312

Proud
Posted on March 16, 2016 by David M Willis
Hooray!  The Dumbing of Age Book 5 Kickstarter reached $50k, meaning everybody who pledges for a paper book (versus a PDF) will get a free Amber magnet.  That's pretty sweet.  And once we get to $55k, there'll be pledge levels for new Joyce and Billie magnets!

312 thoughts on “Proud”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    “…a-and I’m PROUD she’d be dead! Died a hero! The most heroic corpse in the graveyard! …and she won’t send me any more poop emotes!”

    “u srs bro”

    “…shit”

    1. Shiro

      Ohhh, that’s a cute icon. Have we seen that yet?

      1. No Name

        No, that’s the point.

      2. Eusis

        Actually that one scares me a bit, but we’ll see what happens there!

      3. Kamino Neko

        Well, if you follow either of Willis’s Tumblrs and therefor see the preview panels…other than that, no. (That is from the 21st. So…less than a week.)

    2. Tayo

      This arc is more suspenseful than a Korean drama (I should know, i can’t stop watching/facepalming through them)

      1. A4lbi

        My Love From Another Star messed me up for weeks.

        I cannot handle suspense well!

  2. Jacket

    *Plays some generic suspence music on the Hacked Muzak*

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_upkfAlvBD8&index=28

    1. Stephen R. Bierce

      *follows up with The Little River Band’s “We Two”*
      Listen at your own risk.

      1. Sokol

        Stephen, I just wanted to say thank you for putting up with this freak and still posting superior music.

        1. Stephen R. Bierce

          Musical taste is something people have to go out an acquire as an activity. You can’t expect individuals to possess it universally.
          Unfortunately, those persons born after the middle Nineties are at a particular disadvantage, IMO.

        2. Stephen R. Bierce

          CORRECTION: …”go out AND acquire”…

        3. qman

          I have to disagree there. Kids today can just search for just about anything, from any genre, place, or time period, and listen to it immediately, for free. They can connect with music aficionados of all genres and get recommendations from anyone anywhere on the planet. That’s a huge advantage that the rest of us certainly didn’t have, we just had to listen to whatever our family, friends, and local community had to offer, and stepping outside of that required real time and money, instead of just ten minutes of our time on the internet.

      2. m-m

        so risky!

      3. Uniqueantique

        Agree.

  3. Badeyes

    SAL CARES SO MUCH!

  4. mystseekyr

    Welcome to reality.

    1. StClair

      or as I thought/came to comment:

      “REALITY!” *smack*

      1. Emperor Norton

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7spia6eTjU

      2. Leorale

        If you forget that reality is scary, don’t worry, it’ll remind you.

    2. Screwball

      I reject your reality, & substitute my own…

      1. SmilingNid

        ….for a nickle.

    3. Reltzik

      “Welcome to reality” /

      We’ve got rent and debt

      1. inqntrol

        Also be sure to make a couple of insurances, just in case.

        1. Reltzik

          *guns-n-roses filk fail*

        2. Disloyal Subject

          I thought it was funny.

        3. Leorale

          It’s gonna bring you to your nananananananaknees?! knees?!

      2. CJ

        “But… I had this game-changing idea. Our debt shouldn’t be there any more!!!”
        ?

    4. Rheios

      Well I mean, the reality of it does support his point partially. It just also supports Sal’s point that the girl needs help. They can both be right here.

      1. Charles Phipps

        Too bad the cops will arrest Dorothy for it because, well, in reality they don’t always pay that much attention to facts.

  5. Mr. Mendo

    And that’s Jenga…

  6. Pan

    Right, well I guess that makes you a great sidekick

  7. Shade

    Weren’t expecting that, were you Danny-boy.

    1. Dara

      But if you come, and all the flowers are dying,
      And I am dead, as dead I well may be.
      You’ll come and find the place where I am lying.
      And kneel and say a GODDAMMIT WHAT THE FUCK YOU SAID NO DYING THIS TIME WILLIS! for me.

      1. Leorale

        “Is Danny Queer?” ask nosy folks, while pryin’,
        “Will he give head? Will there be Ethanny?”
        So when he’s tired of base objectifyin’
        He’ll come and say an oy-vey here with me.

        1. davidbreslin101

          Oh Danny boy, the dads, the dads are kidnapping
          Their daughters from the campus hall.
          So I saw red, and once again I did that thing:
          Became a hero, leaping from a wall.

  8. Vagabond J

    Good god. Danny didn’t know this?

    1. Vagabond J

      Alt comment: BLUNT.

      1. Badeyes

        Thats not a blunt, THIS is a blunt-
        $
        $_____
        ||_____>

        Well sort of…

        1. Jacket

          g3t m3 s0m denk ku5h.

    2. Cephalo the Pod

      He tried to get info. Then he kissed Amber halfway through her story.

      1. Sokol

        Kissing never solves anything, really.

        1. Dean

          Not like fisting.

        2. davidbreslin101

          [mentally replaces all gratuitous kissing during a crisis in “Doctor Who” with fisting.] Well, it’s different.

        3. TheNinthShader

          That is the single greatest comment on the entire internet.

      2. Leorale

        Amber/AG was also passed out at this point in the story. She couldn’t have known or told Danny exactly what happened.

        1. Vagabond J

          Wait, she actually passed out after she stumbles off?

          First off, *comic turns to black & white, cuts to a slow-down version of AG falling down* WASTED.

          Second… would she have bled out then? It seemed kind of open ended there.

        2. Screwball

          Well, seems Amazi-girl lost her grip then was dazed when she was flung from the car roof, she was mumbling after Sal caught her. She woke up later Sal talked to her a bit & when Sal mentions she saved Amazi-Girl’s ass, Amazi-Girl is less than impressed…

  9. Cephalo the Pod

    Yeah, how did Sal do that, by the way?

    1. TamiDOA

      Sal found the she had the strength of “ten grinches plus two” because of her big heart!

      (Actually it was just Dumiverse physics. ‘nough said.)

    2. Screwball

      Amazi-Girl practically landed in Sal’s lap, while Joyce provided counterbalance long enough for them to skid to a stop.

      1. r

        I wish motorbikes would skid to a stop instead of turning into catapults.

      2. Inspector Hound

        Which does bring up the question: What does Sal think she was doing?

        Using Sal’s logic, she was endangering both herself and Joyce with that maneuver. Backing up even further, what did she think she was doing when she took after Becky on the motorcycle? Maybe she can justify it by claiming she was merely keeping track of Becky’s whereabouts, but what did she think was going to happen when Becky’s dad looked in the mirror?

        (Note, this is not a “defend Amazi-girl by attacking Sal” post. A-G clearly went way beyond any reasonable response. But Sal’s actions don’t pass that test either.)

        1. Spencer

          She probably was just planning on following after Becky. Sal has previously stated that she thinks police are useless and that you need to take matters into your own hands, so I’m not entirely convinced her telling Amber off was due to her vigilantism; it was because she escalated the situation so much.

        2. thejeff

          I suspect, based on her words at the time, she was more interested in stopping AG from making things worse than anything else. Exactly what would have happened if they’d caught up and AG hadn’t been there in the process of stopping Ross and nearly dying, we’ll never know.
          I don’t really see what Sal could have done with “escalating” the armed kidnapping.

  10. Dr-Calamity

    The story says holy crap, but danny’s face says “oh dear, I’ve gone and peed meself again”

    1. Badeyes

      Close, right region wrong response… He’s got a thing for dark heroine’s, and Sal’s save is heroine badassness.

      1. Sunny

        Soo…. For that Slipshine thingy. Are we getting a threesome with the most epic of all hatefucks and Danny sandwiched in the middle?

      2. TheNinthShader

        Black tar heroine?

  11. Shiro

    Fun pajama time sounds like something this comic needs more of. Patreon strip?

    1. No Name

      Sounds more like a slipshine to me. But then, the point of those is to get the pajamas off so the fun times can commence.

      1. Shiro

        That is not fun pajama time, that is fun not-pajama time.

