How young are you that society has failed to remove the blinder of youth? Because I have a link for you if you are legally corruptible and don’t yet believe that females can bop.
yes. I mean, nothing’s going to happen right now, because damned if any of the Walmart employees get paid enough to interrupt this nonsense, but if the cops come looking for the security tape, well, it’s over there.
(It’s a shame you write these things so far in advance, David – I’d love to see a storyline where one of the Walmart employees puts the security tape on Worldstar. “CRAZY WHITE GIRL PARKING LOT BEATDOWN”)
SAL GOSHDARNIT YOU WILL FIGHT AND YOU WILL BOTH BE ON THE VERGE OF DESTRUCTION AND THEN YOU WILL UNITE AGAINST A COMMON ENEMY AND ULTIMATELY RECONCILE YOUR DIFFERENCES GOSHDARNIT
Hey man, she studied a lot (and banged somebody) for that 78. That’s a lot more effort than she just put into this fight.
I wonder if she has a mild learning disability, to explain why everything academic is just so much harder for her than for her twin. She certainly has a deep and thoughtful core, and she’s definitely not stupid or lazy.
Sal is just in the wrong areas – she really just by going for some humanities and social sciences classes, as she definetely seems to have a good mind for that. Maths, on the other hand.. she’s in the wrong class.
That could be true. I bet she’d kick some serious butt in anything that talks about postcolonialism, for example. Or art/design. Or mechanical engineering. Or psychology. I don’t care whether her parents think it’s important, I would just love to see her finally win at school.
She’d kick major ass as a sociologist, or as a journalist focusing on social issues. If she’d want something more conventional and “approved”, maybe… law? I could see Sal as a human rights lawyer…
Yeah, but Mechnical Engineering, requires a metric fucktonne of maths, stuff like differential calculus and its uphill from there. Maybe one of those weird BA engineering degrees might not have it, but if you’re going to become an engineer you really need a BEng or BSc.
Also, definitely not law, not unless she has a total personality change. Most lawyers do not get to do exciting things that make you feel good about yourself at the end of the day. Most lawyers have jobs that are incredibly boring, not to mention enforce those laws Sal hates. The average lawyer is more likely to spend 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, slogging through doc review and adding “allegedly” to every description of the product their company is suing 32 different other companies for infringement over, than to be doing anything remotely related to making human lives better.
I don’t know what Sal would be great at, but law definitely is not suited to her personality.
i can accept that math isn’t her strong suit, at least not as it’s been taught to her (we have yet to see danny’s efficacy as a tutor), but it’s not like she’s going for a degree in it. as far as i know even english degrees require you to take math as a core class. and they’re freshmen, so they’d still be working on the core stuff.
that being said, my only experience with college class requirements was an eighth-hearted (not anywhere close to half-hearted, i’m saying) attempt at a business degree, so a certain amount of math is bound to be required for that.
I have no idea about the US, since I’m Brazilian, but I’m have a bachelor’s degree in journalism, and I’m doimg a masters in Journalism, War and Conflict in Denmark and Wales, and I had ZERO math classes. So yeah, that is what I can add to it.
I majored in Sign Language Interpreting and needed 1 math class (specifically a course called College Algebra) and any science course. If memory serves, to major in English, English Education, and Art Education, (I started on these, but hadn’t 100% decided which I wanted to major in when I had to quit school) you needed that same math course and any 2 science courses. That was all the math and science needed and most people got it over and finished with freshman year.
It was more than enough for me, though. I did pretty well in the science classes, and found them fascinating, but only because I got to pick them. The college algebra course, however, took me 4 tries to pass despite working my ass off each time. I can certainly relate to Sal on that.
I hear one of the things you can do with a sociology degree is become a parole officer.
I bet she’d actually be really good at that. From what I understand a lot of that job’s about looking intimidating and cutting through people’s bullshit. Pays really well too, though apparently it’s got a pretty high employee turnover rate because it’s just incredibly rough on the mental health.
I’m guessing between being a middle school delinquent and juvee, she probably missed out on a lot of her math background. All those little holes in the foundation build up and make understanding and learning much more difficult as you progress to more complex mathematics. Source: 4 years of tutoring middle school to college math.
I had serious problems with parts of calc in college because my trigonometry teacher in high school was more concerned about the state of my immortal soul than actually teaching anyone trig, so I was missing huge chunks of foundation. I’ve had to teach myself trig as an adult because I need it for 3D modeling.
Yeah. Plus whatever “girls aren’t good at math” or “you aren’t good at math” she might have gotten.
I’ve tutored people who had the basics of equation solving or matrix inversion down, but whose grasp of arithmetic — especially fractions and negative numbers — was not solid enough to enable to them to do the calculations all the way through. And the times tables are just a matter of rote memorization, and fractions/negative numbers a matter of good explanation, I feel.
Sick as it is, Amber is probably immensely proud of that stabbing. We have to remember that as screwed up as Amber is, in her eyes she’s going after the second biggest source of evil and frustration in her life. She already put No. 1 in the hospital.
Wrong place. I don’t know how, because I navigated away from this page and then came back and posted from the bottom box. Oh, well, at least I got to respond to Willis’s sexy, sexy avatar.
Y’know, some of the open interpretation of art can be fruitful and fun, so it’s kind of a bummer when the artist keeps on intervening to tell us exactly what it means with no room for our own thoughts.
Generally when there’s “open interpretation of art,” it doesn’t involve ignoring plain information which has been presented again and again and is the central building block of stories for the past year and a half. Claiming Amber is “proud” of the things she’s done is as useful to a discussion about this comic strip as it would be to say she’s a raccoon.
Plus as a person who suffers panic attacks similar to Amber’s, I find the notion just plain insulting on a personal level. I will correct people when they are wrong on this because it is more important than my stupid comic strip.
