529

Ignore
Posted on September 6, 2016 by David M Willis

529 thoughts on “Ignore”

  1. butts

    oh man

    “i hear your voice in my nightmares” is SO MILLER

    1. Doctor_Who

      He would write it more like:

      “I HEAR your VOICE in my NIGHTMARES.”

      Also he would include the word whore in there somehow.

      1. Woobie

        Earlier, more skilled Miller.

      2. nobodybasically

        Is this All-Star Amazi-Girl, with her sidekick Sal Walker, Age 18?

        1. butts

          I sure hope not. If Amazi-Girl calls Sal retarded, we’ll be right back to square one.

        2. Bird

          I sure hope Sal doesn’t become the sidekick to someone who’s spent most of their acquaintance so far harassing her without explanation.

        3. Thevoiceoftreason

          That’s not how you get a sidekick in Dumbing of Age, that’s how suicidal lesbian romances start.

        4. Raibean

          I’d ship it

        5. Raibean

          AAaaand my avatar is better than my comment. Again.

        6. rachel

          ooooooobviously this ship is STURDY and WELL-CRAFTED. I await it every day.

        7. Spencer

          bwahaha

        8. zoelogical

          i thought danny was the sidekick

        9. Clif

          Too wishy washy. Too easily swayed.

      3. Chief_of_Staves

        “I hear that whore of Babylon’s voice in my nightmares, full of the screaming hell my life has become. I see the blood, the blood she threatened, the blood I drew, and I know, I understand. She is my enemy, and the whore must bleed…”

        Suitably Miller-esque?

        1. butts

          “I whore that whore of Babylon’s voice in my nightwhores, full of the screaming whores my life has become. I see the whores, the whores she threatened, the whores I drew, and I know, I understand. She is my enemy, and the whore must whore…”

          FTFY

        2. Clif

          Now your overdoing it.

        3. butts

          Maybe, but in my defense, so does Willis.

        4. miados

          i know right? i mean three months of comics already made and ready? he puts way more work into this comic than a casual fan like me deserves. i feel bad he puts in so much when i can’t afford to help him out right now. although i do plan to buy some of the comics later or maybe ask for some for christmas from friends if i pass my certification ill be able to try for around then.

        5. butts

          …I meant the whores bit.

        6. DonDueed

          miados, I think you’re probably a rung or two above “casual” on the fandom scale. I mean, you comment on every strip. That requires a certain amount of dedication.

        7. miados

          im a night owl and some nights I am up until midnight just for my job. a few new webcomics and this one allowing comments helps me relax before bed. I read this, questionable content, as they are great about their update schedule, and check a few to see if they did updates. such as goblins.

        8. CJ

          I also had some friends give me the printed comics as a present, it’s great to read the archive offline on occasion.
          For relaxing also try http://www.egscomics.com/
          Though the early ones do have some annoying sexist jokes it is incredible now.

        9. Disloyal Subject

          Ahem…

        10. Disloyal Subject

          Huh. Not sure what I botched there.
          Let’s… try again… *you’re.

        11. ety

          Not sure what you actually typed… but apparently:
          <a>Ahem…</a>

          I sure hope that works.

        12. Spencer

          I still have no idea how to hotlink images on this site.

        13. Willoughby Chase

          Ahem?

        14. Ed Rhodes

          Can you overdo Miller?

        15. Spencer

          0/10 not enough whores

        16. KarkatTheDalek

          Better than what I thought up, certainly.

          Still needs some more arbitrarily emphasized words, though.

        17. Chief_of_Staves

          Allow me to rephrase and slight repunctuate:

          “I hear that WHORE OF BABYLON’S voice in my nightmares, full of the screaming HELL my life has BECOME. I see the BLOOD, the blood THREATENED, the blood DRAWN, and I KNOW, I UNDERSTAND: She is my ENEMY, and the WHORE must BLEED…”

        18. butts

          Yeah, that’s the stuff.

        19. KarkatTheDalek

          I would have done “nightmares” as well, but otherwise, spot-on.

        20. Hilzabub

          Depends. Dennis Miller or Frank Miller?

        21. Solstice

          No, that’s more Alan Moore, circa Promethea.

      4. JetstreamGW

        No no, less coherent.

        I HEAR your voice IN MY nightMARES!

        1. Tan

          Now you’ve just gone Shatner.

        2. SgtWadeyWilson

          I… HEAR your voice… in MY… nightMARES! It says: DAMMIT Jim… I’m a DOCTOR, not… a superVILLIAN!

        3. Wizard

          No, for Shatner you need… random dramatic… pauses.

        4. TheDoctor

          Nah for shatter you just need one thing…..KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN

        5. DSL

          SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!

        6. Fart Captor

          ”From hell’s heart, ah stab at y’all”

        7. Woobie

          “Y’all” is second person plural; mockers often misuse it as second person singular.

      5. davidbreslin101

        “I whore your voice in my nightmares”? or maybe “I hear whore voice in my nightmares.”

      6. Romanticide

        I think this is Miller with an editor, you know the one that suggested to make Robin a girl.

      7. Marisa Mockery

        I actually heard Linkara voice that. Uncanny.

    2. TheAnonymousGuy

      which miller, the one who kinda ruined (he still gets work that I’m aware of) his own career or the one who co-wrote kick ass 1-3?

      1. Needfuldoer

        She also learned how to fund her vigilante career from Herman Miller: by selling office chairs for a grand apiece.

        1. Ntrovert

          Nice. +3 Internets for you…

      2. Willoughby Chase

        I loved the Dark Knight Returns. But on re-reading it you can pick out the problematic bits … Sad waste of a career.

      3. Spencer

        That’s Mark Millar (who is also terrible).

        1. Willoughby Chase

          Miller wrote the sequels.

        2. Willoughby Chase

          Idiot. Mark Millar wrote the sequels.

          Frank Miller wrote DKR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight_Returns

        3. Spencer

          To clear this up.

          Mark Millar is a terrible comic writer who wrote Civil War and Kick-Ass.

          Frank Miller is a terrible comic writer whose parents were shot by a gay black liberal Muslim woman, and wrote Holy Terror and the Dark Knight Strikes Again.

          There are rumours that once, long before time can remember, Frank Miller was a competent writer who broke grounds in cape comics with works like Daredevil, the Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One and Wolverine. Sadly, records of this mysterious good writer are hard to verify.

        4. Willoughby Chase

          Ah, glad we got *that* sorted.

          Batman: Year One was good as well.

    3. BenRG

      Let’s face it, I’m pretty sure that Amber read the complete works of Frank Miller (including complete bombs like DKR2) before creating the ‘Amazi-Girl’ persona and it shows.

      1. Spencer

        There’s no way Amber read DKR2 because nobody reads that and comes out of it still able to enjoy superhero comics.

        1. showler

          Somebody got to her in time with a dose of Ms. Marvel.

        2. Spencer

          I believe it. Ms. Marvel is the best comic out from the Big Two right now. It pretty much entirely got me back into superheroes in a major way along with Squirrel Girl.

  2. Porto

    …Huh. That de-escelated quickly.

    1. Apostate

      No it hasn’t. Deep breath before the plunge.

      1. miados

        no its just being redirected

      2. Apostate

        Oh hey, new gravatar that matches my gender identity. Nice!

        1. Skater Girl (@syleegrrl)

          I had to make my own to stop being a blonde British dude.

        2. Orion Fury

          So you identify as a purple electric guitar? Should I be using title case there?

        3. trlkly

          Same. Put together a few different Willis characters to get a guy who sorta looks like me. Hate that he’s facing the wrong way and with those shifty looking eyes. But it looks wrong when I tried to fix either of those.

        4. ety

          Something like this? Spent all of 2 hasty seconds on this, so no worries if it’s lame 😛

        5. ety

          Well, I should have figured that wouldn’t work…
          This Here

        6. ety

          or not…

          https://s21.postimg.org/mqq6es8ev/Untitled.png

          ???

        7. trlkly

          Finally got it! Looks great. When I flipped it or messed with the eyes, they always came out looking weird.

          Thank you!!!

        8. ety

          No Problem! ^_^

    2. butts

      It’s a temporary truce. Enemy of my enemy, and all that.

      …And Ryan sure is their enemy.

      1. miados

        the enemy of my enemy might still be my enemy. but if i make them fight i can pick of the winner with little effort.

        1. Achallenger

          relationship status: complicated

        2. miados

          relationship status: bsod

        3. ety

          relationship status: bofh

        4. butts

          relationship status: slipshine

          (come onnnnn, most sapphic of hatefucks)

        5. miados

          i think my current one would be described as. OS not found.

        6. Orion Fury

          Keyboard not detected, press F11 to continue.

        7. ety

          “not properly grounded, please bury computer”

        8. darkoneko

          Urgh.

        9. Willoughby Chase

          relationship status: Bastard Operator From Hell has just *fixed* my computer.

        10. ety

          Good luck. You’ll need it.

        11. Chief_of_Staves

          “The enemy of my enemy is my enemy’s enemy. No more, no less.”

          —A rather unSchultzian Charlie Brown

        12. Doribi

          I see someone reads their 70 Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries

        13. Drakey

          Amazi-Girl is air-droppable at least once.

          If Amazi-Girl is good enough, the troops won’t complain about the incoming Toedad.

          There is no overkill. There is only Amazi-Girl and “I need to reload.”

          Amazi-Girl and friendly fire should be easier to tell apart.

    3. Mouse

      Haha. That was what I was thinking ALMOST EXACTLY but I couldn’t come up with the “de-escalated” word. Just “… I’m thinking of escalated but very much not that.” So thanks. <3

    4. Bagge

      I know, right? Most hopeful thing Amazi-girl has done in ages.

    5. Trae Dorn

      This is the point where they both figure out there mothers’ names are both Martha.

      1. SgtWadeyWilson

        No no no, this is old school. Nobody had to bring mothers into it when Archie teamed up with the Punisher.

        1. HeySo

          Which one is Archie, and which one is The Punisher? :’P

        2. SgtWadeyWilson

          How is the answer not obvious?

    6. Fedora Ferret

      Well yeah, there’s a cinnamon roll to avenge.

  3. MightionNY

    Hush, skeptic. I’ma waitin’ for the teeth-kicking.

  4. Mr. Random

    …. Amber too.

  5. Mordecai

    I didn’t expect this, but I like it.

  6. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    Collar tug?

    1. Reltzik

      You know, an attempt at loosening the collar because you’re nervous, usually accompanied by sweat and a bit of a forced grin.

      In this case, “uh, that goes for me too, I guess, because I’m also following her around and threatening her?”

    2. Viktoria

      I read that as “collar thug”, which was even more confusing.

      1. butts

        “Call her thug” is basically what that whole crowd has been doing since Amazo got there.

        1. miados

          well i doubt they noticed her much until she over the shoulder body slammed amazigirl. it makes a first impression to people that are fond of amazigirl.

          we know her well beyond that so we have a better way to judge her.

        2. butts

          Yes.

          Also her skin is brown.

        3. miados

          but she did have that before the over the shoulder body slam and nobody seemed to care at that point. she was just standing there talking prior to that and it didn’t seem anyone noticed/cared.

        4. ety

          It just made it far quicker and far easier for them to make the connection to “bad” once they had even the smallest reason to.

        5. Leorale

          As soon as Sal attracted any attention, it was gonna be more negative than the attention towards a white person performing the same action. “Thug” is a racial code-word (like “urban” but even moreso). A white person may have been regarded with suspicion but wouldn’t have been called that. Perhaps somebody would even try to talk the white person down, instead of calling for Sal to get punched in the face.

          Also an interesting parallel to Carla’s understanding that, to be accepted in society, she has to make up for being trans by being the “perfect girl”. Sal shouldn’t have to behave herself to avoid racial invective and immediate calls for violence towards her.

        6. miados

          huh i’ve seen thug used to describe a fair amount of white people, mostly when i was still in highschool, for both real people and fictional characters. and this is not news/tv uses it is real life people i was able to talk with.

          thats my experience at least. Seeing as how that is just my experience i dont have enough for an overall data analysis though. After all one persons experience isn’t enough to figure a whole but it is all that one person knows for sure hasn’t been swayed.