      2. Bagge

        “…bananas in pyjamas” (if you know what I mean)

        1. Leorale

          I totally know what you mean: that bizarre children’s show of the same name!
          Bananas, in pyjamas,
          Are coming down the stairs.
          Bananas, in pyjamas,
          Are chasing teddy bears…

      3. Disloyal Subject

        I dunno, ignoring the fact that pajamas are still on and proceeding straight to fun times anyway has its appeal.

  12. JessWitt

    Man, secrets on top of secrets. I can’t keep track of who knows or doesn’t know what.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Danny knows Amber is Amazi-Girl, but hasn’t really seen her in action. He just knows she does good deeds and Parkour in a yellow boiler suit.

      Sal doesn’t know Amazi-Girl’s identity, but she has been a firsthand witness to her most dangerous stunts. (She was there for the 1v4 parking lot fight and the Toedad car chase.) As Amazi-Girl’s unrequited archnemesis, she’s more likely to see her self-destructive side than Danny is.

      1. saltchocolate

        Didn’t he see Amazi-girl beat up Amber’s father (in rescuing him)? That was some serious “in action,” IMO.

        1. Oruncrest

          Accordfing to the tags, it was Amber beating up Blaine (in rescuing Danny), so he’s never truely seen Amazi-Girl in action.

        2. Spencer

          Well, he did when she rescued him from Beef and his friends.

          Mostly, though, he’s just into being her Lois Lane. He’s built a narrative where her crime fighting is cool and romantic and then they cuddle later, and since the Blaine fight he’s being gradually pulled out of it.

  13. Mangaseeker

    Wow, poor Danny he is so clueless not only about what Amber does but why she does it.

  14. Mollyscribbles

    probably a bad sign when Sal is being the voice of reason in avoiding a dangerous lifestyle.

    1. Leorale

      True.
      On the other hand, she routinely assesses (and sometimes even mitigates) her own risks in this universe.
      On the other-other hand, I am really appreciating Sal’s truth-bombs, and also wondering where I got this extra hand.

      1. Captain Button

        Mote Prime?

      2. heyman

        Gripping hand…?

    2. Emperor Norton

      I have a feeling that Sal is, at this point, better at assessing the real risk of most things than most of the other characters. She certainly had to grow up faster than a fair few of them, and I reckon that the risks she’s taking are most of the time calculated; and then they end up as experiences that makes her in a far better position to make a call on dangerous lifestyles than f.ex. Dorothy (to mention a person at semi-random).

      And as much as she tries being the aloof rebel, she has this annoying* tendency to actually give a damn about other people. It’s not the first time she’s the voice of reason, and it won’t be the last.

      *For her, that is.

      1. Sam

        I agree very much with you! Sal herself has had to deal with the consequences of her own reckless behaviour in the past so when she sees what Amazi-Girl is doing – things that are even more reckless… it makes sense that she thinks ‘whoa, this has to stop, your pride isn’t worth her LIFE’ because she did come very close to losing it as a consequence.

      2. saltchocolate

        Well said!

      3. Spencer

        I honestly see Sal here as motivated by genuine concern, both for the people Amazi-Girl could hurt, and Amazi-Girl herself. Sal knows what it means to do stupid, violent acts in the name of proving a point, and unlike everyone else, she’s not caught up in the romantic fantasy of Amazi-Girl.

        1. Emperor Norton

          And that’s pretty much what I tried to say; except you laid it out in less vague terms.

          Brevity and clarity, my two eternal nemesises when it comes to writing.

  15. Victor Riley

    Amazi-Girl is a hero with some villainous urges.

    Sal is a (former) villain (and still proud “bad girl”) with some heroic urges.

    I think if they ever have a definitive clash, , the strip is just going to end, because where do you go from there?

    1. Aislashu

      If the battle’s done, and they kinda won, then they sound their victory cheer.

      Maybe they’ll go hand in hand but walk alone in fear.

      1. m-m

        Where do they go from here?

        1. Gui

          Understand they’ll go hand in hand but they walk alone in fear

        2. Dean

          Tell me! Where do they go from here?

        3. Sunny

          Where do they go now? Where do they go now?
          whoooahaho
          Sweet love online.

        4. Mollyscribbles

          The curtain will close on a kiss David knows, we can tell the end is near . . .

        5. Aislashu

          This caused me to binge-play all the Buffy musical songs, lmaor

    2. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      No, they have to merge into one being in order to defeat RyanToeBlaine in the Final Battle of Ultimate Destiny.

      1. Emperor Norton

        Did someone mention Ultimate Destiny?

        1. AndieStardust

          Good guys, bad guys and explosions
          as far as the eye can see!
          And only one will survive
          I wonder who it will be

        2. Emperor Norton

          That song does seem like it would be the absolute dream movie for Michael Bay to make, doesn’t it?

        3. xKiv

          Joyce Brown, in a bloodstained sweater-vest.

        4. Emperor Norton

          In the Dumbiverse, you may very well be right on the money on this. The hidden strengths of Joyce will surprise everyone else.

    3. Mordecai

      Their complete and utter badassery would cancel each other out, reducing themselves to weakly slapping at each other.

      1. achallenger

        someones been watching desert punk i take it

      2. Gordon

        It would be like that scene in the first Pokemon movie with the two Pikachus. One slapping the other and crying.

  16. Papaya Punk Pixie

    C’mon Danny. She’s not handling PTSD healthily. Self destructive behavior is a thing.

  17. CC

    Any bets on what Danny’s gonna do when he finds out about Amber and Sal’s first encounter?

    1. tim gueguen

      Assuming he ever does.

    2. Ctrl+C D@

      No idea, but I bet when the inevitable Sal/Amber confrontation happens he’ll blurt out that he’s been having sexual fantasies about Ethan, causing the whole situation to unravel.

      1. TheNinthShader

        Slipshine with Ethan, Sal, and Amber!

    3. Leorale

      Hug Amber with supportive kisses?

      1. TheNinthShader

        Kisses on the other lips

    4. Briny

      “Do?”

      I don’t really think he’s going to “do” anything.

    5. Bagge

      Worry a lot

    6. Jimmy

      We are definitely getting there, I think. After all, he has no reason not to mention sal when he brings it up and she promptly asks how he knows.

    7. SundaesChild

      Blame himself.
      “…how can this possibly be your f-”
      “I don’t know, but that’s just how it works, okay? I Dan it up.”

    8. Spencer

      Probably freak out and blame Sal and instinctively side with Amber, before realizing that the situation is more gray than he thought. He knows Sal now, so this idea of Sal from five years ago doesn’t really hold any weight over him.

      It’s Ethan’s reaction to Sal that I’m really interested in.

  18. Architex

    SAL ACTUALLY WENT DOWN WITH HIM HAHAHA

    1. Phil

      Yeah, wasn’t expecting that.

      1. Phil

        Also, liking the twins talking to both partners in the relationship.

    2. Reltzik

      ….. rephrase, please. =)

      1. Someone

        “Sal actually went down on him”…happy?

        1. Reltzik

          It does remove the ambiguity, yes.

    3. Bagge

      I love that too. Actually, I think Sal respect how much Danny is living his “harmless dork” style. It takes a certain amount of guts to invite the coolest girl on campus to do laundry with you.

      …in Danny’s case I think is less guts and more “what, it might be embarrassing? Please, life, what else is new.”

      1. Someone

        Danny gives zero shits

      2. Leorale

        Sal has been shown to value unassuming, unpretentious authenticity, in her low key kind of way.

      3. Spencer

        Yeah, compared to say, Joyce and her obsessions with the luxurious flowing chocolate river, Danny is fairly natural with Sal. Danny doesn’t seem to approach her as The Coolest Person Ever the way her other admirers do.

      4. Jimmy

        I mean, they’re not exactly strangers to one another. He’s tutoring her, possibly not even charging money, and they’ve played mario kart together.

  19. Wolf

    Since this was getting dark, I’d thought I’d brighten the mood by giving the characters triangle grins.

    http://imgur.com/nQMpWab

    1. Cephalo the Pod

      That was magnificent. It felt like something out pf 8-bit theatre.

    2. Jacket

      Put some happy music to it.

      Bob Ross anyone?

