Clark Kent has the advantage that no one would think that the guy slouched at the next desk doing the third rewrite on a story about local government funding cuts is secretly a godlike superbeing.
Here’s the big one, basically him shifting between characters entirely through body language, Clark to Superman to Clark: https://youtu.be/tNUu6Lf9mVU?t=77
Leorale
I enjoy that Clark Kent is Superman’s best attempt at blending in with humankind. Deep down, that gentle, dithering, weak nerd is what he really thinks humans are.
Wraithy2773
Eh, I kinda hate that interpretation of Clark, to be honest. One of the (many) things that I loved about the 90’s Superman TAS was that Clark Kent in that show *was* him, but him as he’d be without powers. Not playing up or down to the audience, absolutely capable of being a strong, intrepid reporter.
Because that Clark Kent feels like a person, not a caricature, which is what a lot of the interpretations of the character often go for.
Dunno if I’d say godlike. Maybe demigod. Depending on which rendition and storytelling medium he’s featured in. Mostly I’d just say he’s magic.
Kinda like Mike, except he doesn’t have the superpower of tormenting masked heroes while unconscious.
The WonderRabbit
Not in the sense of the Abrahamic god, but more of a Greek or Norse idea – a human-like figure with power beyond our means, but still a fallible being who can be injured or killed.
Also, Superman doesn’t have a secret identity. He’s done interviews. Everyone knows his real name is Kal’El and he’s a refugee from the destroyed planet krypton, where his entire family died apart from his cousin Zor’El. They live in a crystal palace at the north pole, and spend their time there with the memories of their lost homeworld when they aren’t out protecting the Earth and its people in gratitude for the new home they’ve made here.
Just because you might kniw someone who kind of looks like them doesn’t mean they’re the same person. I had a math teacher who kind of looked like George Foreman and, to my knowlege, has never never been photographed in the same place at the same time with him. That doesn’t mean that the famous boxer leads a secret double life teaching high school kids trigonometry. I know who George Foreman is and I know who Mr. Sherman is and even if they kind of look alike, they’re not the same person.
Psychie
Also, Superman and Clark Kent HAVE been seen at the same place at the same time, on multiple occasions, even on live television in some versions of the continuity.
I mean, seriously, you’re telling me that a guy who can fly in space, shoot lasers outta his eyes, push the planet around, etc. would waste his time playing reporter when he could be anywhere he wants doing whatever he wants?!
The same guy with such a ridiculous savior complex and super hearing that they train people on the other side of the planet to call for him specifically when in danger because that’s the thing most likely to get you saved in the least amount of time no matter where in the world you might be? That guy? You think HE’d waste time he could be saving more cats from trees writing news articles about himself?
I mean, I hear the rest of the Justice League give him a hard time for being TOO GOOD! And you think he’d rather be writing puff pieces for the Daily Planet and making goo goo eyes at Lois Lane than doing more good? That boyscout? Really?
Linda Walkerton: You probably can’t expect too little of her. Beyond ‘will probably not personally murder someone.’ I would totally buy her bailing a kidnapper out, though! Wonder what she thinks of Leland.
Since, you know, we’ve NEVER HEARD HER SAY A WORD ABOUT LELAND. (Who among other things threatened Walky pretty clearly in front of a teacher, given Walky’s terrible acting, but you know. He has such potential!)
Possibly more impressive, Billie knows it first. Look at her posture in the first panel — that’s sheer “So, the obvious guess as to what Linda and Charles’re up to is…” She’s not trying to find an extravagant guess about how they’re being terrible, this is what she assumes is par for the course.
What Sal gets is the way this idea will come about.
Same, been tired of it. I groan each time it comes up.
abysswatcher1993
It has become a dead horse joke.
anonymousethatscurriesinthedarkness
It has morphed from a horse to a donkey and needs to be dropped.
‘Drop the Dead Donkey’ has been the subject of many column inches. Various journalists have with great authority explained its provenance as a well-known industry expression. The truth, sadly, is that the writers made it up.
I think it’s hilarious. It’s one of the jokes that disappears for a long time and then just when I forget about it, someone brings it up and makes me cackle.
We still don’t have definitive proof on who Amazi-girl is. Maybe we never have! *Casually burns literal mountain of evidence proving Amber is Amazi-girl*…Maybe we never will.