It’s cool. Considering how far some people are going to explain how things aren’t racism, I can (unfortunately) imagine a few people being really confused why Sal is calling Amazi-Girl what she did.
This was a battle of wills, not fists. Amazi-Girl’s wave of rage crashed against Sal’s shore and was broken. And she’s left with the worst possible kind of defeat, the indifference of your enemy, the knowledge you aren’t even worth fighting.
“Ohhhh, Baaaaaatmaaaaaan? I’m about to poison Gotham’s water supplyyyyy! Better come stop me!”
“Sorry, Joker. There’s a new Big Bang Theory on tonight. Maybe some other time.”
“Oh… Well, alright then. I suppose I’ll just unleash all of this poison with no one to stop me then! MWA HA HA HAA!!!”
“Dude, Joker, can you shut up for a second? Leonard and Penny are about to get back together!”
“But, Batman, shouldn’t you come and stop me? I mean, I’m about to literally dump toxic waste into Gotham’s water supply! This is, like, a major crime!”
“Joker, I’ll tell you exactly how it’s going to go down: you’ll explain your evil plan, then I’ll drop kick you in the face, you’ll go back to Arkham, and I’ll have missed Sheldon doing something awesome! The last time you did this, I missed the episode of Family Guy where Brian died, then had to spend the next 24 hours hiding from literally everyone to avoid spoilers before I could watch the episode on my DVR! I’m not taking that chance again!”
“Come on! Pleeeeeez come and fight me!”
“Joker, NO!”
“Come on! Harley’s on her period and all my villain friends are in prison! I have nothing else to do tonight! Please come and fight me!”
“NO!”
“Well what else am I supposed to do then?”
“…You wanna come over and watch The Big Bang Theory?”
“……………..Fine.”
I assume she means “leave” but I could not find this definition in Urban Dictionary so I can’t be at all sure I’m correct. Sometimes Sal talks less like a modern teen of any subculture and more like a 1930s movie mobster. It’s kind of charming.
oh, good. the last panel shows Carla’s feet and the roller skates are confirmed. I think it is cute that Malaya has skates too. I’m not expecting them to get together in this universe, but that connection between them is appreciated.
People talking about John Cena always weirds me out, because his brother Steve was one of my best friends in college. I met the guy before he was anything but Steve’s obnoxious little brother. There’s knowing that WWE is fiction, and then there’s actually having known his family, crashed at his childhood home, before they started making up the fiction…
I wouldn’t conclude this is over yet. I’m not sure Amazi-Girl will let it be. Let’s not forget, she believes this is her last night as Amazi-Girl. As far as she knows, it is now or it is never.
Of course, an extended fight here is kind of no-win for all parties involved. If Sal and her troupe win, they’re the ones who stomped a campus hero who really was making a lot of people feel safer, and what’s left of Amber’s self-confidence may well be shattered. On the other hand, if Sal and company lose, they get a lot of humiliation and Amazi-Girl gets that much further away from actual hero toward psycho thug.
In either case, all parties involved will likely get some public attention from the paper. Dorothy might have to reconsider her (probable) decision not to expose Amber. And Sal will get a spotlight she REALLY doesn’t want, either as the villain in Amazi-Girl’s hero narrative or as one of the girls named when Malaya decides to go public with her editorial, “The Fuckin’ Psycho Fuckin’ Jumped Me: A Fuckin’ Retrospective.”
I like the no-win for all parties involved ending. Both Sal and Amber getting their shit kicked in would probably have a bigger impact on what violence (either domestic or institutionalized) really means to them and what they are doing to themselves because of their experiences with it.
I feel it’s unlikely that either Sal or Amber would learn or grow from the experience of getting the shit kicked out of them here. Neither’s problem is that they think they’re invincible. Amazi-Girl might appear that way to an outsider, but Amber in fact feels all too vulnerable as her non-costumed self, and more like she’s losing control than gaining it. Sal is pretty much just trying to get by and build a better life for herself. She may have problems with authority and feel the need to defy it in muted ways, but I don’t think that extends to finding random people on the street to beat up, just because.
Honestly, I feel like Amber has already taken a few steps towards psycho thug here, what with the whole pre planned assault she just tried to commit on four people who were minding their own business. I doubt she will let this go easily either of course, but she is way out of line already.
The assault was just for Sal, the other three girls just happened to be there when Amazi-girl came upon Sal. That Amazi-girl decided to attack anyway shows how far gone she is.
Like Rorschach in The Watchman (sorry, but that character is stuck in my mind at the moment).
Amazi-Girl actually didn’t decide to attack. Even after Malaya jumped her, she was still trying to talk Sal into being the monster she envisions her as.
First thing she does after her aggressive entrance and threatening words is tell Malaya to “come at her”. After knocking Malaya down she tells them to “come at me one at a time”. In this strip she is practically begging Sal for a fight.
Just because she hasn’t thrown a punch because she’s desperately clinging to the beer thing as an attempt to justify her violent desires and stay on her moral high horse doesn’t mean she hasn’t decided to attack. She already hit Malaya.
Amazi-Girl hit Malaya when Malaya attacked her. And she’s trying to goad Sal into attacking her too, so she has an excuse to hit Sal as well. But she hasn’t attacked Sal and I don’t think she will. It’s an important distinction to Amazi-Girl, I think, that she not be the attacker, because she can justify the violence if she’s fighting back against someone who has attacked her or an innocent first. Actively trying to provoke that attack so that she can ethically fight back is maybe cutting that distinction a little fine, but I think it’s important to her.