    3. Jay Eff

      Final Panel FTW

    4. Sam

      That last panel is better than the real last panel.

    5. Emperor Norton

      Feel free to do that to every DoA strip. Even ones where they are already smiling. It’s even better than the trick where you replace the punchline in every strip with “Christ, what an asshole!”*

      And especially to all the strips that has the patented “Shocked Joyce”©­™ face.

      *Incidentally, that works really great as a punchline in this strip.

    6. Sageress

      Is it bad that looks like a comic willis would make

  20. caesaria82

    Wow, Sal just putting it bluntly like that is very chilling.

    1. JessWitt

      You can’t sugarcoat castor oil.

      1. No Name

        Despite what Mary Poppins would leave you to believe.

    2. Leorale

      I think that is intentional on Sal’s part.
      You can’t have a truth-bomb without the bomb.

    3. saltchocolate

      Agreed. It’s worth it for Danny to remember that, unlike in the comics, *his* superhero does not have special powers or a billionaire’s stash of gadgets . . .

  21. Just Me

    There are many ways to die. A student plays football, get’s a concussion and dies. Another student get’s plastered at a school party, then either drives drunk, walks into something dangerous, or dies from alcohol poisoning. A gunman comes on campus and starts to shoot up a classroom.

    Yeah, what AG did was reckless and dangerous, the question is, was it worth the risk?

    I think Sal normally likes to play it safe, in her own way. So she expects everyone else to do the same. Don’t get involved, don’t take chances, don’t put yourself on the line. Normally.

    It’s going to be a judgement call on Danny’s part. Will he still defend AG? or will he side with Sal?

    1. lil hanz

      You’re right – people can die from anything. However, crazed gunman aside, every example you gave there are preventative measures to stop them from happening.
      You see your drunk friend about to get behind the wheel? “Hey man don’t drive home I’ll get u a taxi”. You see your mate playing football without the necessary headgear? “Here put a helmet on my dude”. You see your girlfriend engaged in a high speed persuit of a kidnapper? “Maybe don’t do that amazigirl! Bad idea!”
      the point I’m trying to make here is that perceived worthy causes aside, friends shouldn’t sit there and let other friends do dumb life-threatening shit, whether that’s drink driving or trying to stop a hostage situation during a high speed car chase on the freeway

  22. Vinny

    I can see it now, Amazi-Girl’s new, a bit more ethnically diverse, crime-fighting partner – “The Mocha Marauder”. At the last minute, the Mocha Marauder will swoop in on her bike and rescue Amazi-Girl from certain death (or from a felony arrest).

    1. Reltzik

      Nonono. Sal’s going to inherit AG’s mantle when Amber gets psychological help. Fans everywhere will complain that the racial diversity is too PC.

      1. Orion Fury

        I thought that already happened in Shortpacked…

        1. StClair

          All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.

  23. newllend(henryvolt)

    Up to this point Amazi-girl has been taking on small time shit like beating up a couple Drunken college assholes. But now it’s just getting bad.

  24. Lapin

    I really hope this is Danny realizing he’s not Mary Jane, Amazi-girl isn’t Spider-man, and none of this is healthy or safe.

    1. Disloyal Subject

      I think he knows he’s neither Mary Jane or Lois Lane. They’re badasses; he isn’t.

  25. Emily

    Finding out that my partner almost died and then hid it from me would make me seriously reevaluate our relationship, wow. There’s a storm on the horizon.

    1. Screwball

      I wouldn’t say she hid it, I’d say it’s more a case of she doesn’t believe it & she wasn’t conscious enough DURING it to realize what happened…

  26. Ghostforge

    in my opinion the most likely scenario for defusing Amazi-Girl is both Danny and Sal finding out her origin story, then they grab Ethan and stage an intervention.

    1. No Name

      To find out that Origin Story, they need to grab Ethan first, as he is the only reliable witness who knows Amber’s part in it.

    2. Needfuldoer

      Remember how all this started, Sal grabbing Ethan again won’t help!

  27. Carolyn

    He needed to hear it.

  28. BamBamBiggieSmalls

    Why does a Danny reality check (just shook with glee) feel even better when it’s about an incredible situation that none of us will ever deal with?

  29. Uniqueantique

    About damn time someone kicked Danny in the head with the facts of what’s actually going on with Amber A.G.
    Because it surely has looked like his first thoughts are ‘lucky me, all are jealous I’ve got a superhero gf”. and “yeah, she’s had it rough but she keeps on fighting’ yada yada yada.
    Yeah, she keeps on fighting, and she is losing a little bit every day.
    Got a feeling Sal isn’t going to walk away from this, like she did when she left Amber under the tree after saving her ass from the wreak…think she’s figured out that not everyone can put ‘it’ behind her.

  30. Reltzik

    Reality, meet Danny.

    Danny, meet reality.

    I know you’re already passing acquaintances, but I thought the two of you should spend a few minutes getting to talk before going back to not really noticing one another.

  31. Rukduk

    Oh shit, Sal just dropped the hammer. And dropped it hard. The shear shock in Danny’s eyes, while scary, is also probably a good thing. Danny wants to be supportive but this is probably going to convince him to help Amber properly, as he doesn’t want her to die.

  32. Jay Eff

    *reads alt text*

    ALTERNATE TIMELINE:

    Danny: “So, how about that Sports Ball Tournament?”
    Sal: “I enjoyed the part where the Sports Ball was thrown a great distance.”

    1. Dellaran

      Was it steroids?

      1. Durandal_1707

        Actually it was the ball that was on steroids. The cops figured it out when it grew to the size of an Abrams tank and started falling out of the sky and crushing people to death.

    2. StClair

      “Our team scored so many points!”

      1. Screwball

        Your sports team is vastly inferior
        That simple fact is plainly obvious to see
        We’re gonna kick your collective posterior
        Of course you realize we’re speaking figuratively
        Our stats are thoroughly impressive
        Our coach really has the Midas touch
        Our players are fast and strong and brave
        And your guys, eh, not so much

        1. Orion Fury

          Full disclosure, we’re not that great.

        2. Dandi Andi

          I see your Weird Al and raise you Tom Lehrer.
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JIpBsWmzQg

      2. Harvey Janus

        Sports Go Sports!
        Athletics are number one!
        Participants are heroes!
        Go team yeah!

    3. Orion Fury

      So how ’bout them Lions?

  33. TamiDOA

    Knowing AG and Danny, does Sal really believe he would be able to get AG to stop or even change? Or does she just want him to be the one to turn her in to the authorities to “save her from herself”, like Sarah did to her former roommate? (I think it would have similar consequences for Danny as it did for Sarah.)

    1. Leorale

      I’m not sure she’s gamed it out exactly. She recognizes that AG is motivated by dark, reactive emotions, and she knows that something needs to happen to stop AG from killing herself.

      She also knows that she’s not close enough to AG to evaluate what steps ought to be taken or to make them happen in any way.

      Danny’s not the best candidate to cause AG to do anything at all, but he’s in more of a position to do so than Sal is, so that’s all she’s got.

      1. Leorale

        *stop her from killing herself or others, I mean.

        And, fwiw, I think that AG is rad, it doesn’t bother me that she probably breaks laws and whatall, and I like seeing her squirrel around all over campus. I’m just saying, Sal recognizes AG’s tendency to escalate situations towards violence whenever possible, and Sal recognizes that this is likely to eventually get AG and/or others killed.

        1. TamiDOA

          It occurs to me that Sal has also risked getting herself or others killed. Riding a motorcycle at high speeds down sidewalks and stairs with a 1st time motorcycle passenger, and jumping that motorcycle in front of a speeding truck and out of control car with the same passenger, could just as easily ended up with 3 people dead. Both Sal and AG were taking risks with their lives and others to resolve a situation they they choose to get involved in.

        2. TamiDOA

          *situation that they choose

          (way, way past sleepy time)

        3. Disloyal Subject

          The difference is that Amazi-girl escalates when there are other solutions.
          If Sal hadn’t arrived when and how she did, Amber would have been messily dead, precisely because of that escalation.