        7. Baf

          My experience is that “thug” used to be racially-neutral, but has been used in an increasingly racial way over the last couple of years. There’s sort of a feedback loop in effect: the more it gets used in a racially-coding way, the less people want to use it in any other way lest their intentions be misunderstood.

          It’s a weird thing, too, because the word’s *origins* are racially-coded. It comes from the cult of the Thuggee (you know, the bad guys in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). So originally, “thug” connoted “Indian”. But apparently its meaning got generalized to all violent ruffians sometime in the 19th century.

    3. Foxhack

      You know Rodney Dangerfield? That thing he always did? That’s it.

      Unless you don’t know who that is so I’m old and I’ll shut up now.

      1. JessWitt

        You’re not old, just cultured.

        1. Leorale

          Foxhack is so cultured that they’re placed next to the yoghurt.

        2. ety

          You ever read something that makes you angry, because you wish you were that clever.

        3. Foxhack

          I was called spoiled milk. ;_;

        4. Leorale

          Spoiled milk? Please don’t cry over that!

          (Also yoghurt is delicious.)

      2. showler

        Amazi-Girl did a Triple Lindy? But she has no pool to land in.

        1. Orion Fury

          Up for a round of poker?

      3. Scoops

        Jon Stewart would do it sometimes, is that more “hip” as the kids call it?

      4. miados

        my first thought of rodney is the fact he is mr burns son on the simpsons.

    4. Willoughby Chase

      I’d’ve gone for having “collar felt” which is slang for arresting some one.

      “Here, the sweeney felt my collar a coupla years back. Had to do porridge in the scrubs.”

    5. Cybersnark

      As demonstrated by Mr. Spock.

      http://media.giphy.com/media/kLLZ2EYHedi2A/giphy.gif

  7. Amber

    I mean really who doesn’t hear the voice of someone they despise in their nightmares?

    1. Reltzik

      I don’t! My nightmares are filled with the voices (and faces) of people I care about.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        Well, despising someone is caring about them

        1. miados

          they do say love and hate are two sides of the same coin. extreme emotions. indifference would be a good opposite i think.

        2. Reltzik

          Yeah, well, not people I despise.

          …. I don’t really have anyone I despise on a personal level. Some public figures, but not anyone I have regular contact with.

          No, my nightmares usually involve friends and family turning on me in one way or another. If they were enemies, that wouldn’t be nearly as nightmarish.

    2. JustCheetoDust

      What, people can’t have nightmares that take the form of silent pictures?

      1. ety

        I had one that was a series of red on black silhouette flashes….. One of my weirdest dreams to date…which may or may not be saying anything at all.

      2. Clif

        Only if they’re psychopaths or truly truly evil.

        You don’t have silent picture nightmares do you?

        No? Funny, that’s what all the really bad ones say.

        1. miados

          i dont remember ever having a dream or nightmare in my whole life. i likely do have some since i have talked in my sleep at times but still.

        2. Drakey

          Also, having reached a stage of development where you can type a coherent comment on a webcomic instead of having died of exhaustion very early in your life is a pretty good indicator that you dream.

        3. Clif

          This too.

    3. Tacos

      But… I don’t have dreams. I think? Can’t remember anything when I wake up.

      1. Sam

        You likely do but your brain must delete them all before you wake up. Even people that remember their dreams only remember bits and pieces mashed together from a bunch of them.

      2. Orion Fury

        I do believe you need to dream. I think the medical term for when you don’t is ‘go crazy’.

        1. Moridinman

          According to Piers Anthony, that just makes you a demon.

    4. SgtWadeyWilson

      So you’re saying one’s brain takes time off from every nightmare being complete suspension of disbelief for all monsters in horror movies, the Monstrous Manuals, and one’s own sketchbook to be worried about more realistic enemies?

      That sounds dull. (Sarcasm… mostly.)

  8. AutobotDen

    YAY!

  9. WhowasI

    Is there a scratch on Sal’s face in the last panel?

    1. Fart Captor

      I think that’s just a line under her eye as she twitches in response to what AG is saying.

    2. WhoWasI

      We appear to have the same name I’ve been using for several weeks. Do you have a prior claim?

      1. JessWitt

        ooohhh, awkward.

      2. Foxhack

        … Well your name seems to be asking who you are, so…

      3. WhoWasI

        I must admit it’s not a very unique name. Created while trying to remember what name we used before. Probably in both cases.

        1. Clif

          I kind of assume that one of you was using a final I and one a final L, and that otherwise the system would prevent it.

        2. WhoWasI

          I thought of that, but they’re both uppercase I’s. Either the system is case insensitive or it allows duplicate names with different email addresses.

          No response from the other not me, so I’ll just continue for now.

        3. Disloyal Subject

          Wouldn’t lacking case sensitivity make them duplicates, given the w/W divergence?

        4. WhoWasI

          If case is significant w and W would be allowed, but not W and W.
          If duplicate names are allowed, then both would be allowed.

        5. ety

          Case insensitive tends to mean that case is not significant. Perhaps you mistyped?

        6. WhoWasI

          The system allowed both w and W, so it is not case sensitive, as in “the system is case insensitive”, as I said. We’re all saying the same thing, but the double negatives are causing confusion.

          OR the system allows duplicates so any number of WhoWasI, whowasi etc. are allowed.

          Doesn’t matter. I just wanted to know if I need to change to avoid confusion. Oops, too late!

        7. ety

          I think we’re all saying the same thing, but at least as near as I can tell (and I could be completely wrong) you’ve got the insensitive/sensitive thing mixed up. Generally, in my experience, a case insensitive system would not distinguish between w and W (they would be treated as identical letters), therefore a case insensitive system would not allow for WhoWasI and WhowasI, because they would be the same. If it allows for duplicates regardless, then insensitive or not doesn’t really matter…

        8. Heavensrun

          Case sensitivity has nothing to do with what names are allowed and everything to do with what it regards as the same letter. If w and W are treated as different letters, that is case sensitive, not case insensitive. a non-case-sensitive system -cannot- distinguish w from W, so it would think that WhowasI and WhoWasI are the same name.

        9. Clif

          We’re all saying the same thing, but I’m saying it better.

        10. Clif

          WhoWasl WhoWasI

          Typed the first with a small ell and the second with a capital eye. Since the system presumably detects duplicates and is certainly sensitive to the case used, the is my theory as two why apparent duplication was allowed.

        11. ety

          Unfortunately, they’re both using uppercase “I”s

        12. Disloyal Subject

          There is a difference in capitalization.

  10. miados

    i am sure a few saw sal flip amazigirl and that spread. that being said bluntly saying “fight for me” like that guy did is stupid. although if this is still that midnight thing sleepiness might explain part of it. not sure how much though.

  11. Achallenger

    wow that screen sure is shiny and mirror-like

  12. leafirebender

    Amazi-girl done right for once 🙂

    1. Stephen R. Bierce

      Discretion is the better part of valor.
      Trust, but verify.
      Believe in Allah, but tether your sheep.

    2. butts

      So, naturally, next strip will feature the crowd turning on her en masse.

      1. JustCheetoDust

        Followed by the rise of a right-wing superhero.

      2. Abel Undercity

        Yup, when the designated punchee target shifts from a woman of color to a white boy who “just wanted to have some fun” (cue voluminous amounts of vomit), watch the crowd turn ugly.

  13. Yumi

    So glad they’re best friends now and we’ll never have to deal with Amber flipping out ever again.

    1. Carolyn

      Yep. Everything is perfect forever.

  14. Achallenger

    I COME FOR VENGANCE

    1. Orion Fury

      I come for love?

      1. SgtWadeyWilson

        I came for the tacos!

        1. DonDueed

          On every corner!

        2. Clif

          A taco stand on every corner. Best political slogan ever.

        3. miados

          well it is tuesday.

        4. SgtWadeyWilson

          I make a point of never wearing my Taco Tuesday shirt on Tuesday.

  15. Train Moblin

    Another of Amaz-Girl’s gadget’s is the Amazi-Guesser, it basically shows you if this person’s a rapist but in the form of an hour long game of Guess Who
    Dorothy is far more effecient

  16. MatthewTheLucky

    Seems like the Amazi-Girl persona is separating from the Amber persona again. For now. Hopefully she takes the time to ensure she doesn’t do anything stupid later while she’s lucid.

    1. Clif

      The AmaziGirl role has always been separate from the Amber role. That’s kind of the whole point.

      1. Deanatay

        They both share the same memories, though – they aren’t totally split. They both carry the trauma of the Convenience Store Incident, they just cope with it in different ways. Amber feels the inchoate terror towards Sal, AG the rage and desire for justice/revenge.

        1. Clif

          AG is a role that Amber takes on to safely deal with the violence that is part of her personality. It is a crutch that allows her to be a positive force instead of a negative one. It’s not a healthy solution, but she’s done really really well with it.

        2. thejeff

          Sort of. It’s not too clear when she really started actually going out as AG – possibly just at the beginning of the semester. She’s definitely gotten a lot worse since the strip started. It’s far from clear how much longer AG can be a positive force, if she even still is.
          Like many coping mechanisms, they help at first, but can quickly develop into problems of their own.

        3. Spencer

          Amazi-Girl helped in the sense that she came off as cool and badass. Her actions had few negative consequences and most were played for laughs, she beats up random jerks with no personality who are all acting operatically evil so it’s okay for them to be punched, she has a Clark Kent thing going on with Danny. It was deliberately played for humour and light drama at first.

          It’s just now that we know that Amazi-Girl is a fracturing identity born from Amber’s inability to cope with her trauma, and that her continued reliance on Amazi-Girl will inevitably spell her death or at the least some serious mental scars, it really doesn’t get to be fun anymore.

        4. thejeff

          I still the split is progressing. It’s not just that she’ll eventually get really hurt, it’s that she’s getting psychologically worse as she continues along the road. Her alters are moving further apart. She’s having less control over how she switches between them.
          Some of it’s how it’s played, but I don’t think all of it is.

      2. thejeff

        I would actually say the two have been separating more and more throughout the comic. It’s not quite clear how much of that is presentation to us and how much is real, but there’s certainly more separation now than there seemed at first.

  17. sun tzu

    And unsurprisingly, the people rallying for Trump – er, Robin – are total shitheels.

  18. Fart Captor

    Really glad to see she’s continuing to realize some important things

    1. ety

      I think this is fantastic development for her and may even demonstrate the recognition of her own wrong-doing and very nearly it’s flat-out acknowledgement.

      1. ety

        At least that’s my optimistic take on it.

        1. Commodore Jeep-Eep

          HUE.

      2. butts

        I mean, maybe, but I thought she might be getting some of that after Blaine, or maybe Toedad. Buuuuuut nope.

  19. Earnbrand

    Am I the only one who read that 4th panel in the voice of Kaylee and Mal? (and yes, I know it was Wash in that scene.)

    1. Disloyal Subject

      I wasn’t before, but even now I read it more as “Unless it’s the Captain” than “tell me I’m pretty.”
      And now I want to see Sal in Zoey’s outfit, and/or Gina Torres playing Sal. I wonder how well she can mimic Ashleigh Ball’s Southern accent…

      1. SgtWadeyWilson

        Is Sal is Zoey, Marcie is Mal… Then Malaya can then be Inara… Amber can be Kaylee, which casts Danny as Simon… Joe fits as Jayne, and Dina fits as River, but that doesn’t really fit with the bigger picture… Book’s a bit tougher fit… a few options almost fit, but nothing’s jumping out at me. Can we trust Penny to play Badger?

    2. darkoneko

      Wo and what

    3. Deanatay

      I was thinking more along the lines of:

      “With your penis?”
      “With my penis.”

  20. Kernanator

    I was promised gladiatorial combat, dammit!

    1. JessWitt

      Wait til the debates, matey.

      1. Clif

        JessWitt — If the US. was really serious about wiping out the national debt then they’d put the the debates on pay TV.

        Kernanator – Teeth kicking is in the offing.

        1. JessWitt

          Lol that’s a good one.

        2. CJ

          Would anyone actually pay to watch that?
          Has anyone found a recipe how to deal with all those angry white men victim personas who will vote for Trump?
          Just asking, the three-lies-party over here who has the same kind of voter base just got 21% in mecklenburg-vorpommern and Berlin is up to vote in 2 weeks.