And note I’m talking about “Amazi-Girl” here, not “Amber”. Amber will (as demonstrated) totally stab you by surprise from behind after your threat has already been neutralized, or keep hitting you after you’ve gone down until someone drags her off of you, because she’s scared and angry and fights like a cornered rat. Amazi-Girl, on the other hand, is a superhero. That’s the fundamental core of her identity, the whole reason she even exists. And superheros don’t attack innocents; they can be violent, but they use that violence in defense of themselves or others. So Amazi-Girl won’t attack. She’ll offer herself to be attacked, and then fight back, but she won’t attack.
And those who insist that Amazi-Girl is dangerous to Amber and others and needs to go away… note that Amazi-Girl’s not just an outlet for Amber’s rage and violence. She’s a control on it. Amber is far and away the more dangerous of Ms. O’Malley’s personae.
I’d agree if I thought failure was going to help Amber in that regard. That’s what makes this thorny. It’s not really THAT much of an improvement if Amber falls to the biker gang and goes back to being afraid of everyone and everything: I guess it makes her less of a danger to others, but it also makes her realistically a suicide risk.
I’d like for her to be swayed from her current dark path without losing the power that allows her to stand up when it’s really needed. SOMEONE has to stand against people like Blaine and Ryan. Someone has to tell other scared girls there’s hope. But right now, I can’t see any obvious ways for her to get there.
Agreed that this isn’t over yet. Remember, Amber stabbed Sal’s hand during Sal’s arrest – AFTER the cops had things under control.
Also, don’t be surprised if Sal knows that Amazi-Girl is Amber – and that Amber’s the girl who stabbed her. Sal may have plans of her own to launch against Amber – plans that involve cops, judges, other authority figures and permanent records. And once they link her father’s beating to her, watch out – this is Southern Indiana we’re talking about, where Honor Your Father and Mother is Iron Law, no matter what they did and/or do to the child.
I actually feel a little sorry for Amazi-girl here. This is kind of like a little girl seeing this cake. All she wants to do is (And please don’t make this sexual) eat the cake; all she can ever think about after seeing the cake is eating it. Then, when she finally gets the chance to eat the cake, the cake is all like “Nah. Ah’m gonna go let some other kid eat me” and just leaves the kid sitting there like an idiot, her greatest wish unfulfilled. Why can’t we let Amazi-girl metaphorically eat her metaphorical cake?
Why couldn’t the metaphor be not a cake? Cake seems to be quite a stretch, metaphor-wise. Puppy would be better (I avoided kitty for reasons of not sexualizing it.)
Your analogy is great; except you should substitute the word “poison” for “cake.”
See, what the rest of us see is a battered and emotionally broken girl obsessed with something that can only hurt her more. I don’t feel bad for her that she’s being forcibly prevented from further assaulting people; I feel bad for her for everything that led her to want to assault people.
I mean, we seem to be supposing this cake is a sentient entity, so eating it would probably be an act of extreme violence.
If I were to guess I’d say the “Nah. Ah’m gonna go let some other kid eat me” bit is merely an excuse the cake uses when ignorant minds don’t understand that the cake might not want to be eaten at all. After all, it’s not as if Sal’s walking off to let some other vigilante spread her blood across the parking lot.
Yes but I would probably say that Blaine, not matter how he may object, is scared. He is if nothing else, I’d say, scared of losing control. Hence is appearance at the dorm when he wasn’t on the list. He wanted to show power and that he still ruled the family. Not that he actually did but I think that he wanted to show that he did.
That all being said I agree with what you said about Sal’s meaning but coupled with Amber’s actions I think that there is an interesting parallel to examine, especially since this largely seems to be Amber trying to show power and control.
Because Sal believes herself to have been the victim of institutionalized racism from the time she was small, even by her own parents, who picked Walky over her a lot of the time because he was a few shades lighter… which is part of what the recent Walky flashback was about, when only one of them got picked for the audition and he realized Sal was right.
I think it’s like how she would talk if paraphrasing Joyce’s thoughts — using the words Joyce would use, not her own vocabulary. In other words, Sal’s saying that she thinks Amazi-Girl’s a kind of goody-two-shoes (super-)hero…
It’s been a while since I did the initial F-bomb count, and I wasn’t smart enough to actually preserve which-strip information while counting, so I may be a little fuzzy on the details, but as I recall, in the whole first three weeks of school (up to the argument with Walky on family day evening), Sal dropped exactly two F-bombs, both of them on Walky. She said things like “freakin'” or “fu-” pretty often, but rarely busted out the full “fuck”.
She has been… much more prolific since. Even leaving out the Mario-Kart cluster bombing, in the last three (in-comic) days she’s said “fuck’ more than she did in the first three weeks. I’m not sure if this is intentionally indicative of something. Maybe the whole Avalon-uniform fiasco on get-totally-ignored-by-your-family-except-for-the-racist-remarks weekend soured her on trying to pose as the good little girl, so she’s not self-censoring like she was before.
Maybe kind of makes sense that she’s gone back to being someone who says “dang” for Amazi-Girl’s benefit.
It may be a matter of mood. Sal may drop f-bombs when she’s in a comfortable setting, around people she knows. In social settings, she may use more restrained language. (Yes, drinking beers in a Walmart parking lot is a social situation – except Marcie, she doesn’t really know these people well.)
Thankfully, I’d say. I was about to point to that person that out of 1950 US senators, only NINE were black. So yeah. Even ignoring the utter lack of sense… oh screw it, I don’t even know why I care
Wow. I just got a ton more respect for Sal (and Willis, I guess) for acknowledging that in the real world, masked vigilantes are usually bullies and thugs who think the law is too lenient with “undesirables”.
It’s been a while since I was in college, but from what I recall, 4am Monday night/Tuesday morning… the night’s still young! Sleep? You can sleep tomorrow night! Or in class. That’s what they make you take that Computers for Morons class for, right?