Billie’s the respectable richwhite-passing daughter Linda wanted. Billie is therefore better able to leverage ‘what the actual fuck? No, do not try to get a student expelled because her dad’s a kidnapping, murdering mobster, she had nothing to do with that except as a victim! Why are you helping the mobster?’ than Sal is (ie, not at all,) and Walky burned what little credit he has against Linda’s Wanting To Speak To The Manager (which would pretty much just be ‘the surprise of speaking up to disagree at all,’ with MAYBE a ‘I know Mike wouldn’t want Amber expelled’ but who knows,) sticking up for Sal. If Billie says it, well, Sal hasn’t been putting crazy ideas in BILLIE’S head the way she must have with Walky.
Nono
The crazy part is that Billie is fairly obviously at least half Asian, so I wouldn’t even say she’s immediately white passing.
Rabid Rabbit
It’s not that obvious! Joyce thought she was Mexican!
Joyce, admittedly, is not good at race.
Anyhow, Billie’s own self-description was “reasonably white passing.”
Needfuldoer
IIRC in the Walkyverse, her mom’s Chinese and her dad’s British.
Headcanon says they met in Hong Kong and emigrated to the US in the mid-nineties before the handover.
Nono
She’s still the same in this universe. But it’s still enough that non-Joyce people can tell; I think Dorothy even told Danny that she was sending a half-Asian cheerleader with glasses his way.
LauraS
On the other hand, Walky is white-passing enough for Linda. By that metric, so is Billie.
King Daniel
IIRC, Billie’s mom being Chinese is specifically for Dumbing of Age, not something that applied in in the Walkyverse.
Regalli
Yeah, ‘white-passing’ (I forgot the ‘reasonably’ which is the necessary modifier) is quoting Billie directly about her surrogate daughter status. If even she agrees with Sal it’s a factor, that’s a sign it’s fairly obvious. (Back discussing the care package cookies and the disparate treatment between her and Sal.)
Walkyverse Billie is white, DOA Billie being half-Chinese is new. (Most visible in the strips around the two late-stage Shortpacked weddings, where her skin is distinctly pink and it is WEIRD.)
If Amber is responsible for the kidnapping, and Amazi-Girl is Amber, and Sal is Amazi-Girl, then Sal is responsible for the kidnapping. It’s simple logic.
I forgot for a hot minute she thinks Sal is Amazi-Girl, there are 10 people in total that know that it’s actually Amber and she hasn’t caught up yet….Anyway I feel like what they should do is not bring just one extra person but probably stage an intervention with her along with everyone else who was held captive ( especially including Amber because this would be a nother scenario where Linda is the one I villainizing someone she hasn’t sat down and have a conversation with) and explain to her that she’s taking this out on the wrong person.
I mean she won’t listen to reason but maybe an group of people in a closed space and a bit of public shaming could help since she so concerned on not looking bad.
107 thoughts on “What now”
Ana Chronistic
“next you’ll tell me she wears a MASK”
…wait
Doctor_Who
Billie’s definitely cut out for journalism. All of Clark Kent’s co-workers have this same disorder.
Reltzik
Eh, Lois has figured it out. Multiple times.
Geeky Meerkat
Ya but then Superman gaslighted Lois nearly every time.
Dean
Clark Kent has the advantage that no one would think that the guy slouched at the next desk doing the third rewrite on a story about local government funding cuts is secretly a godlike superbeing.
He Who Abides
The slouch and general body language help with that. A lot.
Keith Curtis
Christopher Reeve really made this believable.
StClair
I post/link that clip at least once a year. It’s still incredible to watch.
Jon Rich
Which clip?
wwwhhattt
They already linked it this year, sorry
Needfuldoer
Must be this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtrXDq5OTn4
Wraithy2773
Here’s the big one, basically him shifting between characters entirely through body language, Clark to Superman to Clark: https://youtu.be/tNUu6Lf9mVU?t=77
Leorale
I enjoy that Clark Kent is Superman’s best attempt at blending in with humankind. Deep down, that gentle, dithering, weak nerd is what he really thinks humans are.
Wraithy2773
Eh, I kinda hate that interpretation of Clark, to be honest. One of the (many) things that I loved about the 90’s Superman TAS was that Clark Kent in that show *was* him, but him as he’d be without powers. Not playing up or down to the audience, absolutely capable of being a strong, intrepid reporter.
Because that Clark Kent feels like a person, not a caricature, which is what a lot of the interpretations of the character often go for.
It also gave us the best, bar none, instance of Clark Kent admitting to Lois Lane that he’s Superman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfAvN6rXdkM
TachyonCode
Dunno if I’d say godlike. Maybe demigod. Depending on which rendition and storytelling medium he’s featured in. Mostly I’d just say he’s magic.