        4. thejeff

          And the other solution: Let the kidnapper escape with his victim?

        5. Warfoki

          How about telling the cops where is the kidnapper and what is his licence plate number and let them handle it?

        6. thejeff

          You mean like Joyce should have stayed at the fountain to do?

          Amazi-Girl didn’t know any of that. She actually tried to wave the cops down, but they were, reasonably, too busy responding to the “shots fired” call to bother with the skateboarding nut in the cape.

          If Amazi-Girl is to be blamed for escalating the kidnapping at gunpoint, which is kind of a mind-boggling concept in itself and she should have just stayed out and let the police handle it, where does that leave Joyce and Sal?
          Joyce is the one who could have actually provided useful information to the police. Her not calling 911 or at least waiting on scene for the cops was the biggest mistake, if you’re relying on the authorities. But no, Sal’s quite happy to dodge the cops and take off after them, because she’s got no faith in the authorities. What was she planning to do? Just stop Amazi-Girl and make sure Ross gets away? Try to stop him herself, with a motorcycle? Get in a long high speed chase?

      2. TamiDOA

        Sal could easily draw AG into a trap using herself as bait, but her own hangups with authorities probably makes that impossible.

        This all does seem to prove that Sal doesn’t know AG is Amber as some had thought.

        1. Gordon

          That would only work if Sal is aware that Amazi-Girl has a hate-on for Sal in particular. At this point, I doubt that she did.

        2. TamiDOA

          I guess neither the fight in the parking lot or their interactions in the woods made it completely clear to Sal, but she does know AG reacts very negatively to her.

        3. Drs

          Clearly Amazi-girl is racist!
          🙂

  34. nothri

    Sad thing is, neither of them is wrong.

    1. JessWitt

      +1. Alas, both cannot be right.

  35. Tenzhi

    People put their lives on the line for others, or in the name of justice and the public good all the time and get lauded as heroes. But gods forbid if you dress the part, then you’re a crazy person that has to be stopped.

    1. Leorale

      She’s not trying to stop AG because AG dresses funny. She’s trying to stop AG because, as far as Sal has seen, all AG does is escalate situations and make them dangerous for everyone. Sal isn’t saying that AG can’t dress up and learn how to be a firefighter or something, or that AG should stop telling people not to catcall women and take their purses. She’s specifically objecting to the whole getting tossed off a moving vehicle thing, and attacking her in a parking lot for no reason that Sal knows about. She’d object even if AG was dressed as Amber at the time.

    2. Gordon

      Except Amber literally is a crazy* person who must be stopped.

      *Just using your phrasing. Labelling people with mental health problems as crazy is dismissive even in the most mild of circumstances.

      1. Tenzhi

        It’s not dismissive, it expediently communicates a message in layman’s terms without unnecessarily splitting hairs that aren’t relevant to the message and which would be best left to professionals in any case.

        Why must she be stopped? Because she almost died trying to help Becky? It could have gone south for Sal and Joyce, too, who were recklessly attempting the same thing on a motorcycle. But, again, there’s the dress code double standard in play. It’s okay to be self-destructive, angry, prone to violence, jump around like an idiot, tear down others, and be reckless… as long as you’re not dressed like a superhero.

        And I can only see bad things coming from this conversation and Danny’s reaction to it. Frank Miller’s Dark Amazi-Girl Returns level of absurd grim violence.

        1. trlkly

          NO!!!!! You do not get to call a mentally ill person “crazy.” You just don’t. Just like you don’t get to use a certain f-word to describe gay people, and you don’t get to use a certain n-word to describe black people.

          There’s nothing expedient about using a word of derision towards someone because of something that is not within their control.

          It just demonstrates how little you care about them. It is, frankly, a bigoted thing to do.

    3. LooksLikeDaniel

      Sal may not be aware of this, but it was Amazi-Girl who threw caltrops in front of the wheel (the FRONT wheel, no less) of said speeding vehicle so that the tire would fail. At high speed. On the freeway. While no-one was driving. (She may not have realized that no-one was driving, but still.)

      Amazi-Girl caused that car-wreck. Not Toedad, Amazi-girl. Not only that, but she almost caused at least two other accidents, at least one of which involved a goddamn truck. At high speed. On the freeway.

      Why? Because she thought it would be a good idea to play Batman instead of letting the police handle it. At high speed. On the fucking freeway.

      Amazi-Girl doesn’t just put her life on the line for the greater good. She puts herself and everyone else in danger by taking stupid, unnecessary risks rather than de-escalating the situation. It’s one thing to put your own ass on the line, but endangering other people because you’re trying to play hero is another thing altogether. That’s not being a hero. That’s being a hazard.

      1. Tenzhi

        Because police chases, hostage situations, and shootouts always end well without endangering bystanders…

        1. LooksLikeDaniel

          No, but the police have procedures for those situations to minimize those risks. In addition, I don’t know if this is the law everywhere, but in my state drivers are required to pull over to the side to let emergency vehicles through.

          Pretty much everything AG did in that chase with the possible exception of grabbing the wheel (which she should never have had to do in the first place!) increased the likelihood of someone dying.

        2. segnosaur

          Police having procedures to minimize risks only helps if:
          1) The police actually follow said procedures. (A recent police shooting on the Toronto transit system shows that at least some cops are trigger happy)
          2) The police are actually aware of the situation and close enough to help.

          We (meaning both the audience, and Amber/Sal/Becky/etc.) had no idea what would happen if Toedad were allowed to continue. He might have gotten home (where he would be able to fortify himself), he might have ended up in a murder/suicide, etc., and in those cases an intervention sooner than later would be beneficial (even if its by an un-trained Amazigirl rather than a trained policeman).

          It should also be noted that during the chase, Amber actually attempted to get the attention of the police (but failed to do so), so it seems that even she has at least some idea of her limitations.

          This doesn’t necessarily mean she isn’t crazy… just that the idea of trying to help in a risky situation isn’t necessarily a bad decision.

        3. bryy

          I want you to step back and realize you’re defending a crazy person.

          And even without dramatic irony, you’d still be defending someone that *dresses up like a fantasy character* and *actively looks for crime* so they can *stop it*.

          And even beyond that, you’re talking about someone going from being store security and a date rape lookout straight to trying to navigate a high speed chase against a guy with a shotgun that has proven he is not afraid to kill.

        4. LooksLikeDaniel

          Now, I kind of want Amazi-Girl to start yelling, “SHUT UP, CRIME!” when she beats people up.

        5. Disloyal Subject

          Single-shot low-caliber rifle, not a shotgun. Still dangerous, since it’s, y’know, a gun, but rather less so than a shotgun.

        6. Tenzhi

          Defending a crazy person is actually just a side effect of what I’m doing – beating to death a tired, used up, superhero deconstruction trope. I’d see if someone has named the trope and given it an entry, but I fear that particular rabbit hole.

        7. Liliet

          “I want you to step back and realize you’re defending a crazy person.”
          I want you to step back ane realize you just asserted that mental health problems are insta-reason for people to be entirely discounted and villified to the point that any person protecting them can’t possibly be doing it intentionally.

          Gotta love this comment section.

        8. Spencer

          This. It’s fine to be critical of Amber without descending into ableism.

        9. thejeff

          It’s tricky in this context, cause you’re defending a crazy person who’s a superhero. Not just a crazy person who dresses up like a superhero.

          Willis is crossing genres and tropes here and I’m not sure it’s working for everyone. He’s also having different characters respond as if from different genre perspectives, which is interesting, but also confusing.

          I’m pretty sure the “Amber is just crazy and a threat to her and everyone around her” perspective that Sal’s coming from isn’t meant as the author’s take on the topic. Which isn’t to say that Amazi-Girl isn’t a symptom of Amber’s mental problems and isn’t at all healthy for her.

      2. Charles RB

        “Amazi-Girl caused that car-wreck.”

        I’d forgotten that.

        Thank god the story was running superhero physics in THAT strip – and I mean that honestly, as DoA slips into that and then back itno semi-realism for AG and it could go either way anytime – or Becky would have a few fewer bones.