In an interesting way, this is a brilliant deconstruction of great super hero/villain pairings you see in comics, being they are such great foils for each other. At their root, Sal and Amber feel like the same character to me. Both are characters that have been traumatized by horrible factor(s) of their lives (Sal by family favoritism and racism, Amber by abuse, etc.) and because of these traumas they have lashed out in unhealthy ways. In fact it was Sal’s outbreak that helped build on Amber’s trauma, making her feel afraid and weak, and giving her father something else to emotionally abuse her over. And now the destructive actions of Amber are coming full circle towards Sal. It kind of feels like Laertes going after Hamlet. In a world that wronged Hamlet, Hamlet wronged Laertes, who then continues the destructive cycle.
Hmmm… this… could still lead to my favored ending to this whole scenario wherein Sal helps Amazi-Amber to deal with her issues by sitting around drinking with her. Honestly I feel like that would almost be the best ending, in large part because, while far from being the same causes, they both presented the symptoms of their anger in the same way, violent acting out. The only difference is that Sal seems to have already figured out how to deal with her trauma in a significantly healthier way while Amber still requires the Amazigirl persona to help her compartmentalize her issues, forcing them to stay in a box until the box can no longer hold all the discontent and anger. so really, if there’s any hope for Amber /not/ getting put in either prison or an institution even for a short time, Sal’s ironically the best she has.
Love Sal, knew she wouldn’t go for a 4 to 1 beat-down.
And having been sent away once already, maybe this kind of thing could send her up for hard time, so she is going to make it count, if it happens at all. Not a gang stomp against a screwed up crusader without the brains to consider a 4 to one may not go well for herself.
I think walking away and letting Amazi-girl rage/plead is just what she would do.
But, will Malaya? We know Carla will, and that Marci will follow Sal where ever she goes. But Malaya is mean nuts.
Going for a dive Sal? Suspect David dropped an ‘r’.
This may not end with anyone in physical pain, but what can Amazi-girl do now? Amber has it in her head that this is the last night she can settle with Sal, as she thinks her story will be in the paper via Dorothy.
With all her avenues closed, what in Hell is she going to do? Her back was to the wall before, and now she is really up against it.
Having seen that just like Ethan said, Sal isn’t the person she was years ago, ideally this would force Amber to confront the idea that there’s no reason she needs to be the same person she was either. That maybe she should seek out alternatives to slapping a mask over the violence her father put in her.
It would actually be kind of neat if this lead up to Amber getting Sal to pass on a bit of what they taught in Juvenile Detention about correcting harmful behaviors.
Damn. I was so hoping that Amber would kick her ass and take Sal down a peg. Don’t go around acting like the baddest bongo in town if you aren’t going to back it up. A motorcycle and a juvie record does not a badass make.
Sal doesn’t THINK she’s cool, though. She tells people not to look up to her, the attention makes her uncomfortable. (Though she probably wants a large amount of it, too– awkward split, there).Joyce and Co. decided she’s cool.
Being cool and being tough (or giving off the appearance of being tough) are not quite the same thing. They intersect a lot, but one does not equal the other.
You do realize that you’re essentially saying, “This college freshman’s attitude annoys me, therefore someone should beat the shit out of her?” Regardless of Sal’s badassness, whether or not she has it, and her attitude towards it, she has done nothing to justify violence.
“Beat the shit out of her”? No. But a good swift kick in the taco? Sure. Remember that Sal didn’t do “nothing”….she threatened to stab someone over some cash in a register and traumatized Amber.
So, Amazi-Girl needs to beat Sal, because Sal thinks she’s cool without proving it. But doesn’t by defeating Amazi-Girl and calmly refusing her twisted game not prove her badassness? So the attitude is totally justified.
Hey, I didn’t say it would make sense. Amber not’s thinking right, and feels that proving she’s tougher than Sal will alleviate the negative self-worth and anxiety stemming from the gas station robbery.
Also, if people actually knew the answer to your question, MMA fighting wouldn’t exist.
No, you. You seem very invested in proving that Sal’s not as tough as you seem to feel she’s been projecting.
MMA is sport. You’re hardly proposing that Sal should test her body against Amber’s within any setting like that. You’re proposing that Sal needs to get attacked in a Walmart parking lot.
You’re right. Looking back on my previous comments, it looks like I let my distaste for Sal cloud my better judgement. She’s actually exercising good judgement while Amber is dead set on working her issues all over Sal’s face.
It’s kind of weird that I was so invested in seeing one fictional character beat the crap out of another fictional character. *shrugs*
Maybe you identify with Amber on some level, and subconsciously equated Sal with some bully or other force in your life that you, personally, have wished for redress against?
Sal’s been taking lessons from the Fonz.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Fonzie: I’m gonna do something for you, Cunningham, I never did for anyone before. I’m gonna teach you the secret of being tough. Richie: Wow, you don’t think I could ever… Fonzie:WHO told you to talk? Richie: I’m sorry, Fonz. Fonzie: That’s the secret. Richie: What? ˆI think I missed it. Fonzie: You see how nervous you just got? Richie: Yeah, but I thought you were gonna kill me. Fonzie: Hey, that’s the point – I intimidated you. That’s because I got a majestic bearing, I got style, I got an attitude, I got a tough voice. Richie: Let’s face it, you’re a good fighter. Fonzie: Hey, I’m the best! But in the entire time you’ve known me, have you ever seen me in a fight? Richie: Well no, but that’s just because the other guy backs down first. Fonzie: I rest my case.
Former being the important word there. No shame in measuring poorly against Sal, she’s just a normal citizen like you or I.