    2. Tacos

      There shall still be combat. Just a slight change in the participants.

    3. AgentKeen

      -ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!

      –Um, not really no….

  21. Mandy

    Ooh, now I really want to see them kick his teeth in together.

    1. darkoneko

      The security would have to stop them regardless of what they say Ryan did.

  22. Cheshrin

    That eye-roll in the last panel. The word “hypocrisy” is probably ringing in Sal’s mind. (Seriously, though, the irony inherent in AG’s last sentence could fill trucks.)

    That being said, this is a nice reminder that part of the the reason Amazi-Girl exists to the extent she does in the first place is to keep Amber’s volatile emotions regarding Sal in check. I don’t think Amber would be able to maintain a quasi-pseudo-civil conversation with Sal in this manner.

    (Also team-up for a beat-down on Ryan? Please? I want to see them both kick his teeth in.)

    1. Reltzik

      From past experience, Amber would be nearly catatonic.

    2. Huttj509

      I think AG realizes the hypocricy in the last sentence, hence the hesitant “…that goes for everyone” she tacked on.

      1. Cheshrin

        Oh, I don’t doubt it. Doesn’t make it any less amusing, though.

        (It’s also a good sign, though. Realizing that your actions are being wholly endorsed in terrible ways by terrible people is a good way to have some sense shaken into ya.)

        1. Clif

          Listening to yourself is another way.

        2. Orion Fury

          Well now that I’ve said it outloud, I guess it is kinda, sorta, racist.

  23. JessWitt

    Phew, thanks for defending Sal, AmaziGirl. Or else Linda’s gonna have another notch on her disappointment plaque.

  24. Shiro

    Yes! Progress! Several steps in the right direction! A possible team-up?

    This comic is so wholesome my skin is clear, my well is purified, my crops are fruitful, birds sing sweetly in the trees etc etc etc

    1. Clif

      Yea, remember the proverb; the Willis givith and the Willis taketh away.

  25. AnvilPro

    Aw yeah, here comes the epic scene where Sal and Amazigirl chase after the jerk

    1. Clif

      Keep your fingers crossed.

  26. Just Me

    AG’s business with Sal is personal, not professional. As a professional, her focus is on dealing with a real criminal and protecting a civilian from a potentially angry mob.

    Besides, AG owes her one.

    1. miados

      business before pleasure.

    2. Lailah

      Two. She already got her revenge before she got saved.

  27. Disloyal Subject

    He’s gonna get away while this asshole’s getting in AG’s face, isn’t he?

    1. detective boomwolf

      Prolly. Curse you Rando McBeardy Face!! Your words of anger have allowed evil to roam further!

      1. Clif

        Sadly it’s all too probable. Wouldn’t put my money on it quite yet tho.

    2. inqntrol

      Or Ag tells the mob about Ryan and start chasing him.

      1. Foxhack

        I don’t think she’ll do that, all it’ll do is rile up the crowd -against her-, and try to defend the jerk.

      2. DSL

        Oh, you know that crowd is full of “she must have been asking for it” types.

  28. Gangler

    So the plans’ just to kick his teeth in? I thought she promised Joyce she’d try and get this guy off the streets.

    Like I’m sure it’s nice for Amber to have a good villain she can direct her righteous fury at, but when Joyce came to her with this problem that wasn’t really the agenda.

    1. Shiro

      Pretty sure if he’s in the hospital, he’s off the streets, right? :D?

      In all seriousness, I’m not sure how much the police can do unless there’s other victims, as against reporting him as Joyce was iirc.

      1. Victor Riley

        Beat me to it by seconds! 🙂

      2. ety

        That’s the real problem here. I’m not sure what AG can actually do aside from beating the crap out of Ryan.

      3. SomeUnregPunk

        There used to be an Image comics character named ShawdowHawk which cops hated. The hated him not because he was catching criminals and that took their job away. No. They hated him because he broke the spine of every criminal he faced. Intentionally.

        Every criminal became a victim that would suffer in a hospital that the city would have to pay for. I don’t think the cops like Amber’s alterego either.

    2. Victor Riley

      When he’s in the hospital, that is “off the streets”… technically.

      Doesn’t do much for the rape culture as a whole, but I doubt even AmaziGirl could do anything about that. That crap is ingrained deep.

    3. miados

      for some reason this comment. made me think of when the guards attacked the sodomite leader in the movie shawshank redemption.

  29. Victor Riley

    Amazi-Girl is learning… though, I don’t think it’s going to change anything between them. So, this cliffhanger moment, which could have changed their whole dynamic… suddenly goes back to status quo.

    1. Fart Captor

      Sure, they still hate each other, but if AG can realize how shitty her behavior has been, that’s drastic shift by itself. Not acting on her feelings towards Sal is step one. Letting go of them entirely will take longer.

      Sal’s end of it seems to be fine where it is.

      1. Foxhack

        I… don’t think Sal hates AG.

        She’s annoyed by the harassment, and wants answers, but hate? Nope.

        1. Disloyal Subject

          “Annoyed” seems awfully mild, but yeah, I don’t think she’s quite to hatred yet.
          On a related note… I am… not looking forward to the rest of that flashback.

        2. ety

          I’m dreading it a little bit.

        3. miados

          i am picturing expulsion of sal.

        4. Disloyal Subject

          That would result in her mother being shitty, and is probable, but I’m more worried about something happening to Marcie amd Sal being powerless to help.

        5. miados

          perhaps but that would likely be after the expulsion since i picture leland would be in the same place when that happens. After all on school grounds both parties in the same place and figured out.

          and later since leland learned that he can do stuff to marcie and no worries goes after her since she isn’t a student possibly draging her to the playground to do so.

        6. ety

          Suspension….(optimistic). then Marcie shows up at the playground looking for Sal, who Marcie hasn’t seen (Sal’s parental punishment), and Leland attacks Marcie for revenge.

        7. ety

          Fart Captor’s “they still hate each other” may have been a slight misspeak. Especially given: “Sal’s end of it seems to be fine where it is.”

        8. Fart Captor

          Not really. Hatred might be a bit strong for how Sal feels, but she would be completely justified if she did.

          I think it the way Sal is completely okay with NOT fighting this out is a sign of her maturity, not necessarily an indicator of that she isn’t as angry with AG as it previously seemed.

          Before, she expected (correctly) that AG wanted a fight, and I think Sal just wanted that shit over with, because she was sick of the threat of it looming over her. Now that things don’t seem headed that way, she’s perfectly okay having that out with words instead, and she’s also completely able to put aside her anger to allow AG to deal with something Sal agrees is more important.

          Even if this is the end of AG stalking and harassing her, I think there’s still going to be some sort of confrontation, because Sal’s going to want answers, if nothing else.

        9. ety

          Fair enough. My apologies for suggesting that you may have made a mistake.

          Personally, I’m more of the opinion that her frustration and anger was with AG’s behavior, specifically in regards to Sal, and not with AG herself and I do think Sal would be capable of making that distinction.

          I’m hoping Sal does get answers if for no other reason than it seeming like that might be one of the best ways to get to a legitimate resolution for the Ag/Amber/Sal issues.

        10. Clif

          Sal and AG talking would be a real good thing. The joker is that Sal’s reaction when she learns who stabbed her hand is unpredictable. We really don’t know what that glove means to her.

        11. Fart Captor

          Yeah, I don’t see it going well.

    2. Deanatay

      Sal doesn’t yet HATE AG, as such. She is easily triggered by bullying and injustice, though, especially from authority figures. (Emphasizing this was the point of the flashback, BTW.) She sees AG as an authority figure, one as demented, biased, and fundamentally flawed as many others she’s dealt with all her life. That pisses her off.

      Seeing that authority actually attempting to do right, though – that cools her down, and makes her rethink her actions.

      1. Fart Captor

        I don’t see which of her actions Sal would be rethinking here. She’s always been the reasonable one when interacting with AG

        1. trlkly

          Not for the past few comics, she hasn’t been. She’s been goading her into a fight that AG clearly doesn’t want to have. And she apparently didn’t think about how badly that would go for her in front of this type of crowd.

          She was ready to throw down, and damn the consequences. Now she’s rethought that and seems to be trying to help AG.

        2. Spencer

          If Amazi-Girl didn’t want a fight she shouldn’t have stalked Sal for the entire day.

          I’m not going to be mad at Sal for being cranky with a persistently violent, ungrateful, more than a little racist white girl who stalks, harass and treats her like dangerous criminal scum, especially when her presence ended up having an entire crowd of racist shitheads cry for Sal’s blood.

        3. Fart Captor

          What on earth are you talking about?

          AG has always been the one trying to start a fight. Every. Single. Time.

          Even here at the rally, Sal only wanted answers from AG, until AG started talking about “being within bounds to retaliate”

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/nickname/

          Sal clearly saw how AG was only waiting for an excuse to justify attacking her, and Sal had finally had enough of that shit and wanted it fucking done with. That is why she was mad enough that she didn’t give a damn about the crowd. She wasn’t sick of being stalked and wasn’t going to wait for AG to find a way to justify attacking Sal to herself or anyone else.

  30. Tacos

    And the realization is finally starting to dawn on Amber/AG.

  31. Rukduk

    Yaayy! My hope from last time somehow paid off against all odds even though it’s a Willis comic! I can go to sleep happy tonight.

    1. Clif

      Pleasant dreams, sweet summer child.

      1. Orion Fury

        This sweet summer child things sounds nice. Does it come in adult form?

  32. Keulan

    Holy shit, Amazi-Girl and Sal are gonna team up and go after Ryan! People were talking about it in the comments a few strips back, but I didn’t expect this to actually happen.

  33. John

    I think you should kick that dude’s teeth in, Amazi-Girl.

    1. Shiro

      Why not both? Teeth-kickings for all the asshole dudes!

      1. inqntrol

        The dentists are going to have a profitable time.

      2. John

        I’m not ruling out further teeth-kickings! I’m just saying, that dude’s right there, all waving his choppers around in the breeze…

        1. miados

          if he didn’t want his teeth kicked out he should have worn a mouth guard.

          not sure how well this comment is. if it is a bad one my mistake.

        2. Orion Fury

          I went to go see a fight and a DeSantos Rally broke out.

        3. miados

          well based on that one rally person who only took the sign cause he was bored if thats the norm of people who were there a fight would get rid of boredom.

        4. Orion Fury

          It…it feels like the joke may have been missed.

  34. JessWitt

    I’m just glad she stipulated to the mob not to harm Sal and she didn’t do anything. Hopefully they listen.

  35. drs

    “That goes for everyone” makes me thing of Tarvek’s epiphany in Girl Genius. “No, that [evil mind control] shouldn’t happen to Agatha [girl he loves]. It shouldn’t happen to anyone! Uh…” [sulks as he rethinks his life choices]

    1. Disloyal Subject

      Poor Tarvek. Doing the right thing really sucks sometimes.
      Especially when the guy you’re hauling to safety won’t shut up.

      1. Bagge

        Or has his beautiful plot destroyed by buffoons
        Or in order to survive has to be hooked up to a buffoon
        Or in order not to be killed by his relatives has to spend most of his life pretending to be a buffoon.

        … Tarvek has buffoonery problem.

  36. Nono

    Wait, did Dorothy even get a good look at Ryan? Joyce and Sarah were the only ones who saw him clearly. By the time Dorothy got there she was more distracted by Joyce and then Amazi-Girl.

    1. ety

      Good look? Maybe not, but she definitely got a look at him.

      1. Her.

        thing is, eye witnesses are notoriously bad ways of finding out what happened

        1. John

          She should just look at the tags.

        2. ety

          “Is this picture the guy who was there?” is not quite as bad as asking eyewitnesses what happened, but yeah, they aren’t exactly reliable.

        3. ety

          eh, forget I said anything.

  37. Saaaam

    This is like when Batman had to team up with Joe Chill only even more awkward

    1. Anorak

      Batman teamed up with Joe Chill? wtf?

      1. Saaaam

        ~COMICS~

  38. Heavensrun

    Yesss, restraint and self awareness. I have been waiting for this moment.