        1. thejeff

          a) It’s not some random coincidence the strip was running superhero physics at the time. That’s how Amazi-Girl works, since she’s a superhero. It’s not random. It couldn’t just go the other way anytime.

          b) Seems to me there might be someone else responsible for the car-wreck? Hmmm. Who could it be? Oh, yeah! Ross. The one not only committing felony kidnapping and making the whole thing necessary in the first place, but the one who, after AG took out his tires, let go of the wheel and climbed half out of the car to shoot her. (Silly Toedad, even bad action movie villains know to shoot through the roof of the car instead.)

          Also, since it’s come up a couple times, they weren’t on the highway. A main road, but still heading towards the on-ramp. Thus the two way traffic.

    4. Ctrl+C D@

      It all comes down to the fact that Amber isn’t trained or an official of the law. She took gymnastics and has decent hand to hand skills, that’s it. Not to mention all the problems that arise when she tries to actually bring in somebody she caught actually committing a crime.

      Can you imagine all the problems? “Hey officer, I just caught this guy trying to steal a car!”
      “What is your name?”
      “I can’t tell you, it’s my secret identity.”
      “Well crazy person, if you can’t give us official information and expect us to just trust you on your word, then there’s nothing we can do. But while we’ve got you here, maybe you can help us out with these string of complaints we’ve been getting about a chubby little white woman in a gaudy yellow and blue costume beating people up.”
      “…fuck you it’s not gaudy.”

  36. DarkoNeko

    So in the end, she actually chose chatting with him over motorcycling~

    1. Reltzik

      Hey, a spin cycle is a spin cycle.

      1. Screwball

        Is this where someone points out she seems to be sitting on top of a dryer?

        1. Sunny

          Those spin as well. At least some of them do.

  37. Lordmazapan

    Right in the pride!!!

  38. miados

    that “wait what?” face

    1. Reltzik

      More of a “please wait, brain rebooting” face

      1. inqntrol

        “Intelligence.exe. not found”

        1. Orion Fury

          I don’t think it was ever installed.

  39. Jacques Cornelius Parrot III

    I really hope Amber gets her problem with Sal cleared up. I feel like Sal would be a really good friend for her: badass enough to keep up with her, and able to understand and call her on her problems.

  40. Pogo

    At the end, Amber intervening with that wasn’t even necessary. How far could Ross have gotten? Even the first time police missed him, they would’ve caught up pretty fast. Becky had already called the police, and she would have ran away first chance anyway. Joyce and Sal were already tailing them not that safely, but still safer then what Amber was doing. All she did was escalate everything that was already in a dire situation to fatal points.

    1. Bagge

      …given that he didn’t choose to use that gun he was waiving around, which was a disturbingly real possibility. Amazigirl prevented what might have been a very sticky hostage situation.

      1. Charles Phipps

        I’m fairly sure Ross would have killed Becky before he let her escape. Also, the police were nowhere near her. Say what you will about Amber’s risks but she saved Becky’s life.

      2. Disloyal Subject

        Fair point. Even trained specialists in hostage recovery, which those cops probably weren’t, can’t always get everyone back alive.

    2. Tan

      You remember incorrectly. Becky did not call the police until she saw Amazi-Girl

      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/facetoface/ (see the bottom left corner of panel 2)

      Also, I’m not entirely sure that Sal and Joyce would have necessarily been able to engage alone any more safely than Amazi-Girl did. Without Amazi-Girl, without performing dangerous heroics themselves, and without a willingness to contact authorities (Sal doesn’t trust them), what exactly were they going to do? The only reason Toedad didn’t have his gun when Sal and Joyce showed up is that Amazi-Girl knocked it away when he went to shoot her.

      1. brumagem

        An uncomfortable situation of most characters making terribad decisions and still coming to one of the best possible scenarios.

        http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/martin.gif

    3. segnosaur

      This issue was discussed at length during the various comics of the kidnapping story arc.

      My take on it was: Nobody can say for sure what would have happened had Amazi-girl not gotten involved. Its possible that the cops could have stopped him and he could have given himself up peacefully. But its far from the only possibility. He could have gotten home before the police caught up to him and had some sort of armed stand-off (and flying bullets are never safe). He could have found his way to some location with fellow religious zealots to begin Becky’s “fixing”. He could have also killed himself or Becky in order to save their souls if/when the cops arrived.

      So many things could have gone wrong that its impossible to say whether Amber made the situation better or worse.

    4. Spencer

      The way I see it, Amber was meant to be a positive influence on that storyline, in that she rescued Becky, but at the same time it was also exemplary of how Amber will get herself killed if she keeps this shit up, and that’s what Sal is trying to convey to Danny here.

      If you check Willis’ tumblr, he made a post about how he bruised physics to write a story about how Becky will not go down, and how she’s having people team up to save her, and I think Amazi-Girl was a part of that. She did save Becky, and the follow up to that has Sal acknowledge that she underestimated her, while also bringing up how she’s dangerous.

      I don’t think we were meant to read that story and think “man wouldn’t this be so much better if Amber wasn’t ruining everything”, even though that’s how it would go in the real world, where Amber would be dead and there would be no magical mid-air motorcycle rescue. Physics were bruised. That’s why Amazi-Girl was able to stay in the game for so long, because Amazi-Girl stories are usually fantastical.

      1. thejeff

        Yes. I think.

        I’m just not sure how we get from there to “And that’s why Amazi-Girl must be stopped before she gets herself or someone else killed, because realistically, that’s what would happen.”

        1. Spencer

          Well, it’s the truth. About two and a half years of comics have been devoted to how Amber is dangerously unwell and that Amazi-Girl has a hugely negative impact on her life.

          Like, even if Amber was the hero during the car chase, it was still filled with moments where Amber is shown to be deeply troubled, pushing herself to more and more dangerous lengths, and nearly dying. So even if she was the main catalyst for saving Becky, which I believe was the intent of the arc, that if she didn’t, then Becky would have been taken back home and never seen Joyce again, but it still had more focus on why Amber shouldn’t be Amazi-Girl because “Amber shouldn’t be Amazi-Girl” has been her sole storyline since 2013.

        2. thejeff

          It’s the truth, but from a different perspective: Amber’s coping mechanism of pushing everything onto Amazi-Girl is pushing her perilously close to full disassociation. It’s horribly unhealthy and getting worse. She really needs help dealing with her various traumas. “Deeply troubled” is an understatement.
          That doesn’t necessarily mean stopping Amazi-Girl. Best case, it means reintegration and Amber, whether or not she’s dressed as Amazi-girl, can be amazing.

        3. Spencer

          I feel like, since Amazi-Girl has been the symbol of Amber’s worsening mental health for some years now, that when we get to the end of this storyline, she won’t be Amazi-Girl anymore, or at best, we’ll see stuff like her just punching out purse snatchers and bullies and creeps every once in a while. Given how long this storyline has gone, though, I think it’s more likely that she stops completely.

        4. thejeff

          Unlikely. Willis likes drawing action scenes.
          Of course that may just mean we won’t be reaching the end of this anytime soon.

          Beyond that, suppressing an alter isn’t usually the best way to treat DID. Integration is. Which would allow for an Amazi-Girl who is still Amber.
          Disclaimer: That’s my understanding anyway. Purely what I’ve picked up here and there as a layman.

        5. Spencer

          I think we have to be reaching the end soon. Amber’s entire storyline for the last three years has been dealing with how harmful being Amazi-Girl is to her. I can’t see it lasting past 2017.

        6. Random832

          > Which would allow for an Amazi-Girl who is still Amber.

          I feel like this is conflating the personality and the costume, since Amazi-Girl describes both. The ideal end result is that she integrates the personality but hangs up the costume (since the stuff that Amazi-Girl does while wearing the costume is generally dangerous and often illegal)

  41. Sam

    Ughhhhh all of these children are so dumb and…I realized I was about to level this criticism against a comic literally titled “Dumbing of Age” wow. Truth in advertising right there.

    PS: Sal’s argument would be more effective if she didn’t regularly drive a motorcycle, drink while underage, habitually sneak out windows, and get herself in the middle of all of Amazi-girl’s shenanigans during said truck escapade. Pot calling the kettle black, all I’m saying. Now to sleep off this headache from caffeine withdrawal.