Kinda like Mike, except he doesn’t have the superpower of tormenting masked heroes while unconscious.
The WonderRabbit
Not in the sense of the Abrahamic god, but more of a Greek or Norse idea – a human-like figure with power beyond our means, but still a fallible being who can be injured or killed.
malisteen
Also, Superman doesn’t have a secret identity. He’s done interviews. Everyone knows his real name is Kal’El and he’s a refugee from the destroyed planet krypton, where his entire family died apart from his cousin Zor’El. They live in a crystal palace at the north pole, and spend their time there with the memories of their lost homeworld when they aren’t out protecting the Earth and its people in gratitude for the new home they’ve made here.
Just because you might kniw someone who kind of looks like them doesn’t mean they’re the same person. I had a math teacher who kind of looked like George Foreman and, to my knowlege, has never never been photographed in the same place at the same time with him. That doesn’t mean that the famous boxer leads a secret double life teaching high school kids trigonometry. I know who George Foreman is and I know who Mr. Sherman is and even if they kind of look alike, they’re not the same person.
Psychie
Also, Superman and Clark Kent HAVE been seen at the same place at the same time, on multiple occasions, even on live television in some versions of the continuity.
I mean, seriously, you’re telling me that a guy who can fly in space, shoot lasers outta his eyes, push the planet around, etc. would waste his time playing reporter when he could be anywhere he wants doing whatever he wants?!
The same guy with such a ridiculous savior complex and super hearing that they train people on the other side of the planet to call for him specifically when in danger because that’s the thing most likely to get you saved in the least amount of time no matter where in the world you might be? That guy? You think HE’d waste time he could be saving more cats from trees writing news articles about himself?
I mean, I hear the rest of the Justice League give him a hard time for being TOO GOOD! And you think he’d rather be writing puff pieces for the Daily Planet and making goo goo eyes at Lois Lane than doing more good? That boyscout? Really?
BBCC
Every time I forget about that someone brings it up. Every time it gets funnier.
And damn, Sal, no need to murder her.
King Daniel
Same
BBCC
Also, I “love” that Sal knows her mom is gonna blame her for this shit at some point.
Regalli
Linda Walkerton: You probably can’t expect too little of her. Beyond ‘will probably not personally murder someone.’ I would totally buy her bailing a kidnapper out, though! Wonder what she thinks of Leland.
Since, you know, we’ve NEVER HEARD HER SAY A WORD ABOUT LELAND. (Who among other things threatened Walky pretty clearly in front of a teacher, given Walky’s terrible acting, but you know. He has such potential!)
Rabid Rabbit
Possibly more impressive, Billie knows it first. Look at her posture in the first panel — that’s sheer “So, the obvious guess as to what Linda and Charles’re up to is…” She’s not trying to find an extravagant guess about how they’re being terrible, this is what she assumes is par for the course.
What Sal gets is the way this idea will come about.
King Daniel
The running gag of Billie thinking Sal’s Amazi-Girl always makes me snicker.
Mra
Personally I was getting kind of tired of it.
Diane
Same, been tired of it. I groan each time it comes up.
abysswatcher1993
It has become a dead horse joke.
anonymousethatscurriesinthedarkness
It has morphed from a horse to a donkey and needs to be dropped.
‘Drop the Dead Donkey’ has been the subject of many column inches. Various journalists have with great authority explained its provenance as a well-known industry expression. The truth, sadly, is that the writers made it up.
BBCC
I think it’s hilarious. It’s one of the jokes that disappears for a long time and then just when I forget about it, someone brings it up and makes me cackle.
Rabid Rabbit
My immediate reaction to this strip was “Wait, she’s still on that???”
ValdVin
Given what they’ve all been through (well, not Billie) it’s sort of comforting to go to some of the old conversation beats.
Hornet
Billie’s a smart girl She’ll figure it out eventually.
Some1
Is she though?
Hornet
Kinda-maybe-sometimes-perhaps?
Needfuldoer
She does dumb things the smart way, and smart things the dumb way. Smart things the smart way just don’t seem to stick.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/yikesy/
Jamie
Billie… convincing Linda that her daughter is a vigilante superhero kicking college student ass all over campus is not going to help anything.
Kyrik Michalowski
In honesty, if they found out Sal was occasionally helping Amazi-girl with her thug beatdowns, it would not go over well.
C.T Phipps
“Sal, did you attack that poor white boy [accused of rape by some hussy]?”
C.T Phipps
Ugh, that made me throw up in my mouth a bit.