  39. Griffin

    I like where this is going (they said cautiously).

  40. Cerberus

    Comic Reactions:

    SQUEEEEE! Yay, healthy developments!

    Like, here’s AG finally letting go of some of (hopefully most if not all of) her paranoid delusion about Sal, where Sal is the ur-criminal, the worst of the worst, the person her whole sense of morality has to shift to justify hating. Like, here, she snipes a little, but she’s conversing civilly, communicating useful information, treating Sal like an equal with the same desires to help as herself, even agreeing with Sal’s suggestion.

    And she’s showing self-awareness and clarity in a major way, noting that Sal hasn’t done anything wrong (confronting a stalker is not a wrong action) and even noting that her previous behavior stalking her, looking for an excuse to threaten her, was wrong. Noting that her exclamation at the end applies to her too.

    In a way, it’s her letting go of a ghost that has haunted her since she was a child and it’s gonna be the first step of really starting a genuine recovery and analyzing who really was the most responsible for her schism and general PTSD.

    And Sal.

    Oh, man, there’s not enough good things I can say about Sal. Like, she de-escalates immediately and cottons on just as quick that something big and fucked up must be at play for AG to just drop her hate-on that fast and move on to another task. And her first instinct is to find a means to help even though AG is the crazy racist lady (in her interactions, that’s the image AG has been projecting) who stalks and harasses her all the time.

    Not only that but she’s just stalwart when part of the hateful angry crowd literally pressing her in on all sides gets up in her face and yet again calls her a “thug”. She just takes that open racist abuse rather than rising to it, because she actually has an incredible amount of control over her anger, she just has her limits.

    And that epic amount of biting her lip in the last panel. She waits the beat to see if AG noticed the irony rather than commenting, which again shows just how much restraint she has.

    And I’m loving seeing them team-up like this. Cause they really do have a lot of similar outlooks on life and humanity and I want to see AG continue to self-reflect and grow.

    Plus, that last line makes me so so happy for one final super important reason. And that’s that it’s AG admitting a mistake. The “golden” alter, who can never bend and never be flawed and who is always just and true… admitting she dun fucked up. Admitting that she did something immoral. And that’s the first big sign that Amber/AG will be able to step off this cliff and actually prevent things escalating to the alters no longer being able to communicate. That she’s stepping off her bad road once and for all.

    And that’s beautiful.

    1. ety

      They haven’t actually teamed up yet, I could see Sal deciding to stay out of this one actively even if she agrees with it (after all that’s sort of part of her growth in some respects). I actually think Sal may be the best suited (of the current cast of characters at least) to really help AG deal with herself (and related problems), despite Sal’s relation to the problems themselves (Obviously that makes things more complicated, but if that could be ignored I think my point would stand. As it is? Who knows.).

      1. ety

        That should read AG/Amber and I suppose I still don’t see Amber being able to handle any interaction with Sal yet.

        1. Clif

          Reread the comic strip. She’s talking to her calmly and rationally. If that isn’t an interaction, I don’t know what is.

        2. Orion Fury

          Well AG is a superhero, she should be able to have a conversation with a law-abiding citizen.

        3. Fart Captor

          Amazi-Girl is able to handle interacting with Sal. Amber has had panic attacks every time, and had to switch to AG to deal.

      2. Cabbage

        Yeah, looking at Sal’s expression in panel three, I’m not sure she actually approves of the epic beatdown that’s about to happen. She’s tried that before and she knows it doesn’t actually solve anything long-term. Maybe she’ll try to talk Amazi-Girl out of it?

    2. Willoughby Chase

      I agree. I like where the narrative is going, he says very, very cautiously knowing that the Willis hammer is hovering somewhere in the background like the wrath of an unsatisfied god.

      1. Orion Fury

        On the plus side, he wrote this months ago, so I do not know what it would take to make him change what has already happened for him. So I’d say it’s less hovering, and more put either to use or away. Ultimately, I figure it’ll be growth with hints of future New Drama™.

    3. Bagge

      Yup. Things got much, MUCH better in just a few moments, and it is because both of them are really trying to make it so. Both of them are FAR out of their comfort zone, but they both press on, because they know from experience that this is the right thing to do.

    4. adam

      yeah I agree with all this.

      This goes towards what I said on previous pages. There is big difference ( in quality and quantity ) in Implicit biases and overt hatred like racism.

      Amazi-Girl drew a Big Fat Line in the sand, saw she was on the wrong side ,and walked over it. Its nice character growth.

      “Noting that her exclamation at the end applies to her too.”
      Cerb, Now I’m proud of myself for catching something you may have missed. Thats all true, but I think it has deeper implication.

      She just set herself up as a Protector of Sal both from a racist hate-Mob , and from Amber!

      I think thats what that panel means. This is going to potentially put herself on a collusion of goals , with Amber. I think that reluctance is realizing she cant speak speak for all of herself, while realizing She might now be both Hero and Villain. As Amazigirl she let Amber drag her into villain territory, and now she has has to walk it back , and stay hero for Sal.
      Will Amber do along with this change? If they are full blown Alts this might be difficult.

      ( What if Willis is Holding out on us, and “Amber” is also just an ALT? The personalty difference from Shortpacked suggest she could be. “Amber” might not even know it.

      ‘Red-paneled Amber’ could be Original Amber )

      **********
      Thinking aloud…

      But RapistRyan already got his ass-kicked once.
      Is Amazigirls brand , merely doing it a second time , after stalking and assaulting him ( the way she planned on Sal ) Justice?
      Not defending him. Just pointing out Curbstomping alone , isnt justice. If it was, he already had it. And My own rage tells me justice wasnt done.

      It probably wont even stop him from raping again. This is a team-job. I think she needs to bring Sarah, Dorothy, and the Dinosaur-Duo in on this one.

      This needs a full sting operation. Or atleast Busting him with Roofie possession.

      1. Lailah

        What you said on previous pages was that her actions are not racist, because her heart of hearts is not racist. What you said is still absurdly, blatantly, wrong. Her heart of hearts is still not relevant. It has never been relevant.

        And all of this is after she FORMED the mob. And Amazi-girl was the alter of Amber that hated Sal; Amber feared her, hence red panels. She’s not ‘protecting sal’ from Amber. She may finally stop fucking with her. You don’t ‘protect someone’ from yourself, at least not in any meritorious sense.

        And no, of fucking course not. Vigilantes beating people is never justice. Primarily, she has acted in self defense, and /that/ is just. …Though in fairness, we’ve only seen her prevent crimes of property, so come to think of it possibly not even then. But even setting that aside, beating Ryan to a pulp isn’t going to change anything or help. It may just make him angry enough to try more later. You can’t realistically get him arrested without Joyce being willing to talk to the police, and that’s in the unlikely scenario where Joyce is taken seriously (If it were Sarah or Sal it’d be outright fantasy world, but Joyce at least has a shot). Heck, even a fair punishment from the justice system would probably not be just, because America does not have a real rehabilitation system. Her options with Ryan suck.

        1. Willoughby Chase

          I agree.

          Another possibility is, if Joyce is up to it, they might try and get him kicked out of school … which might lead to a re-run of the Leland scenario.

        2. Clif

          AG didn’t form the mob. DeSantis formed the mob.

        3. Fart Captor

          The mob wouldn’t have taken any interest in Sal if AG hadn’t shown up and so obliviously been looking for a fight. It wasn’t something she intended or even expected, but it is nevertheless her fault that it happened.

        4. trlkly

          No. That’s not how fault works. By that logic, the crowd is also Sal’s fault. If Sal would have just left Amazi-Girl up there, then the crowd wouldn’t have reacted.

          The mob is, well, the mob’s fault. Every person who participated in it is at fault. They made their own decisions. No one forced them to act the way they did.

        5. Fart Captor

          If I do something I know shouldn’t be doing, and it has unexpected consequence that hurt someone, I would be responsible for those consequences, unless it they were some kind of freak accident that I could not possibly have predicted.

          For example, say I steal your car, and end up running over your cat that was asleep underneath it. I would be responsible not just for the car theft, but killing your cat as well. Even though I didn’t mean to, and even if I didn’t expect that to happen, even if it didn’t even occur to me that it was even a possibility.

          A masked vigilante poised for a fight, angrily confronting a black woman in a crowd full of white conservatives at a political rally causing things to turn ugly is sadly not a shocking, unforeseeable consequence.

        6. Lailah

          DeSanto formed the crowd. AG formed the mob. Unintentionally, but predictably.

        7. adam

          WTF?
          “What you said on previous pages was that her actions are not racist”
          The Fuck I did.

          Look Lailah , I hope you are just confusing me with someone else, and not making things up. I actually said **the exact opposite.** Completely wrong. I said her actions Were racist.
          Yet somehow, without reading that, you accused me of being a racism denier?

          “because her heart of hearts is not racist.”
          Really? That is NOT something I said. My comment immediately above was referring to a discussion of Implicit Bias. Which everyone has —even you.
          Your implicit bias can even create racism-deniers out of whole cloth.
          Some white people cant see racism. But someone who cant see someone, who sees racism— thats new to me.

          “What you said is still absurdly, blatantly, wrong.”
          Apparently there is **a lot** of that going around .

          “Her heart of hearts is still not relevant”
          I’m pretty damn sure Ambers and Amazigirls motives count for a lot.
          How do you even read fiction where motives dont count?
          Everything hinges on motives.

          That is what is absurd.
          If motives didnt count in DOA, than Amazigirl would be a Villain. Joyce would have started out as a Violent villainous slut-shamer.
          And Ruth would be considered one of the worst characters. Without motive, nothing any of the characters do, would make any sense.

          What comic are you even reading? More than most, DOA is about motives. Much of this entire comic hinges on good and bad will. On motivations and intent. Its the reason shes tracking Ryan. He may roofie again. That’s a motive. ( I remember who also said motives dont matter. The person who couldnt see racism. )

          Take you for example. Your response here , seems dripping in condescension.
          Is that what you meant?
          Your motive determines how I ought to respond.

          (1) I could assume you are a troll, and didnt comment in good faith.
          (2) I could presume you genuinely have me confused with someone else.
          (3) You could be responding in bad faith, merely pretending you knew what I said prior; and then decide to attack someone you mistook for a racist or racism denier from the prior page. ( That seems most likely ) .

          (4) Or you could even be someone who was a racism-denier in the prior page ( who was horribly allergic to all discussions of Implicit Bias ) trying to claim the moral high ground.

          When you responded to my comment you didnt ( i hope ) know what i said earlier. You projected a motive onto me, based on other people you spoke to said. If Motive didnt count, you probably wouldnt have written those words. Since your *facts are wrong* , and i said the literal opposite, you could admit you responded based on apparent motive
          I said Ambers actions were racist. ( Go back and look! )

          I wasnt using a discussion of Implicit Bias to deny racism. I was using to describe how it becomes conditioned to **become racism**.

          Obviously motive does count where bias is explicit.
          Saying otherwise is absurd. The entire comic is about how people struggle and change, and lose prejudice and grow. We are literally seeing it on this page. Im taking joy in the characters growth. This bothers you.

          If you really think Motive doesnt matter at all. That Ambers “heart of hearts is still not relevant. It has never been relevant.” then you are reading a different comic, than I am. And I think A different comic than Willis is writing. Its Pseudo-biographical!

          “It has never been relevant.” You are reading a comic where you have inside access to a persons motivations.

          ***
          “And all of this is after she FORMED the mob.”
          yup we are reading a different comic. Sal was justified for preemptively striking a stalker. Amber didnt form the mob. Sal actually egged them and amber On. Over and over.
          Amber also didnt strike back, and she took responsibility for it forming.

          “And Amazi-girl was the alter of Amber that hated Sal; Amber feared her, hence red panels.”
          You are making a motive based argument after you said this doesnt count. Its almost like you dont believe it

          You are assuming red-panels mean fear. Instead of Trauma, Blind-rage , horror and dissociation.

          Amazi-girl has better control over over actions.
          It was Amber Or “amber” that kicked Blaines ass. But you are not even engaging in my argument here . ( 3 alts ) You ignored it .