    1. Petra

      I sort of figured Sal could identify how dangerous and self-destructive this behavior was BECAUSE she had the tendency to engage in similar behaviors, such as robbing a convenience store at gunpoint for attention.

      1. Screwball

        Naa, wasn’t a gun, it was a knife, but still, I think I get the point…

        1. Orion Fury

          Hopefully the plot thread won’t unravel.

        2. Ctrl+C D@

          Sal sure as hell did.

    2. Ashley

      Just because the pot is calling the kettle black doesn’t mean the kettle isn’t black.

    3. ninja_jesus

      The whole “pot calling the kettle black” argument is garbage.

    4. Chubsius

      I think Willis once described life and getting older, not as getting wiser, but as a long process of unstupiding (to paraphrase). I like that outlook.

  42. Bagge

    But she would have acted with integrity.

    1. Orion Fury

      And had no regrets?

  43. Ashley

    I wish two people that cared about me had a conversation like this.

    1. Leorale

      Maybe they do….

  44. EvilWriter

    How long has it been in universe since the Amazi-Girl article came out? Because Sal’s trying to inject reality into this conversation… but it seems to me that in any realistic scenario, Amazi-Girl would have been outed and taken down almost immediately. Especially what with her assaulting people all the time. And Dorothy would have suffered some major repercussions for hiding the identity of someone guilty of assault and battery at the very least.

    Sal’s dedication to reality seems to not fit into the universe at large.

    1. Charles Phipps

      I imagine they want to give her a medal, not arrest her.

    2. segnosaur

      It is a comic, so a little bit of suspension-of-disbelief is in order.

      Its also possible that many (most) of the victims she has assaulted wouldn’t necessarily go to the police, either for egotistical reasons (like her dad, or the bullies that were going to beat up Danny), or because they were in the process of committing a crime themselves. (“Officer! I was assaulted! Any witnesses? Just the woman who’s purse I was stealing”.)

      The police might have read about her exploits in the school newspaper, but without actual police reports or firm evidence, they might not believe the accounts or have enough reason to pursue the case.

    3. brumagem

      To answer your question (without taking the trouble to actually research the chronology), I think it’s been around ten days since the article.

    4. Adam Black

      Dorothy didnt reveal in the article, that she knows Amazi-girls identity.

      Danny and Ethan also know.

    5. John

      There have been several Amazi-Girl articles. Billie’s ran Monday of Week 2. Dorothy’s article about the chase ran Monday of Week 4, and she figured out Amazi-Girl’s identity that night. Amazi-Girl granted her an interview the next night, which ran Wednesday of Week 4. Today is Saturday of Week 5.

      1. DinaWho

        Dorothy may have also written an article about the shooting/chase sometime in the timeskip from Monday (she had a press pass at the hospital, if I recall correctly). Possible but unclear if Amazigirl would have been mentioned there as well.

        1. Spencer

          Danny mentioned that Dorothy wasn’t telling him anything about what happened, Dorothy said she got into the hospital because she was Press, and yesterday’s strip indicated that Dorothy has heard that the cops are after Amazi-Girl, so I’m pretty sure Dorothy did write an article about it, and she probably did mention Amazi-Girl.

  45. BenRG

    Well, that is good of you, Sal but that doesn’t really change the core of Danny’s position on this.

    1. Fwip

      No, but it might force him to confront the actual weight of his words. Big difference between saying them in the abstract and saying them with full knowledge of their actual meaning.

    2. Spencer

      I feel like, while absolutely well meaning and talking about how proud he is of Amber for standing despite what she’s gone through, Danny is still approaching this from his comic book fantasy. Beating the psychological problems out of you is a thing that happens with regularity in superhero comics.

      It’s like, yeah he’s proud of her because she’s still standing after going through over a decade of torment, that’s wonderful and Amber deserves support, but she still would have died if it wasn’t for Sal.

  46. Rage

    If ya hadn’t been there when she was a kid, she wouldn’t have been involved in the chase in the first place.

    1. Ctrl+C D@

      If A hadn’t been where B was then C wouldn’t have happened.

      Bridge done been crossed.

      1. Spencer

        Yeah, if it wasn’t Sal, it would have been something else. Amber’s rage was already there due to a lifetime of abuse at Blaine’s hands.

        Admittedly, maybe she wouldn’t dress up like a superhero if she didn’t have herself an Uncle Ben moment.

  47. Fwip

    To be honest, I’m surprised Amber isn’t missing an arm even with the help she got.

  48. Spencer

    I’m kinda surprised Danny needed someone else to tell him that Amazi-Girl is destructive and unhealthy given the last chapter, but I figure Ethan telling him to just wait it out with her might contribute to him assuming everything was on the level again.

    Anywho, I’m mostly convinced now that Sal hates Amazi-Girl a lot less than I previously assumed, as she brings up the parts about how she almost died, rather than how she tried to pick a fight with Sal and her friends. Maybe Sal does see that same anger and despair she had when she was a kid in Amazi-Girl.

    1. JQuire

      Oh yes, that thing about Ethan acting as a bell weather for Danny’s response to Amazi-girl. But Ethan doesn’t really seem to have any better a grasp on Amber’s need for professional help. His last advice to Danny was based on ‘well she seems to balance herself out’ without really grasping the magnitude of the stuff that Amber’s currently processing and the level of dysfunction in the way that she’s doing it…

      1. Spencer

        Yeah, and that’s how it’s gone before after Amber broke down post-dad beatdown. She disappears for days on end, and suddenly she’s talking about how everything is fine and wonderful, so Danny doesn’t have to worry anymore. Things sorted themself out! Time to date my superhero girlfriend again!

        And then he has the same song and dance, where Amber visibly breaks again, and Ethan, who has seen this before, just tells him to hang in there because she’ll be fine eventually. So that’s what motivates Danny here, when Sal is criticizing his amazing wonderful superhero girlfriend; yeah she has problems but she fights and thats why im pro-oh whoops you mean she actually would have died.

        I think this is the point where Danny can’t keep hiding in the “things will work out” hole, and he realizes he needs to do something.

        1. JQuire

          Yes. Though, Danny seems kind of prime material for developing a martyr complex that absolutely wouldn’t help things. In an ideal world he will realize that he’s in over his head and doing something will mean seeking help outside of himself and Ethan.

        2. Spencer

          Well, it’s possible. I think, the way Danny and Amber are positioned now, it can go either way. You know, that Danny’s flaws as a person, his need to place himself beneath is partner, will cause Amber to react poorly, that she becomes convinced that if she stays with him she will inevitably descend into becoming her father, and his passivity stops him taking action to help Amber.

          At the same time, I think that’s selling him short. Danny has been positive for Amber, he’s just too passive to assert himself; that he does love Amber for being Amber, that he doesn’t need Amazi-Girl, and that Amber shouldn’t be Amazi-Girl. Whenever he does start cluing in that things are wrong he takes measures to try and help. He tried to suggest seeking help after Blaine, he went to Ethan after her breakdown, and he’s still hearing Sal out even though, for all he knows, she’s just there to talk shit about Amber.

        3. JQuire

          Maybe I am selling Danny a little bit short…but he’s been selling himself short at the same time he’s been burying his head in the sand. I worry the only way that he knows how to be supportive is by putting someone else first to the point of his own detriment.

          It’d be great to see him confront AG about her problematic behavior by pointing out that she’s going to get Amber killed. Or break it off with AG because Amber’s well being is non-negotiable and AG threatens that. But I can’t see that happening.

          I dunno about your read on the conversation with Sal. They have a friendly relationship and Sal’s body language and approach convey concern and a desire to approach the matter with delicacy….not just to shit talk. I think Danny’s hearing her out more for himself, and to harmonize the relationships he’s building more than anything.

        4. Spencer

          I feel as if people read Danny as a little too submissive because of that line he gave to Amber. He has stood up for himself multiple times over the course of the comic, even against people he usually would kowtow to, like Joe, Dorothy and Amber. Which, you know, self esteem issues aren’t good, but it’s not the end of the world. Danny’s not doomed to being somebody’s punching bag because he has a tendency to put himself down, let alone Amber’s, who had a panic attack over almost swearing at him.

