her partner, as if she’d been running the show or doing more of the work.

        Like, even though Sal no doubt gets that it’s more because AG is a comic book nerd, it’d still rub her the wrong way.

        1. Regalli

          And because Sal’s not aware of AG’s origin story, as far as she’s concerned AG is the girl who stalked, antagonized, and picked fights with her for no reason beyond assumptions she was trouble. (Not even the underage drinking, since AG didn’t stalk Malaya of Marcie.) The sidekick thing’s not gonna go over well after that.

        2. Emily

          With that perspective Sal has kind of been amazingly tolerant and patient of AGs deluded bullshit.

        3. BBCC

          This in a nutshell is why the ship doesn’t appeal to me (well, that and personality dynamics – I don’t think they’d work out for very long). Honestly, I have a hard enough time buying them as friends. I am pretty fond of them teaming up to punch rapists and rapey bastards supporting said rapist, but that’s about it.

          Granted, AG’s not done much to appeal to me lately so there’s that in general.

        4. Emily

          Yeah this very much feels like Sal views this as a necessary evil rather than a friendship or even a real partnership. Like some delusional white girl taking justice into her own hands with comic book logic is a menace but rapists and their apologists are a worse menace so she’ll put up with her for the greater good.

        5. thejeff

          It isn’t the only relationship here that’s started with hostility.
          I’m not at all fond of it as a romance – and don’t really see the flirting people keep mentioning, but Sal’s attitude towards AG really seems to me to have changed.
          Of course, there are still some big drama bombs to drop on this budding friend/partnership.

        6. BBCC

          It’s not, but combine history with personality and it just doesn’t appeal to me. It’s no Ruth/Billie. 😛

          And yeah, I’m not seeing it either. Newfound grudging respect changing to legit respect and building friendship, yes. But considering AG’s secret identity, the robbery, and heck, even the ‘this is reckless’ bit that’s still a thorn in their side, I think it’s got a long way to go.

        7. Rabid Rabbit

          I’m pretty sure the diagnosis of flirting is based on

          1) AG’s face in the second-to-late panel, and
          2) Wish fulfillment, aka holy shit some people are incapable of not shipping.

        8. BBCC

          I still don’t see it. AG’s face looks more punchably smug than anything else to me.

          Also, there’s nothing wrong with shipping. I don’t ship this but that doesn’t mean others in the comment section can’t.

        9. Emily

          I mean I’m pretty uncomfortable with AG persistently subordinating Sal while Sal tries to assert her autonomy and value being viewed as flirtation rather than a pretty uncomfortable situation where Sal is being disrespected and marginalized by someone who has pretty consistently treated her like she’s lesser up until a rather recent change of heart. Also, there’s the icky implications of a white person trying to frame a PoC as subordinate to them especially when they’re actively opposed to such a dynamic.

  20. Bagge

    Shoes with inbuilt wheels are the most hero-y of vehicles, obviously.

    1. RachelEvil

      They worked for Dazzler.

      1. Bagge

        Dazzler seems pretty awesome!

  21. RachelEvil

    Counterpoints: Captain America, Ghost Rider (except for the one with a muscle car instead, because there can be more than one bongoin’ burning vehicle), Wolverine.

  22. HeySo

    I don’t know what’s better- the geekery in the comic, or the imagery in the hovertext.

    1. Clif

      Both made me laugh.

  23. caesaria82

    It’s really a blessing that Sal doesn’t know Amber well, otherwise all this detailed Batman knowledge AG is firing off would be a dead giveaway to her secret identity lol.

  24. PB

    Amazi-Girl no

  25. mrj

    Amazi-Troll and the Sal Wonder

  26. brasca1

    While I have little concern for the well being of a doxer, Amazi-girl, you might not want to hang him upside down in case the blood rushes to a head that’s possibly taken a beating. Brain damage or death will compel the police to seriously look into arresting you.

  27. Sip

    The Amazi-mobile is just a Segway, but with the clear dome thingy with bouncing little balls in it taped to the front.
    A “Fisher Price Corn Popper” of justice.

    1. Zach

      And you don’t even need to know the reference to see that it’s fitting.
      Well done!