          “She’s not ‘protecting sal’ from Amber.”
          I was describing the future of the comic. So unless you have access to the 3 month buffer and can read Willis mind, you dont know this. But since Amber was the one who attacked Blaine, and Amazi-girl disagreed, my argument is valid.

          “You don’t ‘protect someone’ from yourself, at least not in any meritorious sense” Go watch fightclub and come back to his discussion. I was discussing a character who may have DID. In which case, Amazigirl does have to do that.

          I dont know what “meritorious sense” means. It sounds like a pretentious term someone makes up , when they are allergic to discussions of motive or mental illness.

        8. Lailah

          I might be. But when you’re making a big post equivocating on ‘racism’ and ‘implicit biases’, I don’t really have any reason to think otherwise otherwise than trying to read through all previous posts, which Willis’ comments make difficult at best. Probably for the best, overall, but.

          motive honestly isn’t that important even where bias is explicit. Like, it matters if you’re trying to actually formally accuse someone of a hate crime, but in general the heart of hearts of someone will never be ‘they’re trying to be racist’ unless they’re the scum of /pol/ or its juniors. Most people will claim a different motive.

          “Go watch fight club”
          Uh. It’s terrible. And more to the point, Amazi-girl is the alter that threatens Sal. Amber is the one who avoids her out of fear. Amazi-girl isn’t protecting Sal from Amber. Amazi-girl is the source of Sal’s problems. If she stops, great, but you don’t protect someone from yourself in any meritorious sense. There is literally no way around this. And it means you don’t get a fucking medal for not harrassing people.

          I’m not making a motive-based argument, btw. I’m saying that every single time Sal has had a problem with one of Amber’s alters, it’s been Amazi-girl. Every. Single. Time. Amber does not cause her problems; Amber gets problems for interacting with her (which is awful). Amazi-girl does, however, cause problems. Those are the facts of the matter, backed up by the metatext. Her ‘motive’ is /why/. And that motive doesn’t really matter much to me. Like, yes, it’s terrible she has Sal as a center for her PTSD, and I hope she gets better, but it’s not really pertinent to the fact that she’s making Sal’s life hell. And it’s Amazi-girl. Amber kicked Blaine’s ass, but she hasn’t done shit to Sal (At least, not since stabbing her, I think. Pretty sure /that/ was Amber). Seeing as we’re talking about Sal, here, that’s kind of fucking pertinent.

          And uh, lol. Allergic to mental illness? For someone whining about not perfectly remembering people’s past posts… I was like “no seriously, you can’t get enraged at Amber here. What she’s doing has fucked up consequences, but she’s legit not responsible for her actions wrt Sal. Those actions are fucked up and unfortunate, but she needs help”

  41. miados

    i love the look sal is giving in the last panel. i like to imagine it appears right before the last word balloon.

  42. Bagge

    Diiiiiiiid someone leeeeearn something about herself in the last panel?

    IIIIIII think someone leeeeeearnt something about herself in the last panel!!!

    1. Bagge

      Yes, I’m obviously talking about Sal’s ability to do a great snark-face.

      1. Clif

        That’s what I assumed.

        1. Orion Fury

          I thought it was Sal learning that AG has nightmares about Sal.

    2. Reltzik

      I think your E key is stuck on “eeeeeeeeeeeee”!

      1. Bagge

        What eeeever do you meeeeeeeeeeean? 🙂

      2. Deanatay

        Bagge’s been eating tacos over the keyboard, again. It’s making the keys sticky.

        1. Bagge

          Um… Yes. “Eating Tacos”.

        2. Fart Captor

          #TacoTrucksOnEveryCorner

        3. adam

          #RevolucionIfIDontGetMyTacoTruck

          #TacoTruckEquality !

  43. brumagem

    I was really hoping for this level of maturity and clear-headedness from Amber but that was fast??

    1. butts

      I might hold off on that. Keep in mind, Amber’s not here right now.

      1. Clif

        Sigh.

        1. butts

          That’s not a joke. We’ve seen that she’s a lot more functional as Amazi-Girl, but so far Amber hasn’t gotten any better. The partitioning is not exactly healthy.

        2. adam

          I agree.

  44. WhoWasI

    I guess we’re to assume Marcie and the rest of security are busy somewhere with crowd control etc. And just didn’t notice that the two people who caused the incident have wandered away!

    1. miados

      well at this point the people around the commotion are more of a commotion than the commotion.

    2. Bagge

      “Hey, Marcie, should we take those two outside?”
      [shakes head]
      “You got the situation under control?”
      [nods]
      “All right, your call. OK EVERYONE, GET BACK TO MINGLING. THE CONGRESSWOMAN IS COMING SOON, SHE JUST SLIPPED BACKSTAGE WITH A BLONDE COLLEGE TEACHER FOR A NO DOUBT FULLY WHOLESOME REASON, BUT SHE’LL BE WITH YOU IN A MINUTE”
      [thumbs up]

      1. WhoWasI

        +1

      2. Anorak

        If that is actually happening simultaneously, I hope there is a slipshine.

      3. DinaWho

        Not sure whether or not the pun on ‘coming’ was intended, but in any case this is amazing.

        1. Bagge

          It was 100% intended, and I love you for noticing it 🙂

  45. Lipke the Articulate

    I’m really happy right now.
    This situation better not devolve into a damn you Willis moment, I swear to god.

    1. WhoWasI

      Enjoy the happy. There’s ALWAYS a damn you Willis moment coming!

      1. miados

        well a purely happy comic/story would get pretty boring for the most part.

        1. Clif

          Well, yes. But this is a Willis comic. That means something special.

        2. WhoWasI

          There are dramatic twists in most stories, but here we get the “Twist of Willis-ness”. He takes it to new levels of drama and surprise.

        3. Orion Fury

          They hug and someone in the audience yells out “Now kiss”?

        4. WhoWasI

          More like: They start chasing Ryan and some over-jealous rent-a-cop shoots them both. Then they end up in the same hospital room and start comparing origin stories and decide Ethan is the cause of all their problems. So they team up to stalk him, fall in love, mellow out, and decide to backpack across Europe instead.

          (This moment of self-indulgence was brought to you by the letter W.)

        5. miados

          hmmm the friends i had who worked as rent a cops weren’t allowed to have guns. they were there as more of a visible deterrent instead of real security and i bet the security that desanto has wouldnt want a shooting at her rally to become local news.

        6. WhoWasI

          Around here, too many people are allowed to carry guns. But the rent-a-cops usually shoot themselves more often than shooting criminals.

        7. Anorak

          How does Sal know Ethan aside from the fact that he was there when Sal robbed that store? How was any of that Ethan’s fault?

        8. WhoWasI

          People are attempting to apply logic to my random, tangential, anything-could-happen example?! We’re doomed…

        9. Orion Fury

          Upper or lower case?

        10. WhoWasI

          Uppercase as shown, of course, because I’m never not case (in)sensitive!

          (But lets not start that again. The thread about that has become a self-feeding absurdity! I should probably find the my old name and go back to it just for the peace.)

        11. Her.

          we had becky and dina moments thats enough happy for a year

        12. Lipke the Articulate

          Look, I barely just got off a binge. All of the happy and sad is fresh in my mind. I HAVE YET TO ACCLIMATE TO THE WILLIS.
          Amazi-Girl can beat up the whole crowd if it comes down to it, she’s badass enough.
          Right?
          RIGHT?
          ;-;

      2. thejeff

        No Damn You Willis today. Damn You Willis tomorrow. There’s always a Damn You Willis tomorrow.

        1. George Wiman

          Boom.

    2. Arianod

      There’s pretty much no way this isn’t going to devolve into a Damn You Willis moment. There’s a whole mob here that wants to see the vigilante beat the crap out of the black girl: as soon as Amazi-girl says “sorry, I’d rather accuse this random white guy here of attempted rape”, rape culture is going to kick in and they’re going to turn agains her.

      1. Lizzie

        On the plus side, as soon as one of the crowd takes a swing, Marcie can step in as security. She’ll have some pull with any police that get called and be able to say Sal didn’t instigate the fight.

        1. Lipke the Articulate

          Provided those police can read sign language, but yeah!

        2. ety

          “She’s telling you Ah’m innocent.” probably wouldn’t go over so well.

  46. Kraken

    They’re being way more civil than I would’ve expected.

  47. Willoughby Chase

    The next question Sal has to ask is why Amazi-girl hears her voice in her nightmares.

    Of course, Amber has to de-merge from and dump the Amazi-girl persona as well so it’s a long hard road, probably for both of them.

    If they do team up, who gets to be side-kick? I reckon AG gets to be Robin, boy hostage. A black woman hero with a white woman side-kick. That’s definitely kicking over the traces. I like it!

  48. Briny

    So… we’re into Mismatched Buddy Cop Movie territory?

    Please say we’re into Mismatched Buddy Cop Movie territory.

    I’m willing to let Marcie be the Cop On The Edge if need be. 🙂

    1. Orion Fury

      She’s seen things, man. So horrible she never speak. Just does.

    2. Willoughby Chase

      Another great possibility! Murtaugh and Riggs could be the archetypes.

    3. Bagge

      Another great partnership forged on the basis of NO ONE HURTS OUR JOYCE ON OUR WATCH!!!!

      1. WhoWasI

        Then we have to include Sarah, as the BATwoman, of course! *Grins*

        1. Bagge

          BAD pun. BAD!!!!

  49. Clif

    Cue the Sal hatred for endorsing vigilantism.

    Too soon?

  50. Larkle

    I feel like Amazi-Girl is challenging Sal’s views on authority here, in a good way. And maybe Sal will challenge Amazi-Girl’s opinion of herself. At the very least I’m hoping to see someone kick that jerk’s teeth in.

  51. bryy

    Holy shit, Amber, you have NO IDEA how this is about to backfire.

  52. Sporky

    Well this can’t possibly end well.

    1. Orion Fury

      It is a Willis comic. The only way things end well is if he creates a character named Timmy.

      1. thejeff

        Took me a minute.

        1. Orion Fury

          But you did get it.

  53. Owlmirror

    Given that Dorothy may be asleep by now (after 10 minutes of study to review, per the last strip tagged with her name), this may turn into an awkward situation where AG is waiting… waiting… waiting…

    Hm, what would happen in that situation?

    AG: She still hasn’t responded! And he’s moving away!
    SAL: Think she’s on the can, or zonked already?
    AG: Probably asleep…
    AG: Dammit, I can’t let him get away again! Will… will you go and wake her up, and maybe Sarah and Billie as well to confirm the ID, while I tail him?

  54. Jezi

    There’s so much meta going on here, and yet all I can think is “AW YEAH, SUPERHERO TEAM-UP!”

  55. Doc Harleen

    So much stress until tomorrow. How easy is it to calm down an angry mob? *bites nails*

  56. KRVeale

    I know Word of Willis says nobody dies in this comic, but I have concerns.
    This is an environment where AG and Sal can challenge Ryan, he can shoot them – particularly Sal – with a legally owned concealed-carry firearm and say “It was self defence,” and the crowd will support him.

    I might be wrong about whether concealed-carry exists as a thing where senators are going to be talking? But even if it’s not legal, this crowd is likely to back a white shooter because Guns Make Right When The Victim Isn’t White.

    1. yo.

      It depends. Just because its a concealed carry state doesn’t mean that a location has to allow it (guns of any type are banned in courtrooms for example), and many times the place where a rally/speech is held will just preemptively ban weapons from their premises.

      However, because of their NRA ties, I’ve heard of many cases where Republican conservative politicians will proudly ok concealed carriers at their events. Indiana is quite red in some spots so, depending on the comic’s location, if Desanto is trying to score points then guns being present is totally logical.

      1. Fart Captor

        Most public universities don’t allow guns on campus, and I’m pretty sure IU doesn’t.

        The Indiana legislature seems to have been repeatedly trying to pass bills that would allow guns on university campuses, but it doesn’t look like any have passed yet, so I’m guessing they don’t allow them.

        1. Her.

          jeez wtf is wrong w/ the states??? like ban fucking guns already its how ppl fuckin get killed like yeah theres other ways to kill a person but none as easy as point and pull

        2. Fart Captor

          But don’t you understand? Gun control doesn’t work!

          I mean, except for in all the places they actually tried it, but still!