        5. JQuire

          Mmmm. Not what I said. There’s a difference between being doomed to be someone else’s punching bag and consistently choosing to sublimate your needs and well being for someone else. Danny can push back – and in a way that can be, frankly, kind of ugly. Though, usually when he’s pushing back he’s defending Amazi-Girl/Amber. Here, to Amber on family day…

          But he also chose his college based on a girlfriend and the exhibits the kind of blind loyalty that leads to not making the best choices for him.

          As for Amber…her panicking over almost swearing at him doesn’t mean that she’s omg so sensitive to her treatment of him that it’s not a danger. She’s scared of being like Blaine – and with good cause. She has rage issues and they can carry her away even with those closest and dearest to her (see the Ethan table flip).

        6. Spencer

          Danny’s not perfect, he has bad shit to work through, and his mixing loyalty with subservience is one of them. It doesn’t mean it’s this enormous problem for him that’s sabotaging his life. Folks have flaws.

          And I just don’t see the way he treats Amber as blind loyalty. He’s not, like, just sticking with her because he’s her boyfriend and that’s his only role in life. He even says as much to Joe, where he thinks that it’s not about romance anymore, and that Amber just has bad shit he wants to help her through because he cares about her.

          Anyway, people treat Amber’s lashing out as some huge proof that she’s just one second away from Blaining it up, and I think that’s a reductive view of her character, because we are literally never going to see Amber become the abuser she’s terrified of ending up as. Amber has deep seated rage issues, and she can’t just not have them anymore than Walky can’t be honest about his problems with Dorothy. When you put up with a lifetime of abuse, bad shit rubs off on you and you have to deal with it. Even with Ethan, it was just a table, for god’s sake. It was picked back up and the day went on. I punched a hole in a wall once because I was genuinely so angry it was either that or square in my abuser’s face. It doesn’t make me a violent, uncontrollable nutcase. People are allowed to fuck up sometimes.

        7. JQuire

          Hey, you’re reading too much into what I’m saying about Danny. To circle back around to my point – he has the makings for martyr complex and as much as I’d like to see him confront Amazi-Girl about the danger she presents to Amber I don’t think he’s got the tools. But hopefully he’s getting the wakeup call he needs to go to someone that does have the capacity to help her out. None of this should be construed to say that Danny can’t have flaws.

          As for Amber…her table flip is very different from your thing. Sounds like you had a pretty understandable response to the way you were being treated by a person who understandably pissed you the fuck off. I kicked a hole in the wall once in a not dissimilar situation.

          But the table flip wasn’t just a table flip. Saying she’s never going to cross that line or be really close to it is wishful thinking. The table flip was Amber crossing, or at least coming really damn close to the line. Look at her (http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/promised/), she’s yelling at Ethan. She’s looming over him threateningly. And she’s flipping the table in an angry and violent outburst as a result of not being able to get Ethan to comply with her desires for his life choices. Bullying that comes from a need for control. And then she stops off to assault Joyce in the next strip.

          None of which is to say that she’s doomed to become a Blaine. She’s pretty horrified by her actions afterward, and tries to cope with them through Amazi-Girl….but she’s not doing it well right now.

  49. Irune

    No one can dispute that Amber’s actions as AmaziGirl has done good for the people she’s helped and shows a fight and strength Amber has for being able to do it.

    However, no one can dispute either that Amber hs endangered her life and others in the process and in many ways her fight and strength mask a problem she has inside her that needs to be addressed.

    I like Amber and Amazigirl. Hell- her feat rescuing Becky was amazing and showed such power. I admire it [tho it is a comic] But while we can’t know what could of happened had she not intervened- the results were good this time.

    But that’s the problem. This time the results were good. Amber could’ve died. And if she had not managed to turn the wheel- everyone in that car and maybe even the truck could’ve died. Then what kind of story would it be? And what if there’s an escalation next time? Of any variety? It wouldn’t even need her to be throwing herself in a car chase- what if she pisses off the wrong angsty tagger who has a gun and a trigger happy finger?

    True any person can die from anyone at anytime. But constantly putting yourself in those situations does drastically raise those chances.

    Reality is here and now it needs to be dealt with.

    1. thejeff

      Reality isn’t here. This is fiction.

      1. Irune

        oh my is that what this comic is?

    2. Charles RB

      “No one can dispute that Amber’s actions as AmaziGirl has done good for the people she’s helped ”

      Though she also once tried to start a fight with people for drinking around campus and just being arses, and another fight with people rollerblading. We can definitely dispute if this is a great good and not just that she’s very lucky she hasn’t beaten up the wrong person or someone who nobody would agree should’ve been thumped.

      1. thejeff

        I don’t recall two incidents. The only one I remember is when she tried to provoke Sal and her posse into a fight – who were both drinking and some on rollerblades. And that was portrayed as a bad thing and her losing it due to recognizing Sal.
        And she still didn’t just attack, but tried to provoke Sal to doing so, which should have worked, since Sal is her evil Criminal Nemesis. That it didn’t was very confusing for her.

        I strongly disagree that it’s just luck. Any more that it’s just luck that Batman or Spider-man don’t beat up the wrong people all the time. She’s a superhero and plays by superhero tropes.

        1. Amazi-Stool

          It probably was not what Charles RB was (mis)remembering, but Amazi-Girl actually fought a guest of a college party (for wearing sunglasses at night?).

        2. Spencer

          That would be one of the guys who tried to beat up Danny, and at the party punched another dude.

        3. Irune

          yeah but where spiderman had- you know powers and batman has the genius to build a suit with armor and the money and know how to create weapons and mastered the art of nearly every fighting style known to man- Amber has herself, a jumpsuit, little to no weapons, and basic fighting know how.

          Are we really going to say that Amber could stand up to a “villain” better than spiderman or batman?

          Doubtful.

      2. Irune

        at that point I wouldn’t say she’s trying to help them now is she?

  50. JQuire

    Ahhh, Danny. This *is* the moment you realize that there’s a huge gulf between carrying on through hardship to try and improve the world and transmuting hardship into an excuse to fight people fueled by nihilistic disregard for your own well being. That last panel is the lightbulb coming on and Danny finally being able to see that Amazi-girl is self-destructive in the most literal ways possible.

    1. Ettel

      You’re giving him too much credit xD

      1. JQuire

        Ha. Yeah, probably! But at least it’s finally clicking that things are at a level of danger that he can’t just gloss over anymore?

  51. Sam

    Willis said on his blog that this entire story arc with Becky was a subversion of what usually happens to lesbians in works of fiction, to the extent that he has intentionally ignored the laws of physics in this whole hostage shooter incident to show that the entire universe is bending itself in favor of this queer girl being safe.

    In the context of Amber, what she did was a terrible idea and yes, she should have waited for the police. You should not exact vigilante justice on an angry, violent guy with an actual loaded gun during a high-speed car chase using your experience in gymnastics and hand-to-hand combat. People survived for the sake of this story. A more likely ending would be either a police chase in which Toedad/a few state troopers die or take injuries or any/all of the people on this high-speed chase dying.

    Regardless, Amber has shown that her vigilantism is a really violent and unhealthy result of the traumas that she has suffered. She has violently assaulted a completely innocent person because of their character at least once, and I suspect that there’d be more situations like that outside of the comic. She actually went up the roof and put on the AG costume to keep from stabbing Sal in the hand for talking to her and helping her pick up her laundry. I can understand needing space, but this is a direct correlation between violent feelings and wearing a hero costume under the guise of justice.
    Heck, probably the most memorable act she’s committed (and the one that we see flashbacks to a lot when she has problems) is her stabbing Sal in the hand after she’s already in police custody. She had her reasons, but it ain’t such a good plan to have justice meted out by somebody who uses physical violence as a means of coping with trauma.

    1. thejeff

      When did Amber (or Amazi-Girl) violently assault a completely innocent person because of their character?