  28. BenRG

    Does anyone else think that Amber read every single Batman comic book ever and obsessively created a list of methodology? I think that there’s a book in her room somewhere with all these ‘how to…’ tips listed!

    1. Stoodmuffin

      I’d be more surprised if she didn’t at this point

    2. Reltzik

      If she did this, it would be no less than five separate lists of methodology, because there’s no way you could combine all of them into one coherently.

    3. thejeff

      I suspect you’re not quite aware of how extensive “every single Batman comic book ever” would be.
      Nor at all necessary. She hasn’t really shown much more than any random comic book geek. A few years of reading Batman comics regularly would easily be enough.

    4. BBCC

      Every single one? Not likely. Also, she’s showing stunning lack of Batfamily knowledge so …yeah, double unlikely.

  29. Stoodmuffin

    Hey Sal, doesn’t super dork Remind you of anyone?

    I dunno. Maybe a dorky guy you’ve sang/ played Mario kart with, a Dorky Brother who’s an “adult” watching cartoons.

    I think you know that at least ONE of them has been hanging around a girl SUSPICIOUSLY close to Amaze Girl’s dimensions. With the same hair colour. I mean, it may not mean anything. Who knows. Hmm.

    1. King Daniel

      Other Rachel?

    2. Bagge

      Rose?

    3. Reltzik

      Ethan! (It’s one helluva disguise.)

  30. AbacusWizard

    genuine lol at the narnia joke

  31. foducool

    as far as Robins go, Sal would be more like early Damian Wayne

  32. Ryan

    So, Amber now has sexual tension between *both* of the Walkerton Twins!

    *awesome guitar riff*

  33. Vulcanodon

    She isn’t a sidekick AG, she’s a super-friend.

  34. Reltzik

    I’m disturbed AG apparently has paid so little attention to the local police as to believe Bloomington PD HAS a commissioner.

    1. BenRG

      Gotham City does! Why shouldn’t Bloomington?

      1. Reltzik

        Too small to have that level of bureaucracy. They’ve just got a boring ol’ police chief instead.

  35. Rabid Rabbit

    Thoughts on the further A/AG dissociation: Wait, this means that Amazi-Girl’s lost access to her computer nerd. That could come back to bite her.

    And I’m sort of surprised that no one else’s first thought on seeing panel 5 was https://shortpacked.com/comic/wrong-on-batman

  36. abysswatcher1993

    Common, Sal. Don’t tell me you aren’t up to some non bloody sadism that could be classified as a prank? Also, AG, that is not how you bring justice! You tie the criminal and sent him to the police front with a photo of incriminating evidence taped to his face. Without evidence the police wouldn’t believe you. You both suck at non lethal vigilantism.

    1. BBCC

      Tying someone up upside down isn’t necessarily ‘non-bloody sadism’. It can kill you if you’re upside down long enough – burst blood vessels, asphyxiation, etc. And how long is too long varies by person and they don’t know this guy from Adam. For all they know he has a heart condition.

  37. Mouse

    You can actually cause brain damage tying someone upside down. I suppose she could just call it in anonymously. At least make a big note, take a pic, and leak it.

  38. Ellegos

    Tying them upside down can cause some serious problems… maybe they can compromise and tie the right-side up, with a blindfold and embarrassing stuff written on their faces in sharpie?

    1. Daibhid C

      Don’t be silly, tying someone upside down has no more permanent consequences than punching them in the face until they lose consciousness, or dangling them upside down from high buildings until they tell you exactly where their boss is and what he’s planning.

      1. thejeff

        Pretty much true.

        But not quite how it sounds. 🙂

  39. Emily

    God, AG is super obnoxious here. Like, Sal has made her position clear on the sidekick bullshit so stop being a smug brat and drop it.

    1. SpaceshipPilot

      Sal really should punch her in the gaddanged face.

      …Actually scratch that, because Amber would end up feeling it later, and she doesn’t deserve that.

  40. Remmington Steele

    But Sal, you *could* wear a costume. You really should.

    1. BBCC

      Why? If she wears her bike helmet and long sleeves, she’s got anything identifying covered without lending credence to AG’s condescending (and inaccurate to the comics) nonsense. 😛

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