        3. Bicycle Bill

          + a couple of hundred.

        4. ischemgeek

          Gun lobbyists use exactly the same arguments as antivaxxers – if an intervention isn’t 100% effective while also being 100% safe, it’s not worth it.

          Thus, it doesn’t matter that Australia and the UK and Japan, etc, haven’t seen mass shootings in years and had huge drops in their rate of violent crime in general and gun crime in particular, they still have violence, so therefore it doesn’t work.

          (also some dishonest statistics looking at the rates of violent crime, while conveniently ignoring the fact that the UK takes a much broader definition of “violent crime” than the US – petty assault is a violent crime in the UK but not in the US for one example – and because the UK included a lot more crimes in the definition, its self-reported “violent crime” rate is much greater per capita)

        5. Lailah

          Poland strikes me as the gold standard that we should be looking at.

          Not because it’s amazing, but because it’s not. It’s poor, and actually has a lot of street crime. Organized crime has guns. But it has considerably less violent crime than the USA. Not just gun violence, but violence. And most of those crimes are battery, not, you know, murder. Murder happens less. But they have fairly strong laws that prevent guns from getting into people’s hands without having gone through the tests of, IIRC, aptitude and background. Organized crime has access to guns from smugglers and the occasional thief, but that shit is WAY too expensive for general distribution.

        6. Her.

          honestly i want guns to stop existing 100% pigs pig training solely be talk the situation out and only ever actually touch someone if its sympathetic or if their breaking up a fight or something (cops see someone getting raped, pull everyone off the victim, get the victim closed, arrest the rapists) and militarys shouldnt ever be allowed to enter another country cause thats how wars are started just get rid of gjns as a whole bow hunting is a bajillion times safer than gun hunting and is still very successful (we done it for several thousand years like probably something like 30-300 000 years idk when the bow was invented and like fuck man just focus onnot killing ppl

        7. CJ

          Was it really in the 1970ties already that Marion Zimmer Bradley invented the world of dark over where any weapon that doesn’t put the user at arms length of his opponent when using it were banned? She was thinking of atomic bombs, bio warfare and stuff like that. But even her story needed a “strong man” who was able to subdue the people who didn’t want to concur before it became so socially ingrained that people were shocked by the mere thought of distance weapons.
          But yeah, while it people who kill people, but without easily accessible guns it takes much more of an effort to do so.

        8. Cybersnark

          Guns also have a cultural cachet in the US; unlike most European and Asian countries (which were founded pre-firearms), the Americas were “settled” after guns were invented (and, by consensus, because guns gave them an advantage over the “primitive” inhabitants).

          American cultural heroes are almost all gunslingers or soldiers (as opposed to the swordsmen or kings found elsewhere in the world). Guns aren’t just weapons, they’re talismans that represent how the country sees itself and its heritage.

        9. WhoWasI

          I read that Texas passed that law and the teachers and students have staged protests and may strike.

        10. KRVeale

          I know people who’ve already quit teaching at universities in Texas over this. They asked “How should we teach divisive topics when people in class who are already angry will now be angry and have guns?” and the official response was basically “Don’t teach divisive topics.”
          You can guess how well that was received by the already-besieged biology lecturers who have to deal with hooting baboonery whenever evolution is mentioned…

      2. Andy

        I live in Texas, and there’s activists here who want to allow guns in courtrooms because “I’m a law-abiding citizen, so my gun should go wherever I go!”

        1. Silly Name

          “I wouldn’t want her to feel alone, you know?”

    2. miados

      you’d be surprised what you can live through.

      1. WhoWasI

        Humans can adapt to almost anything once they get used to it. It’s their greatest strength AND their greatest fault.

        1. miados

          well i was going from the willis says nobody will die in the comic statement.

      2. trlkly

        miados: Aladdin 2 reference?

  57. Bagge

    Joyce keeps surprising Sal, doesn’t she? “Oh, yeah, by the way, she put a gash on the face of the man who assaulted her.”

    1. Cybersnark

      I just love that line. “By a boy who. . . now has a gash on his face.”

      1. Bicycle Bill

        But it’s true; he didn’t have a gash on his face before he tried to roofie Joyce.

      2. Bicycle Bill

        And speaking of the gash, the closeup of his face in the last panel of this strip shows that Joyce did a pretty good job of marking him up.

  58. Lan

    And the theme for this team-up is “Ballroom Blitz”. GOODNIGHT EVERYBODY!

    1. BP

      Thank you for choosing my soundtrack for the rest of this scene.

      1. SgtWadeyWilson

        Or y’know… soundtrack for life?

        Honestly, how did it take me this long to add that to my Spotify playlist?

      2. Roborat

        That is my soundtrack when I am out cruising in my convertible.

  59. Kraken

    “C’mon! Amazi-Girl, kick this thug’s ass!”

    “Have you ever considered the ramifications of the coded language you’ve decided to use in this encounter? Let’s unpack the term thug and why you were drawn to it in this case. I think you have some prejudices both explicit and implicit that have even been perpetuated by mainstream news coverage. Let’s kick this dog whistle’s ass!”

    And then Amazi-Girl and Sal perform an impromptu Schoolhouse Rock on the subject. That’s why she’s dressed up like that, right, for educational music videos?

    1. yo.

      I agree that “thug” can be a racist dog whistle, I just wish people would stop thinking of it as *inherently* racist. That gives it even more power to harm that it should not have.

      Insults & labels have their place in language and people should be called out when misusing them as coded language for “those people”, but not every case is like that. Sometimes calling someone a thug, just like calling someone racist or toxic, is totally appropriate.

      1. Fart Captor

        Pretending the world is a nicer place than it is won’t make it so. These things have to be acknowledged and called out.

        That’s why they’re saying “thug”, not the N-word. That would be too much of a give away. Refusing to read between the lines here would give the racists more power. Because this is absolutely racist as hell.

        1. Fart Captor

          I should clarify slightly: Its entirely possible to use the word “thug” without being racist. But in this context? There is no question it is acting as a stand-in for the N-word.

        2. Willoughby Chase

          Indeed, much as it was used after the Baltimore riots so there is precedence IRL:

          http://www.npr.org/2015/04/30/403362626/the-racially-charged-meaning-behind-the-word-thug

      2. Her.

        ive never seeen white ppl called thug just other native/black/brown kids and almost exclusively by white ppl…

        1. DSL

          It happens.

        2. thejeff

          I’ve seen it, but only in cases where they actually were mob enforcers or some other criminal henchman types. Black men get it by default.

        3. Her.

          ^black kids* im mixed native white and just turned 18 4 months ago pigs and white folk call me thug whenever i go past

      3. StClair

        You’re right. Perhaps they’re under the impression that Sal is a member of the [url=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuggee”]Thugee[/i] gang.

        1. StClair

          Joke spoiled by link/HTML fail :p

    2. Fart Captor

      Hopefully they swing back for beard guy later.

      1. ety

        Just deck him on the way past.

        1. Willoughby Chase

          An elbow to his ribs, a hearty “pat” on his back, “Sorry mate” and we’re golden.

    3. Bicycle Bill

      “Thug” has always meant a real bad-ass.  Captains of industry used gangs of thugs to intimidate union organizers, members, and sympathizers; unions used thugs to intimidate strikebreakers and scabs; and the Mafia and other organized crime syndicates, such as the likes of bootleggers in the days of Prohibition, had groups of thugs who provided the ‘muscle’ to convince people to pay their protection money or took retribution against those who didn’t fall in line.  It’s only recently that black street gangs, rappers, and hip-hoppers have co-opted the term “thug” in much the same way that the word “gay” or the symbolism of the rainbow seems to have become the property of the homosexual community these days.

      1. thejeff

        I’m not sure how much “black street gangs, rappers, and hip-hoppers have co-opted the term “thug” ” and how much “thug” has been applied to urban blacks whether they like it or not.

        1. Bicycle Bill

          When they self-identify themselves with tattoos reading “Thug for Life”, refer to themselves as thugs in rap lyrics, and pride themselves as living the “thug life”, what would your conclusion be?

        2. trlkly

          That they were reclaiming the word, which was previously used against them. Not unlike what they did with another word. And what gay people did with gay and queer.

        3. StClair

          This, right here.

        4. adam

          I thought Tupac Shakur invented that!
          https://youtu.be/6x2FqX2YZws?t=59s

  60. Her.

    i really want more dina and becky i miss the smooches

    1. ety

      seconded. mostly for the general cuteness as opposed to smooches in my case, though.

      1. ety

        I really like Sal too though, so I’m kind of okay with this.

        1. SgtWadeyWilson

          Compromise: Sal smooches Amazi-Girl?

        2. Spencer

          These things always lead to Bone City.

      2. Her.

        listen my big gay lesbian self needs smooches from other lesbians but im not in a place where i can have that and i will gladly live through dina to experience them

        1. ety

          I fully support that ^_^ (if there was a thumbs up emoji of some sort I’d put it here). I certainly don’t mind the smooches (part of the cuteness) and I did specify that the shift in focus was “in my case.”

        2. Her.

          yeah that wasnt supposed to sound aggressive at all more like “im really really lonely and sad and wanna kiss girls but also cant handle that bc LIFE”

        3. ety

          If it helps, I didn’t really interpret it as aggressive. (Side note, I also hope things resolve or develop in such a fashion that you find yourself capable of enjoying kissing girls in person.)

        4. Her.

          thank you give me like a year or 2… maybe 3 i need money and my own place outside of canadas hot asshole

        5. adam

          Northamptons a nice place!
          ( Questionable Content takes place there )
          http://www.autostraddle.com/the-21-most-lesbianish-cities-in-the-us-128377/
          “Northampton‘s got more lesbians per capita than any town or city in the entire co”untry, and that’s not even counting the transient students from Smith College or Mount Holyoke”

  61. BP

    Keep doing the right thing, Amazi-Girl, I’m starting to like you again… (Not that I ever completely DISLIKED you, but I’m really missing Amber.)

  62. yo.

    Yeah, they’re gonna have to fight their way out. Mob mentality is a helluva drug, especially now that there are elements of violence & racism thrown in. “She didn’t do anything wrong” doesn’t probably mean jack to them anymore – all the know now is that they wanna see the white girl beat up the brown girl.

    I doubt even openly declaring Ryan an attempted rapist would distract them at this point.

  63. BenRG

    This is the night when Sal realises that maybe she didn’t understand Amazi-Girl or why she does what she does at all. I mean… she sees her face in her nightmares?!? Sal has to ask: what on Earth happened between them (and I still have to wonder if she even remembers the face of the girl who stabbed her)?

    Meanwhile, hypocrisy, thy name is Amazi-Girl! Shouldn’t you practice what you preach, m’dear?

    1. Fart Captor

      Sal already knew she didn’t understand why, and she doesn’t care:
      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/prove/

      1. BenRG

        Yet, her reactions here show that maybe she thinks she should be caring because you can’t handle a problem if you don’t know what the problem is.

      2. ety

        She might care after this.

        1. ety

          In that, it is a slightly different context and actually a slightly different “why?”

      3. thejeff

        Yeah, but this gives Sal a much clearer indication that there’s something really specific about her. The previous “why” was more of a general motivation thing.

    2. Silly Name

      Iunno. While the connection is obvious to us (that Amber hates Sal for what happened at the convenience store), it would require Sal a few leaps and couple more hints to get to that conclusion.

      I mean, if a masked stranger walked up to you and said that they see your face in their nightmares, would you immediately assume they are that kid that you had a brief, violent encounter with years ago?

      1. BenRG

        I think that one of Sal’s problems is that she doesn’t know superhero tropes the way Walky does so she can’t make the whole ‘Crime Alley’ origin of Batman thing that Amazi-Girl is basically copying to the letter.

  64. Heavensrun

    So does this mean we’re past the “first they fight each other” part of the superhero team-up, and now they’re on to the “Let’s join forces to take down the villian” part?

    1. BenRG

      No, I think that we’re still at the “Stay out of my city” and “You are a danger to everyone around you; I’m taking you down” part. The jump to “Um… well, maybe you aren’t as bad as I initially thought” will require the intervention of the mob around them. You see, I don’t think that they’re going to take to kindly to being denied their ‘entertainment’.