      1. Spencer

        Sal and her friends. Malaya may have tried to make the first hit, but Amber was deliberately trying to provoke them, it’s just that they weren’t interested in dealing with her bullshit.

        1. Marie

          Yeah, Sal was even like ‘oh, you’re the worst type of person. Anyway, nah.’

        2. trlkly

          Which is you explaining why what they said literally did not happen.

          The rewriting of what Amber/AG has actually done is one of the things that really bothers me about all this.

          She is specifically shown as starting the violence first. And I happened to just learn that violence is not illegal if it’s proportionate, to my dismay.

      2. thejeff

        I’m certainly aware of that and it’s definitely her low point, but I’m not sure it’s what Sam meant. I wouldn’t call that “has violently assaulted a completely innocent person because of their character”.

  52. Charles RB

    “Yet she STILL FIGHTS! And by that I mean she GOES OUT AT NIGHT to find people to PHYSICALLY PUNCH IN THE FACE! She uses VIOLENCE on people BREAKING CAMPUS RULES! I am SO PROUD of that!”

    1. Heavensrun

      She doesn’t use violence on anybody that isn’t already using violence, and she goes after people breaking actual laws, not just campus rules.

      1. Spencer

        The people she’s hit so far have been:

        Beef and his friends when they were ganging up on Danny, and again at the party after they beat up someone else.

        One dude who was harassing a woman.

        Two purse snatchers.

        Maybe one guy who was going to toss a cement girder through a window, it was never followed up on.

        Malaya, after she charged at her, and later kneed her in the gut, when she was trying to provoke Sal and her friends into a fight.

        Otherwise, she’s stolen a sign from two dudes (and specifically had to do it non-violently because they wouldn’t fight) who were going to tag it, whereupon she cleaned it up and brought it back and told Duncan to put his beer away.

        I think Danny meant “fight” in the sense that she presses on, rather than getting into actual fisticuffs.

        1. Gordon

          You forgot that time she assaulted Mike for an interrogation during the whiteboard dingdong bandit story.

        2. Spencer

          It’s Mike. Who cares.

        3. Gordon

          In that instance, he had done nothing wrong, so the violence was unprovoked. All because someone drew dicks on whiteboards.

          Dumbiverse!Mike can be mitigated almost entirely by just not talking to him. It baffles me why people ever do.

        4. thejeff

          Yeah, but he liked it. 🙂

        5. Amazi-Stool

          It was Mike who drew the first dick!
          (And threadened to repeat the act, which could/should be considered sexual assault).

        6. JQuire

          Nooo….still not justified.

  53. Kaffeeteria

    I’m really beginning to like Sal.

  54. Captain Button

    “Amber, we need to talk about Amazi-Girl. We think you need get help.”

    ‘Who is we? ‘

    “Sal and I.”

    ‘SAL?!‘

    1. Heavensrun

      I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Amber still doesn’t know her name.

      1. Spencer

        She doesn’t, no.

      2. Amazi-Stool

        ‘SAL who?’
        ‘That girl with the long black hair most often running around in a biker dress!’

  55. Robert

    And pride always goes before a fall, which makes me very nervous now that Amazi-girl is standing on the roof of the dorm.

  56. MapleAmber

    So when Danny confronts AG about this and says, “Well Sal said…” not knowing she’s her “arch nemesis” … oh boy.

    Also, it’d be great if after that, AG confronts Sal and rips off her mask all dramatically and Sal won’t even be surprised it’s Amber (and maybe even remember that it was Amber and Ethan in the store way back when and doesn’t feel like it’s an issue because they never confronted her either and maybe thought they all just wanted to move on).
    Probably not, but hey! Fun times ahead either way.

    1. Spencer

      Ooof, yeah, I think Danny might even bring Sal in thinking she can help convince Amber. Poor guy’s self confidence is just going to snap in two after that.

      I don’t think Sal is going to take it well finding out that Amazi-Girl is the kid who stabbed her, or that the guy she’s been eyeing is the kid she held hostage.

      1. Charles Phipps

        I doubt Sal holds a grudge against Amber since, well, she threatened to murder her friend. Sal isn’t like Ruth and doesn’t have an unawareness of horrific trauma.

    2. Marie

      Yeah, I was thinking that. And I think this sense of life and death might make him ‘side’ with Sal, which might just enrage her on its own.

      On Danny bringing Sal, I sorta doubt it. She knows AG doesn’t like her, and probably has a feeling she’s racist based on previous encounters.

  57. Roborat

    So, is that dryer she is sitting on running???

  58. Charles Phipps

    Given this is reality, I assume the cops will show up on campus and proceed to arrest Dorothy for assault and battery. In simple terms, she fits the description, is friends with Joyce, and did an article about Amazi-Girl which all but admitted she was her (“I know the identity but won’t tell you.”) Any attempt to deny it will just result in the book falling harder on her until she confesses in exchange for not spending the rest of her life in jail.

    1. Lord Stoneheart

      Dorothy doesn’t match the suspect description at all though. And I don’t think she told anyone about knowing Amazi Girl’s true identity.

      Also what crime has she committed that she would spend the rest of her life in jail?

      1. Spencer

        On a tangential note, I feel that if someone else got arrested for knowing Amazi-Girl, say Dorothy or Danny, then Amber would probably turn herself in.

        1. Heavensrun

          You can’t arrest someone for being an acquaintance of someone else.

      2. Charles Phipps

        Aside from blonde hair, Dorothy is very easily mistakable for Amazi-Girl.

        1. Lord Stoneheart

          And build? They might have similar faces but Amazi Girl wears a mask. So really, not seeing it.

    2. trlkly

      WTF is with this bullshit? There’s literally nothing about Dorothy that has any relevance here.

      And you’re actively wanting something bad to happen to someone, despite knowing they are innocent. Do you not realize how fucked up that is?

  59. Amazi-Stool

    The day Sal saved the life of the local superhero was the most important day in her life.

    For Danny the day he learned about that was laundry day.

    1. No Name

      … Clever stool.

  60. Falling Star

    That face seems to be increasingly popular among the cast these days.

  61. Z

    So how does she even know Sal is the one from her childhood. I mean that was what 15 years ago? Does she just wig out when ever she says a vaguely brown girl with black hair?

    1. chomp

      Talking to someone will etch their facial features into your mind. Trauma will carve it in with a jackhammer.

      I have an internet friend who I love to death, but whose face I absolutely cannot look at because they have the exact same jaw, lips, and nose as someone who assaulted me years ago. Hell, sometimes I can get put into fight-or-flight from a certain kind of shrug. Memory is great when it’s terrible.

    2. Heavensrun

      When she first saw her, she was wearing basically the same outfit Sal wore during the robbery. That doubled with recognizing her facial features and her accent brought it all home for her.

  62. Saaaam

    Sal, if we started making sure our friends were leading healthy lives, this comic would be over!

  63. Harvey Janus

    Ahem. This is where I paraphrase a quote.

    Danny, you stupid fool, you are learning. Hopefully it sticks.

  64. trlkly

    Whoa! I didn’t check in yesterday because it was my birthday, and I missed the BEST COMIC EVVARR. Exactly what I wanted to happen. Yeah, he’s proud of her, but he didn’t know some of the worst stuff. He actually stands up for her, and lets Sal know the good stuff she’s done.

    1. trlkly

      But I’m glad I didn’t read the comments. Damn, this is a hate cesspit.

      Am I just going to have to accept that everyone things Danny is evil? Is this place that confused about the difference between good and evil? Do they think it’s okay to hate people who aren’t evil?

      Not a single comment about Danny standing up for his friend, the very thing you guys shat on him for forever. No, it’s just all joys and giggling that he had his bubble burst a little bit.

      Literally everything Danny said is 100% right. And what Sal said is also 100% right. It’s not a case of Sal being perfect and Danny being shit. It’s two different sides, both seeing only a part of the picture.

      I don’t appreciate coming to these comments and feeling like I’m reading shit written by Mary. Please, stop.

      1. trlkly

        Okay, sorry. I went a bit overboard in that comment. I’d only read half the comments. But, damn, I didn’t like the direction that was going.

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