How would you like it if people were like it if you failed a course and years after the fact people were saying “You know you’re stupid when a former F-Student’s getting better marks than you” ignoring the fact that your marks have been perfectly respectable for years? Or something similarly relatable to whatever it is you do in your life?
I find it a bit hard to believe Amazi-girl can’t struggle herself free. Of the three girls holding her two are on roller skates. It can’t be hard to make them lose their footing.
Carla, specifically, seems to be “inviting” Amber to pull her closer, put her right foot behind Carla’s right foot and then throw all her weight on Carla’s upper torso. She would be on the ground in half a second.
Marcie would be harder to get rid of, but as soon as she has her right arm free a wide array of “attacks” are possible. The Amazi-girl we know wouldn’t have a problem there. And Malaya would be no threat after that.
I notice that both Malaya and Carla are paying more attention to Sal than Amazi-Girl (see where their eyes are focused). If Amazi-Girl really wanted to break free and flee the scene make a brilliant tactical retreat, she’s 90% there already.
Yeah, c’mon AG! There’s just 3 of em! What’s the hold-up? Use the classic head-knocking together move on the two on your arms, then the backwards head butt to Malaya (would normally be the back kick between the legs, but probably not as effective here) and let’s get this party started. Better to burn out than fade away.
A couple of problems with this plan, Sal
-AG’s may not give up that easily. Up until now, she’s been trying to goad them into attacking her – this gives her a moral high ground. However, she’s aggressed against Sal before, and if they try to walk away, she may decide to screw the high ground. She has little to lose at this point, anyway.
-Second, can we be sure the girls will listen to Sal? Marcie, sure, and Carla means no harm, but Malaya still has the bit in her teeth. She may want to continue the fight on her own.
Now I kind of want to see Sal and the rest of her posse take off, and Amazi-Girl hobbling after them in pursuit, dragging Malaya, who’s latched onto her ankle determinedly trying to chew through an Amazi-Boot.
Is it weird of me I keep thinking that this is going to end up with Sal convinced Amazi-Girl is a white supremicist? Not because Sal isn’t wrong about racial matters but the fact they’re talking about two different things. Sal is talking about being targeted by the cover of her skin and Amber just said she doesn’t care about that (unaware of it). I doubt Willis will go that way but it is an interesting thought.
I kind of get the feeling that Amber is going to bring up the hypocrisy of not liking people using laws to terrorize people vs holding a knife to some kids throat. though I wonder what Joyce would do if she found out here hero Sal held a knife to Ethan’s throat
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AWWW
[whew]
… I am really, really worried that the next comic will involve dragging Amazi-girl behind one or more motorcycle.
“I’ll call you names!”
“Ohhhhh. Like what.”
“Like… DIAPERED DYNAMO.”
“…whut”
woah, I remember that game 😀
“You bludgeoned my father… and then talked about old times?”
“A photographer took pictures, but her camera was stolen by the same thug that came after you.”
That sounds hilarious.
It’ll only happen because Amazi-girl refuses to let go of the back of the motorcycle…
Oh man, what if she like steals a car to chase after Sal or something?
So, was that taking the moral high ground or the lazy ground?
I’m guessing, desite the drinking, Sal does NOT want to do juvy again [though I guess it’d be full prison this time]
despite
[one-handed typing]
[[I’m eating POPCORN you PERVS]]
It’s not getting any better. You spelled “beating it to cop-porn” wrong.
I think I’d need meat to beat before I could beat it.
Depends on how you’d like to interpret it, really.
How young are you that society has failed to remove the blinder of youth? Because I have a link for you if you are legally corruptible and don’t yet believe that females can bop.
Nuuu my link! My precious link! Stripped by the evil webcodes of the evil one!
Meh.. just do a youtube search for ‘Cyndi Lauper’ and ‘Shebop’. And remember kids, Cyndi wants all girls to bop!
good sir, would you like an internet?
YES!
Whichever one acknowledges the surveillance cameras recording what’s going on.
yes. I mean, nothing’s going to happen right now, because damned if any of the Walmart employees get paid enough to interrupt this nonsense, but if the cops come looking for the security tape, well, it’s over there.
(It’s a shame you write these things so far in advance, David – I’d love to see a storyline where one of the Walmart employees puts the security tape on Worldstar. “CRAZY WHITE GIRL PARKING LOT BEATDOWN”)
The heigher lazier ground. Imagine a recliner at the top of a mountain.
I think it’s mostly that she decided that if Amber was looking for a fight, there was no point in satisfying her, whatever her reasons.
And if she’s looking for a fight, why play into her hand? Leave her as the aggressor and she’s still firmly in the wrong.
Plus I guess she didn’t particularly feel like beating up some random crazy stranger.
or just the spiteful route because amazi-girl flat-out said said she was looking for a fight.
That’s also true. Sal is very contrary, after all. Very much You Can’t Make Me; I’ll Do What I Want.
Well, she could have easily taken her mask off, so there is some moral high ground there.
Would there have been something amoral about unmasking Amazigirl?
No…no cat fight?
But I had money on Sal… and Amazi-girl… and Carla as a backup.
Nobody had money on Malaya except Yotomoe.
Pretty sure timemonkey did.
If I didn’t know the context, I’d suspect Amazi-Girl’s a masochist who just wants to get beat up by a hot chick.
But since I know better, I’d say that’s only about 5% true.
You mean 50%. That’s probably the biggest reason for vigilantism.
Oh, THAT’S why Batman has a thing for the criminal in tight leather with a whip.
You kidding me? He almost had a thing with Poison Ivy! Like, a real, legit thing!
It wasn’t to be, of course.
I love you and your hatred of men and ability to kill them through sexy makeouts. Oh wait.
No, that was his best friend. The one with the secret massive anger issues.