Sirksome
We still don’t have definitive proof on who Amazi-girl is. Maybe we never have! *Casually burns literal mountain of evidence proving Amber is Amazi-girl*…Maybe we never will.
Reltzik
The tags make it very clear that Amber is NOT Amazi-girl.
…. but if she’s not Amber… and if she’s not Sal… WHO IS SHE???/?
Some1
Faz.
Michael Steamweed
I am here for this alternate timeline comic.
Regalli
Gizmoduck, clearly.
Lingo
Bloodrose.
Mra
Walky, just point out that five different people saw her put on and take off he.mask. She Showed up later because she was released before the rest,
King Daniel
Also she kind of took off her costume in public after confronting Blaine
Mra
And they have been seen in the same space at the same time multiple times before then
Nono
Also they very visibly brawled at a congresswoman’s rally!
Kyrik Michalowski
What good does Walky think Billie can do here? I’m genuinely curious, does he think that Billie can somehow fix this?
FLUFFY
He thinks that their parents are more likely to listen to Billie than Sal.
Regalli
Billie’s the respectable
richwhite-passingdaughter Linda wanted. Billie is therefore better able to leverage ‘what the actual fuck? No, do not try to get a student expelled because her dad’s a kidnapping, murdering mobster, she had nothing to do with that except as a victim! Why are you helping the mobster?’ than Sal is (ie, not at all,) and Walky burned what little credit he has against Linda’s Wanting To Speak To The Manager (which would pretty much just be ‘the surprise of speaking up to disagree at all,’ with MAYBE a ‘I know Mike wouldn’t want Amber expelled’ but who knows,) sticking up for Sal. If Billie says it, well, Sal hasn’t been putting crazy ideas in BILLIE’S head the way she must have with Walky.Nono
The crazy part is that Billie is fairly obviously at least half Asian, so I wouldn’t even say she’s immediately white passing.
Rabid Rabbit
It’s not that obvious! Joyce thought she was Mexican!
Joyce, admittedly, is not good at race.
Anyhow, Billie’s own self-description was “reasonably white passing.”
Needfuldoer
IIRC in the Walkyverse, her mom’s Chinese and her dad’s British.
Headcanon says they met in Hong Kong and emigrated to the US in the mid-nineties before the handover.
Nono
She’s still the same in this universe. But it’s still enough that non-Joyce people can tell; I think Dorothy even told Danny that she was sending a half-Asian cheerleader with glasses his way.
LauraS
On the other hand, Walky is white-passing enough for Linda. By that metric, so is Billie.
King Daniel
IIRC, Billie’s mom being Chinese is specifically for Dumbing of Age, not something that applied in in the Walkyverse.
Regalli
Yeah, ‘white-passing’ (I forgot the ‘reasonably’ which is the necessary modifier) is quoting Billie directly about her surrogate daughter status. If even she agrees with Sal it’s a factor, that’s a sign it’s fairly obvious. (Back discussing the care package cookies and the disparate treatment between her and Sal.)
Walkyverse Billie is white, DOA Billie being half-Chinese is new. (Most visible in the strips around the two late-stage Shortpacked weddings, where her skin is distinctly pink and it is WEIRD.)
Chris
If Amber is responsible for the kidnapping, and Amazi-Girl is Amber, and Sal is Amazi-Girl, then Sal is responsible for the kidnapping. It’s simple logic.
Nono
Sal: Amazi-Girl stabbed me in the hand!
Billie: You stabbed yourself in the hand? D-do I need to get you a number for counseling…?
Newllend(henryvolt)
I forgot for a hot minute she thinks Sal is Amazi-Girl, there are 10 people in total that know that it’s actually Amber and she hasn’t caught up yet….Anyway I feel like what they should do is not bring just one extra person but probably stage an intervention with her along with everyone else who was held captive ( especially including Amber because this would be a nother scenario where Linda is the one I villainizing someone she hasn’t sat down and have a conversation with) and explain to her that she’s taking this out on the wrong person.
JessWitt
Right! I want everyone who was there that night to band together against Linda.
Newllend(henryvolt)
I mean she won’t listen to reason but maybe an group of people in a closed space and a bit of public shaming could help since she so concerned on not looking bad.
JessWitt
Shaming in numbers.
Cmasta1992
Christ Billie is thick as pig shit. She can’t make this situation worse but she’ll definitely try.
Reltzik
… I SO do not agree that Billie can’t make this situation worse.
He Who Abides
No, she’s thicc as pig shit, spell it properly.
Stephen Bierce
*sees the speakers’ circuits are fried*
Imma hafta get back to ya.
Dara