      1. JBento

        That could all be solved if only their mothers had the same name.

        1. Spencer

          I will never get tired of this joke. It deserves to be recorded in the annals of bad movie history.

        2. JBento

          Wanna celebrate over a jar of Grandma’s Peach Tea?

        3. Spencer

          Just as long as we find one of the many dozen abandoned sections of the city first.

  65. Angry Tomato

    “There can always be new beginnings. Even for people like us.”

  66. Eldritch Gentleman

    It just ocurred to me that talking like this to Sal might alleviate some of Amber’s trauma. If she just talks things out with Sal she might realize that she isn’t as evil as she always thought and that she has problems of her own…

    1. Mr.Morningstar

      pretty sure she’s aware she ain’t evil. She just WANTS her to be. So she can have an excuse to fight her.

      1. ety

        There’s this whole thing about using pronouns in a way that avoids ambiguity.

        1. DSL

          There’s this whole thing about context. I understood Mr. Morningstar just fine.

        2. ety

          I was not implying a fatal flaw of some kind or even a horrible mistake and it is certainly not an issue I’d take seriously. Moreover, I was attempting to express my finding humor, in the complete lack of antecedents despite varying pronouns, albeit poorly. Please forgive me for the offensive nature of my comment it was meant in a light-hearted manner.

          That said, conversational language, even in writing, is a vastly different matter from “proper” writing, but the rules of grammar still exist for a reason and some of those rules are worth paying more attention to than others. Understanding via context requires making assumptions by its very nature and well, you know what they say about assuming things don’t you?

          also reference:
          https://www.cedarville.edu/~/media/Files/PDF/Writing-Center/Student/avoiding-vague-and-ambiguous-pronoun-references.pdf

        3. ety

          and seeing as I somehow left this part out…

          I believe I was in error to comment as I did and I should not have done so.

    2. Spencer

      I’ve felt that a core element of Amber’s ability to hate Sal is dehumanizing her. As long as Sal is not an actual person with friends and families and pain that motivated her to do a terrible violent act, then Amber can blame her for everything wrong that’s happened to her.

      Seeing her own views broadcasted back to her from a crowd that hates Sal as much as her, I think it ended up flipping a switch in Amber’s head.

      1. Clif

        This. Very much this.

  67. nerothewriter

    Hopefully we can see some progressive character building soon.

  68. Jason

    OK, I was wrong, AG actually WASN’T hallucinating Ryan.

    1. Anorak

      How can you hallucinate someone you have never seen? Joyce has been hallucinating Ryan because he is a traumatic memory for her. (and now I am picturing amazi-girl hallucinating sal in the future)

  69. Heather Jean

    For some reason AG’s phone in panles 1 and 5 are like half the width it’s shown elsewhere.

    1. SgtWadeyWilson

      Leading theory is slide-out keyboard. Wish I had one, considering the problems my on-screen one is giving me.

      1. SgtWadeyWilson

        Correction: It’s the angle she’s holding it. I’m half awake, and the keyboard is quite visible.

  70. Russ

    YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

  71. darkoneko

    Hey arch-enemy, mind if I look above your shoulder from behind you ? No prob 😀

  72. Her.

    so like ive been thinking and like AG gets the text saying thats him kill him or w/e she kicks this guys ass but then theres the mob around her theyre going to be wondering why shes beating the shit out of some white guy she tells them why “he roofied a girl at a party” but then the scary thing happens “ok but like he didnt rape her” “thats not so bad” etc people defend scarface shes at a desanto rally shes a family oriented politician people want to see her beating the fucking black chick they wanna see sal in chains or worse we got a guy whos tried to rape a girl and has probably raped girls before or since joyce i wouldnt be surprised if theres ppl from the klan at this thing if this happens itll be really interesting to see how AG responds to this her world is pretty black and white on innocence

  73. CleverTrousers

    I know this is Amber and Amber basically never confronts anything without Mike goading her into it but this has been going on for years and I really want this to be a pulling off the bandaid moment.

  74. Emily

    Wow self-awareness from Amazi-Girl, that’s a first.

    1. Spencer

      I know! I’ve never once thought we’d get a scene of Amazi-Girl not only relenting from fighting Sal and defending her, but acknowledging her own terrible behaviour against her.

  75. Tomas

    AG should give Sal a spare mask. The whole crowd will be, like, “Hey, where did she go?”.

  76. JBento

    I see Cerberus has posted her reactions but not her comic analysis – just as well, there’s really nothing she or anyone could say that Sal’s expression in the second and last panels. I can’t remember one so good since she listened to Billy asking her housekeeper “where all the poor people went.”

    On a non-comic note: Phyllis Schlafy is dead! Were I an USAmerican (and wealthy) I’d buy every woman in that country their beverage of choice. Rejoice!

  77. Willoughby Chase

    I’ve had some strange feels at a couple of the last comics … I feel strangely … optimistic.

    I must be imagining it.

    1. ety

      Optimism!

    2. Deanatay

      CAREFUL.

      Big Willis has eyes everywhere. If he sees your optimism, he will crush it.

  78. gc

    Tomorrow’s strip: The mob turns on Amazi-Girl for being Politically Correct.

    1. Spencer

      And trying to attack a Good Christian Boy who doesn’t deserve to have his life ruined for one silly mistake.

      1. JBento

        Hasn’t he been punished enough?! I bet he doesn’t even enjoy steak like he used to!

  79. davidbreslin101

    *New target acquired
    *Send query new target identity
    *Re-prioritising
    *Commence background subroutine: re-evaluate life choices

  80. hof1991

    The last three mob scene comics have been about the Amber / AG split. Amber and her anger have been running the show. Attacking and stalking Sal. Beating up randos in the park. The evil eyes in the dark. Following her here.

    Yesterday, Amazi-Girl reasserted control. Today she cemented it. No one, including Amber in an AG costume, should be stalking Sal and threatening violence. It’s not recognizing her hypocrisy, it’s one side of her regaining control. And thank Zeus and DYW, it’s the good side.

    Ryan is just a plot device here. The action, growth and change are all in Amber/AG’s head.

    1. thejeff

      I still don’t see this. I think you’re making the same mistake Amber does: everything good goes to Amazi-Girl, everything bad is her.

      It’s Amazi-Girl who’s been stalking Sal. Every appearance at the rally has been Amazi-Girl. Tagged that way, none of the usual clues we’re dealing with Amber (mostly cheek blushes, but no verbal cues either). The evil eyes through the door was a switch from Amber to AG. The beating up the random petty crook was Amazi-Girl.

      We’ve seen Amber tagged in costume before – most notably beating up Blaine. This hasn’t been that. This has all been Amazi-Girl.

      What this is might be far more important than you suggest: The realization that Amazi-Girl isn’t perfect. Isn’t always right.

    2. Fart Captor

      All those things you mention were AG, not Amber. When she switches between them, the tags reflect this, even if her outfit does not.

      In my opinion, neither side is really ”the good one” or ”the bad one”, though they both had been seeing AG as good, and Amber as bad. This is the same kind of flawed, black & white way of thinking she has been applying to herself and Sal, and equally wrong.

      She’s at least slightly broken out of that with Sal, so hopefully she’ll so the same for herself, and quit telling herself AG is perfect, and Amber is horrible, because both ideas are wrong and harmful to her

      1. Spencer

        Amber once described it as having a Good Box and a Bad Box, and that she pulled it out when necessary.

        Honestly, I think she just switched labels. Amazi-Girl is now the Good Box and Amber’s the Bad Box.

        1. Heavensrun

          Amazi-girl was -always- the Good Box.

        2. Spencer

          Now she is, but Amazi-Girl hadn’t really developed into her own identity at that point. Amber used to put the costume on to process her negative feelings. That’s what I mean by Amazi-Girl being the Bad Box. She locked everything she hated about herself away and brought it out when needed.

          Amber even said that Amazi-Girl was just a mask that Danny could never love.

        3. Deanatay

          Eh, I don’t see that. Where did her terror and helplessness go? Into Amber. Where did her fits of uncontrolled violence go? Amber. Her doubts and insecurity? Amber. Amber is the Bad Box.

        4. Spencer

          There’s that, but the main focus is Amber’s anger, and it wasn’t until her fight with her dad that she got it into her head that both boxes were just the same (or in other words, that the anger she tried to distance herself from was part of her).

          That, and I reiterate that Amber didn’t really think of herself and Amazi-Girl as separate until afterwards. How Amber processes things has changed.

        5. Fart Captor

          Either way, its unhealthy. She can’t function as a whole person if she keeps labeling the two halves if herself that way. Both sides of her have value and flaws, and failure to recognize that will only continue to hurt her. Switching which side she values only changes how it hurts her

        6. Spencer

          Amber can’t see value in herself because she’s too convinced she’s a violent, irredeemable monster. That’s why she needs Amazi-Girl to be angry for her. This is why yelling at Danny ended up in her red panel collection despite “losing your shit on a loved one and feeling bad” is a thing literally everyone has done at some point.

        7. Fart Captor

          Yes, and she needs to fix that. Even if AG is here to stay, Amber needs to learn how to manage her anger as Amber, or else I don’t think she’ll never be able to move forward and learn to function a while again.

  81. JasonAW3

    Hey Amber / Amazi-Girl; New word for the day; Epiphany!

  82. Bizzarro

    For the record, I like amazigirl. I just really dislike amber. Does that make sense?

    1. JBento

      It does for me, if for no other reason that I’m the other way around: I far prefer the Amber identity to the Amazi-Girl one, because I like my people non-violent and non-erratic. Amber could certainly use more self-assertion, but if the storyline eventually results in integration, we’re probably going to get the best traits of both with the attenuation of their flaws.

      Then we can both be happy, and… er… what happens when two people on opposite sides of an on-line issue are satisfied with the resolution? Can I google that? Has it ever happened?

      1. thejeff

        Maybe in the real world. Not on line 🙂

      2. Heavensrun

        Eeeeh, but the point is that AG -isn’t- the violent one. Amber is. Amber is the one that stabs Sal’s hand. Amber is the one that put Blaine in the hospital. Amber is the one that loses it at Danny, and flips tables in the cafeteria.

        1. Spencer

          Amber is a person with a tendency towards violence due to her upbringing.

          It’s just that Amber is horrified by that, while Amazi-Girl is perfectly content with being an angry, self justifying thug.

        2. Athedia

          It is more AG channels her violence toward something that while it isn’t good persay, falls under the “hero” category. Amber when she is violent is… to put it bluntly, terrifying.

        3. hazlenaut

          That is another persona/person. The reason Amazi-girl was made. AG and Amber are working to make that side is contained

        4. JBento

          This… does not make sense. OF COURSE Amber is the one that stabs Sal’s hand. AG doesn’t exist at that point. However, the only time that you see non-child Amber get violent is when Blaine threatens Danny.

          Contrast that with AG, who tried to goad Marcie, Malaya and Sal into a fight so she could beat them, and who assaults the backpack-snatcher so violently that even the guy who (whom?) the backpack belongs to is taken aback. AG is also the emotionally abusive one (towards Danny), so…

        5. Silly Name

          Amazi-Girl was born to give Amber a “justified” outlet for her violence. Since Amazi-Girl is, supposedly, “Good” (D&D Good rather than real-world ethics, but whatever), she is allowed to beat up criminals.

          That’s also why she was so insistent on Sal & Co assaulting her first, because she needs to justify her violent actions via a contrived moral code that makes it so AG is in the right.

          Basically, it’s fucked up.

        6. hazlenaut

          That other personality was in rage since she thought Danny was two timing Amazi-Girl with Amber. As for Blaine threatening Danny, both Amber and Amazi-Girl stopped him, but the one who beat him to a pulp is unclear. suspecting the other persona. Should I name that other persona? Is V-Lass OK? It feels like I should not

        7. Spencer

          There’s never been any indication that Amber’s developed a third alter.

          Amazi-Girl dumped Danny because she thought he betrayed her/Amber, and it was Amber who fought Blaine, not Amazi-Girl.

        8. Fart Captor

          Actually, its completely spelled out which one beat up Blaine:

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/hostage/

          Amber is tagged, but Amazi-Girl is not. She drops the AG voice as she starts talking, and you can just barely make out Amber’s rosy cheeks.