“secret”
Ya but you might end up thrown down a elevator shaft by Rorschach.
Well best possible outcome there.
For the characters, yes. As a reader though, I was kinda hoping for an extended action scene.
Denying her the satisfaction, fuck yes. I’m all for Amazigirl being like. cute fun. This shits ridiculous. get some fuckin therapy amber, christ.
She would punh her therapist.
A therapist would probably give her something else to punch. 🙂
An intern?
Looks like Amazi-Girl’s gonna have blue rage balls tonight.
Yeah, this was certainly…anticlimatic *CSI shades* YEAHHHHHHHHHHH
Did you just
I don’t know about Amazi-Girl but I’ve had a satisfying climax.
Be sure to clean up.
She’s gonna go home and rage kill SO many spiders.
Pretty soon, there will be no more spiders left in that game.
She killed them so hard, they were erased from the game entirely.
Like, went back in time and unprogrammed from ever being in the game.
that’s bad-assery on the level of Chuck Norris.
Later, she would be THE person to go to when you need some heavy debugging.
was that a “spiders are close enough to insects that people don’t care b/c they’re all creepy” pun
Spiders bug me.
SAL GOSHDARNIT YOU WILL FIGHT AND YOU WILL BOTH BE ON THE VERGE OF DESTRUCTION AND THEN YOU WILL UNITE AGAINST A COMMON ENEMY AND ULTIMATELY RECONCILE YOUR DIFFERENCES GOSHDARNIT
#spoileralert
You’re not even worth Sal’s time Amazi-girl.
You’re like math to her.
Sal worked very hard at her math.
You’re like using doors and stairs to her.
Maybe that post was a roundabout way of suggesting a threesome?
Hard? She only got a 76. And that’s been her best grade so far!!!
Hey man, she studied a lot (and banged somebody) for that 78. That’s a lot more effort than she just put into this fight.
I wonder if she has a mild learning disability, to explain why everything academic is just so much harder for her than for her twin. She certainly has a deep and thoughtful core, and she’s definitely not stupid or lazy.
Sal is just in the wrong areas – she really just by going for some humanities and social sciences classes, as she definetely seems to have a good mind for that. Maths, on the other hand.. she’s in the wrong class.
That could be true. I bet she’d kick some serious butt in anything that talks about postcolonialism, for example. Or art/design. Or mechanical engineering. Or psychology. I don’t care whether her parents think it’s important, I would just love to see her finally win at school.
She’d kick major ass as a sociologist, or as a journalist focusing on social issues. If she’d want something more conventional and “approved”, maybe… law? I could see Sal as a human rights lawyer…
Yes! Anything that affirms her righteous anger at the broken system, and then channels it into making a difference in the world. Sweet.
This tangent’s led me to want to see Sal and Leslie together.
(Not like that.)
((Okay, like that would be cool too. But I mean I just want to see how they’d interact.))
I’d like to see her be successful while acknowledging school isn’t her thing.
Yeah, but Mechnical Engineering, requires a metric fucktonne of maths, stuff like differential calculus and its uphill from there. Maybe one of those weird BA engineering degrees might not have it, but if you’re going to become an engineer you really need a BEng or BSc.
Mech E involves a lot of math.
Also, definitely not law, not unless she has a total personality change. Most lawyers do not get to do exciting things that make you feel good about yourself at the end of the day. Most lawyers have jobs that are incredibly boring, not to mention enforce those laws Sal hates. The average lawyer is more likely to spend 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, slogging through doc review and adding “allegedly” to every description of the product their company is suing 32 different other companies for infringement over, than to be doing anything remotely related to making human lives better.
I don’t know what Sal would be great at, but law definitely is not suited to her personality.
i can accept that math isn’t her strong suit, at least not as it’s been taught to her (we have yet to see danny’s efficacy as a tutor), but it’s not like she’s going for a degree in it. as far as i know even english degrees require you to take math as a core class. and they’re freshmen, so they’d still be working on the core stuff.
that being said, my only experience with college class requirements was an eighth-hearted (not anywhere close to half-hearted, i’m saying) attempt at a business degree, so a certain amount of math is bound to be required for that.
I have no idea about the US, since I’m Brazilian, but I’m have a bachelor’s degree in journalism, and I’m doimg a masters in Journalism, War and Conflict in Denmark and Wales, and I had ZERO math classes. So yeah, that is what I can add to it.
I majored in Sign Language Interpreting and needed 1 math class (specifically a course called College Algebra) and any science course. If memory serves, to major in English, English Education, and Art Education, (I started on these, but hadn’t 100% decided which I wanted to major in when I had to quit school) you needed that same math course and any 2 science courses. That was all the math and science needed and most people got it over and finished with freshman year.
It was more than enough for me, though. I did pretty well in the science classes, and found them fascinating, but only because I got to pick them. The college algebra course, however, took me 4 tries to pass despite working my ass off each time. I can certainly relate to Sal on that.
She really just needs to go to mechanic school and earn like $80k/yr, EAT THAT LINDA
[meanwhile, Walky becomes a nurse]
Sal can come be in my class any time.
I don’t mean that in a perverted way. I just, like, mean it.
Me too. In a couple years, she’d do just fine here in Social Work school.
Some types of classes are mandatory at college, Sal probably wouldn’t be in that class if she had the option.
I hear one of the things you can do with a sociology degree is become a parole officer.
I bet she’d actually be really good at that. From what I understand a lot of that job’s about looking intimidating and cutting through people’s bullshit. Pays really well too, though apparently it’s got a pretty high employee turnover rate because it’s just incredibly rough on the mental health.
I’m guessing between being a middle school delinquent and juvee, she probably missed out on a lot of her math background. All those little holes in the foundation build up and make understanding and learning much more difficult as you progress to more complex mathematics. Source: 4 years of tutoring middle school to college math.
I had serious problems with parts of calc in college because my trigonometry teacher in high school was more concerned about the state of my immortal soul than actually teaching anyone trig, so I was missing huge chunks of foundation. I’ve had to teach myself trig as an adult because I need it for 3D modeling.
Yeah. Plus whatever “girls aren’t good at math” or “you aren’t good at math” she might have gotten.
I’ve tutored people who had the basics of equation solving or matrix inversion down, but whose grasp of arithmetic — especially fractions and negative numbers — was not solid enough to enable to them to do the calculations all the way through. And the times tables are just a matter of rote memorization, and fractions/negative numbers a matter of good explanation, I feel.
Amber is about to bring up the robbery. It’s the best way to get a reaction. “Rob any gas stations lately? Any idea why you did it?”
“Stab any hands lately?” Amber looks down in shame*
Sick as it is, Amber is probably immensely proud of that stabbing. We have to remember that as screwed up as Amber is, in her eyes she’s going after the second biggest source of evil and frustration in her life. She already put No. 1 in the hospital.
yeah, when remembering the stabbing sends her into a panic attack, definitely proud of it, for sure
… What if Joe winds up boning Carla in this universe?
That’s either responding in the wrong place or just…way out of left field.
Really. And I am guessing Carla is asexual in this universe too, so…
It is wrong in many, many ways.
Wrong place. I don’t know how, because I navigated away from this page and then came back and posted from the bottom box. Oh, well, at least I got to respond to Willis’s sexy, sexy avatar.
Huh. I really thought it was the robbery that put her in a panic attack, not the stabbing.
This makes more sense of that +1 you gave the commenter yesterday for saying Amber was unhappy remembering the non-fair “fight” that Sal lost.
Thanks for filling in the character for us. She’s so all-over-the-place it’s not obvious to me _what_ her motivation or emotion-source is sometimes.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/02-i-was-a-teenage-churchmouse/ack/
(though honestly it’s an all-of-the-above thing, not an either-or)
BTW, that flashback comic demonstrates that Sal has amazing shoulders, and loves to bare them.
Y’know, some of the open interpretation of art can be fruitful and fun, so it’s kind of a bummer when the artist keeps on intervening to tell us exactly what it means with no room for our own thoughts.
Understandable when the fanbase keeps drawing the wrong conclusions then treating them as facts.
Generally when there’s “open interpretation of art,” it doesn’t involve ignoring plain information which has been presented again and again and is the central building block of stories for the past year and a half. Claiming Amber is “proud” of the things she’s done is as useful to a discussion about this comic strip as it would be to say she’s a raccoon.
Plus as a person who suffers panic attacks similar to Amber’s, I find the notion just plain insulting on a personal level. I will correct people when they are wrong on this because it is more important than my stupid comic strip.
Amber is a raccoon?! HEY GUYS AMBER IS A RACCOON.
AMAZI-RACC
Wait, sorta my mind just turn 180, could it be that the revenge Amber is looking for is not hers but Sal’s?
Well, I was thinking about like “I hurt you bad and unfairly, you deserve to get a fair chance with me” but rereading a bit I guess no.
I think it is more like “I ashamed of how I did it, let me try to beat you fair way and redeem myself”.
Though, it is better than “I want to pulp you down cause after five years I still mad at you”.
*lowers popcorn with disappointment*
Awwww, I wanted a dramatically awesome fight scene. Then again, this isn’t necessarily the end, either.
Amazi-girl is being held down by 3 skater girls. *raises popcorn*
That scene should have been an option for an 8½ x 11″ print in the Kickstarter.
I was hoping it would be the premise for the next NSFW storyline 😉
I somehow can’t see Malaya, Carla or Amazi-Girl just spontaneously deciding it’s time for consensual sex. So probably not.
No idea about Marcie.
I am really disturbed by this comment chain.
But not surprised.
I would love a print of Yotomoe eating popcorn, personally.
Just imagine Bale’s Batman sucked on some helium and said “Pretty Please”, I’m not sure if that would be funny or just plain freaky sounding.
I can’t even imagine what this would sound like. It’s like a …oxymoron.
A Google search turned up…disappointment.
*tries it*
Definitely funny. I almost smiled.
+1
Malaya has the biggest >:( face in the first panel.
The cutest >:C face too. She’s like an angry cat.
exactly the description I was looking for
(to complete the meme:)
“I had fun once, it was awful.”
I had fun once.
It was awful.
It’s weird seeing Sal talking to herself here.
…This makes perfect sense. It’s a bit of a letdown, but it sure makes sense.
On the other hand, I really enjoy the hint towards Sal’s constant awareness of the inequity of the system. Because that’s neat.
It’s hard out there for a pimp.
There’s a barber in Brooklyn who disagrees.
It’s getting difficult for a ghoul.
Sal certainly said some thought provoking stuff in the 2nd and 3rd panels.
Laws ARE indeed meant to be broken indeed.
It’s not the first time she’s mentioned it, either. Remember way back when they were talking about going to the cops about the guy who drugged Joyce?
Don’t recall that but thats a good enough excuse to reread the older strips again.
The ones devoid of alt-text? Never!Oh right, I keep forgetting I have the books until I randomly read them front to back in one sitting.
Sal gets all the points.
Wait, Amazi-Girl is an old man?
I did not see that coming at all.
She’s talking about institutionalized racism.
Oh, derp on me, you were joking. Right then, carry on.
It’s cool. Considering how far some people are going to explain how things aren’t racism, I can (unfortunately) imagine a few people being really confused why Sal is calling Amazi-Girl what she did.