          All of which continue until Danny pulls her off him.

        9. Spencer

          At which point Amber flat out states that she doesn’t know which one she is right now.

          Between that and confronting Sal for the first time is probably when Amber’s dissociative tendencies started kicking into high gear.

        10. Fart Captor

          I feel Amber’s confusion can be explained by the stuff going on in her head having just taken a new turn that she doesn’t understand.

          Even the way she talks until pulling a Batman on Danny sounds like Amber to me, not AG. Doesn’t seem to be any hint of AG at all.

        11. Spencer

          I feel that, at that point in time Amber and Amazi-Girl were still integrated identities. Amber knew it was her doing these things and didn’t believe that Amazi-Girl was a real person that Danny could love.

          Contrast with later, where Amber says it wasn’t her who was bleeding from a car accident, and then she gets mad at Danny for kissing her because he dates Amazi-Girl.

        12. thejeff

          Though even before that she was insistent that it was AG dating him, not Amber. Though, as a counterpoint to myself, in the Slipshine, she started as Amazi Girl but was Amber by the end.

          Still, I think it was more a gradual process. Back then, the division had started, but they were much closer together. Now, they apparently still share memory, but I wouldn’t take bets on how much longer that’ll last.

        13. Regalli

          I’m under the impression Amazi-Girl didn’t really fully emerge as an alter until AFTER the robbery and its aftermath – the stabbing was the first point where they started to split, but they didn’t distinctly compartmentalize and such until later on, particularly with Blaine keeping her out of therapy and into self-defense classes instead. (Which obviously proved to be a healthy alternative that didn’t teach her to vent her anger as violence at all, clearly.)

          Basically from what I can tell (and I’m not DID, so feel free to correct me if I’m way off here,) Amazi-Girl was already existent and probably considered the golden alter (borrowing Cerb’s phrasing since she does have experience) pre-college, but she didn’t start needing the outlet of IRL crime-fighting until the summer handling Ethan’s coming out. Or maybe she did, but being under a parent’s roof kept her from doing more than gathering supplies hidden in the rest of her college stuff. From the looks of things just putting on the mask was enough to help her calm a bit after the first Blaine intrusion, so I’d bet back when she was still assembling the superhero ID just having those things and being able to think “I’ll be at college soon, I’ll be free there, things will be easier” and gaming were enough to manage the trouble.

          And then even once she was at college, I think Amazi-Girl was still using violence as an outlet but not the only one and didn’t start deciding Amber was the worthless part of herself until Freshman Family Weekend and then the missteps with Danny/Sal appearing as a trigger started making her compartmentalize more and more and get angrier more and more and actively punching people more. Hell, I think the worst of it’s only been in the last in-strip week (basically prompted by Sal’s Motorcycle Rescue giving her the incompatible “Sal is not an irredeemable monster and saved your life” and hitting critical mass when she saw her and Danny together, just the last couple days).

          Amber and AG both have distinct issues in how they cope with things including a shared wanting to resort to violence, but a lot of them currently stem from the fact that “Amber” is considered the bad useless everything-she-internalized-from-Blaine-and-going-to-be-just-like-him one, while “Amazi-Girl” is the good righteous JUSTICE one who does no wrong and whose actions are only against criminals and are thus entirely justified and not personally motivated. Which isn’t accurate at all, and also isn’t healthy. Once she starts realizing the line isn’t like that, once she starts accepting that Amazi-Girl was going down a really dangerous road with this vendetta and (hopefully) that not all of Amber’s thoughts and feelings and coping mechanisms are unhealthy, things might start getting better. Also, once she realizes that violence isn’t a solution and starts working to finding other, healthier outlets.

        14. Spencer

          This was a great read.

    2. trlkly

      It makes sense, but I think it’s rather bizarre (heh heh). Amber attacked Blane, yes. But only because Amazi-Girl has to be perfect and can’t keep on beating on someone after they are down. AG couldn’t keep control, so it had to be Amber. And, when it comes to Sal, Amber just has panic attacks and then AG takes over.

      AG is not remotely non-violent. And she is the one who picked a fight with Sal, and got angry at Danny and said the horrible things to him. It’s just that she’s suddenly realized her anger towards Sal is getting out of control, and is violating her moral code.

      And neither Amber nor Amazi-Girl stabbed Sal. This was before the split. As Cerberus tells us all the time, neither of them is her original personality.

      Amber O’Malley is a mentally ill woman due to years of abuse. Amazi-Girl, who started out as just a coping mechanism, is now a full on personality. This also made Amber into a different personality–Amber O’Malley without the parts that make up Amazi-Girl–the parts of herself that Amber O’Malley hates.

  83. Heavensrun

    Gonna make a prediction. Or if this isn’t scheduled to happen, a suggestion:

    At some point, Billie is going to see Sal and AG together, and conclude that Sal isn’t Amazi-girl.

    She’s Amazi-girl’s -sidekick-.

    It will then become incredibly obvious that MARCIE is AG. She’s got the build, the physicality, the acrobatics, the penchant for concealing eyewear, the brown hair…

    1. Spencer

      oh god yes

    2. Heavensrun

      (then she tells Daisy and is spawns AG/Sal femslash fanfic, which Amber finds, then the universe is destroyed by the magnitude of her screams.)

    3. Deanatay

      “But, AG talks! Marcie can’t talk!!”
      “Or! Does she just want you to THINK she can’t talk?? It’s all part of her alter-ego…”
      “Billie, yer such a nerd.”
      *Billie turns red, splutters*

      1. Spencer

        “I’ll prove you’re Amazi-Girl’s sidekick! Marcie, say something!”

        *signs “fuck off”*

        “Exactly.“

  84. Trojianmaru

    That 3rd frame is so cool, they might hate each other, but now they’ve seen someone they both agree is scum. Superhero Team up time.

  85. Crazy Jay

    Why didn’t Joyce or her friends report that guy to the Police?

    1. Her.

      cops dont do shit

      1. Her.

        also underage drinking even if joyce’s drink was a virgin cops are fucking bastards arent they? wont even help a young women who was nearly raped bc she was at a party w/ alcohol and to pigs thats more important than anything else

        1. Silly Name

          Joyce’s drink was non-alcoholic. Ryan roofie’d her. They can claim there were only non-alcoholic beverages at the party (and in any case, there probably were some students of drinking age there anyway, since they got a few “ah, freshmen, amirite?” comments directed at them).

          The reason they didn’t report to the cops is because Joyce was afraid that her parents would take her out of school.

        2. Her.

          that too

    2. thejeff

      Underage drinking didn’t really come up.
      Mostly, Joyce wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened and was worried about her parents pulling her out of school.
      Dorothy had looked up stats on how well cops handled college rapes and wasn’t encouraged, but still wanted to report.
      Sal didn’t trust cops in general and also warned about possible trouble with Sarah assaulting Ryan.

      1. Regalli

        Basically, yeah: Cops don’t do shit, mixed with Joyce’s fear of getting pulled out and the low odds of things working in their favor, and the fact that a friendly neighborhood superhero was there so obviously things would be fine, right?

      2. Crazy Jay

        Cops really can not do anything when the victim refuses to report the crime. Believe it or not, Cops are not psychic. As soon as Joyce was rescued, the attempted should have been reported to the Police. Evidence has a very short shelf life and needs to be collected quickly. Otherwise if you wait, then it all boils down to he said she said and nobody is realisticly bringing that before a jury.

        I am fairly certain that Sarah will not face prosecution for defending a woman from a rapist.

        1. Reltzik

          Unless, of course, she can’t provide evidence that he was a rapist.

          …. it’s not likely in this case, though. Ryan seems happy enough just to have gotten out of there without being IDed and won’t be pressing charges either.

        2. thejeff

          No, but had they pressed charges, especially if they’d gone to the police the next morning, and the police had actually found Ryan, he’d pretty much have to accuse her of assault. Joyce as well.
          With the drugs out of her system (would they be? I don’t know) by then, it would just be her word against his and her memory was already fuzzy. “I was just helping her to the bathroom when she freaked out and glassed my face. Then this other crazy girl hit me with a bat.”

          Even if they’d gone right away and thus had evidence of the drugs, the chances are pretty good nothing would happen to Ryan. Or nothing much anyway. I think it would have been worth the chance. I agree they should have reported it, but I don’t have much faith in the system and I can’t really blame them for not doing so.

        3. Regalli

          Yeah, if it had been night of they probably would have been able to prove something, but the morning after would have problems and Joyce’s woozy panic the night of didn’t help things.

    3. chris73

      Sarah was advising Joyce to go to the police, Sal was advising against it. Joyce took the path of least resistance (not saying that not reporting it was right or wrong decision) and not report it to the police

  86. Owlmirror

    At some point, Sal’s got to wonder — why the hell am I haunting Amazi-Girl’s nightmares? And maybe she’ll come to an oh-so-close conclusion:

    SAL: Wait! That night I held up a convenience store and took a kid hostage! You! You were that kid, right? I thought that was a boy, but my memory’s probably confused.

    (What can Amazi-Girl possibly respond to that?)

    1. Spencer

      Probably the same reaction as finding out she hurt Amazi-Girl’s best friend.

      Especially after that flashback, where Sal gets revenge on Leland for attacking Marcie, I’m really curious to see how Sal will react.

      1. Clif

        What does Sal’s glove she always wears mean to her? What is her reaction going to be when she learns who stabbed her?

        1. Fart Captor

          One day she’s finally gonna take her gloves off to reveal that the stab wound healed really well and the scar is hardly visible. She just has a bright pink My Little Pony tattooed on the back of her hand.

        2. Guairdean

          Or maybe even Sunshine Bear.

    2. chris73

      Sometimes its easier to remain angry and bitter, self-reflection is hard and its not always pleasant facing up to the person you are as opposed to the person you think you are

  87. Taka

    “You wanna know how I got these [emotional] scars?”

  88. The Candyman

    Amazi-Girl has managed to let go of years of hate and paranoia, and all it took was the possibility of agreeing with republicans.

  89. Bicycle Bill

    “She didn’t do anything.  Not tonight.”
    Key word here is “tonight”.

    1. Willoughby Chase

      Good grief, so much information packed into each panel. I missed that this morning.

      There’s still a tangle between AG/Amber and Sal to sort out – if they ever do.

      I’m of the opinion that the Amazi-girl persona has overtaken Amber, subsumed it.

      Amber has effectively left the building. Although what happens when the school works out that Amber isn’t attending class anymore is anyone’s guess.

      1. Willoughby Chase

        Just had a look through the archive and my Amber/Amazi-girl theory is shot.

        1. Spencer

          I don’t necessarily believe it’s wrong. It was Amazi-Girl who decided that Amber needed her more than she needed Danny when he suggested that she stop being Amazi-Girl (which, if she does have DID, means Danny was asking for Amazi-Girl to basically die). Amber was actively locked out all yesterday, and for most of today for that matter; she shifted again when Sal was outside her door.

          Amber isn’t totally gone, but Amazi-Girl was basically in charge of their headspace for the last two days. That ain’t good, but if seemingly happy Amber from the preview panels for this chapter are any indication, there’s some resolution coming before the night is over.

        2. Fart Captor

          I think that the fact that Amber literally cannot handle interacting with Sal means Amazi-Girl has no choice but to take the wheel when Sal is around, because Amber would just try to jump out.

    2. Spencer

      It either means that Amber’s referring to the robbery, or that when she has her climactic showdown to the death it won’t be tonight.

  90. shadowcell

    woo! glad to see another Clintonista #ImWithHer

  91. Lord Stoneheart

    I thought glistening phallus would be my favorite word filter replacement word, but this comes pretty damn close.

    1. Spencer

      You can say SJW now.

      Though glistening phallus was pretty great.

    2. Reltzik

      Wait, that’s a word filter? What was it originally? Now I’ve gotta post about a zillion things that Willis might find objectionable to figure it out or else the curiosity will kill me.

      1. Viktoria

        Check his Twitter, he goes into what this was.

  92. chromacandi

    There’s a greater evil. We must put aside our differences.

  93. Sam

    “yea, stop following her around and threatening her. That’s my thing.”

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