Whereas Amazi-Girl is talking about personal revenge. I hope this miscommunication doesn’t have any long-term consequences.
And she would’ve gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for those meddling teenagers.
Wait, she’s the one meddling [in a half-assed attempt at getting drunk]. Never mind.
Amazi-Girl is actually Reagan.
So that is what he did after Shortpacked!
At this point, she’ll say whatever she thinks will get Sal to fight with her, true or not.
This was a battle of wills, not fists. Amazi-Girl’s wave of rage crashed against Sal’s shore and was broken. And she’s left with the worst possible kind of defeat, the indifference of your enemy, the knowledge you aren’t even worth fighting.
“Ohhhh, Baaaaaatmaaaaaan? I’m about to poison Gotham’s water supplyyyyy! Better come stop me!”
“Sorry, Joker. There’s a new Big Bang Theory on tonight. Maybe some other time.”
“Oh… Well, alright then. I suppose I’ll just unleash all of this poison with no one to stop me then! MWA HA HA HAA!!!”
“Dude, Joker, can you shut up for a second? Leonard and Penny are about to get back together!”
“But, Batman, shouldn’t you come and stop me? I mean, I’m about to literally dump toxic waste into Gotham’s water supply! This is, like, a major crime!”
“Joker, I’ll tell you exactly how it’s going to go down: you’ll explain your evil plan, then I’ll drop kick you in the face, you’ll go back to Arkham, and I’ll have missed Sheldon doing something awesome! The last time you did this, I missed the episode of Family Guy where Brian died, then had to spend the next 24 hours hiding from literally everyone to avoid spoilers before I could watch the episode on my DVR! I’m not taking that chance again!”
“Come on! Pleeeeeez come and fight me!”
“Joker, NO!”
“Come on! Harley’s on her period and all my villain friends are in prison! I have nothing else to do tonight! Please come and fight me!”
“NO!”
“Well what else am I supposed to do then?”
“…You wanna come over and watch The Big Bang Theory?”
“……………..Fine.”
“He’ll never love you, sweetheart! You can keep screwing with his city, but he’s never gonna take you to the prom!”
This just made my night…
Please. Batman practiced hard to be the best at everything, including having taste. He’d never watch The Big Bang Theory.
I’ll bet that Amber will goad Sal by fessing up to stabbing her hand.
Let’s Dive? They’re going swimming?
That’s probably the best outcome for this night.
Roller Derby girls in swimsuits? Best ending, 100% completion.
The final ending, after multiple New Game+ runs.
ohhhhhhh I thought she said, “Let’s drive.”
…no, don’t get it
Maybe Sal owns a submarine?
I assume she means “leave” but I could not find this definition in Urban Dictionary so I can’t be at all sure I’m correct. Sometimes Sal talks less like a modern teen of any subculture and more like a 1930s movie mobster. It’s kind of charming.
oh, good. the last panel shows Carla’s feet and the roller skates are confirmed. I think it is cute that Malaya has skates too. I’m not expecting them to get together in this universe, but that connection between them is appreciated.
Carla being on regular skates (1 wheel to a corner) was already confirmed here.
Sal Vs. Ultra-Girl in a Hair vs. Mask match at Summerslam 2014! Don’t miss it! Winner also gets to fight (and lose) to John Cena in the main event!
Sal would show up and then Cena would forfeit before the mach started.
People talking about John Cena always weirds me out, because his brother Steve was one of my best friends in college. I met the guy before he was anything but Steve’s obnoxious little brother. There’s knowing that WWE is fiction, and then there’s actually having known his family, crashed at his childhood home, before they started making up the fiction…
Okay that IS kind of weird…
I wouldn’t conclude this is over yet. I’m not sure Amazi-Girl will let it be. Let’s not forget, she believes this is her last night as Amazi-Girl. As far as she knows, it is now or it is never.
Of course, an extended fight here is kind of no-win for all parties involved. If Sal and her troupe win, they’re the ones who stomped a campus hero who really was making a lot of people feel safer, and what’s left of Amber’s self-confidence may well be shattered. On the other hand, if Sal and company lose, they get a lot of humiliation and Amazi-Girl gets that much further away from actual hero toward psycho thug.
In either case, all parties involved will likely get some public attention from the paper. Dorothy might have to reconsider her (probable) decision not to expose Amber. And Sal will get a spotlight she REALLY doesn’t want, either as the villain in Amazi-Girl’s hero narrative or as one of the girls named when Malaya decides to go public with her editorial, “The Fuckin’ Psycho Fuckin’ Jumped Me: A Fuckin’ Retrospective.”
I like the no-win for all parties involved ending. Both Sal and Amber getting their shit kicked in would probably have a bigger impact on what violence (either domestic or institutionalized) really means to them and what they are doing to themselves because of their experiences with it.
I feel it’s unlikely that either Sal or Amber would learn or grow from the experience of getting the shit kicked out of them here. Neither’s problem is that they think they’re invincible. Amazi-Girl might appear that way to an outsider, but Amber in fact feels all too vulnerable as her non-costumed self, and more like she’s losing control than gaining it. Sal is pretty much just trying to get by and build a better life for herself. She may have problems with authority and feel the need to defy it in muted ways, but I don’t think that extends to finding random people on the street to beat up, just because.
Honestly, I feel like Amber has already taken a few steps towards psycho thug here, what with the whole pre planned assault she just tried to commit on four people who were minding their own business. I doubt she will let this go easily either of course, but she is way out of line already.
The assault was just for Sal, the other three girls just happened to be there when Amazi-girl came upon Sal. That Amazi-girl decided to attack anyway shows how far gone she is.
Like Rorschach in The Watchman (sorry, but that character is stuck in my mind at the moment).
Amazi-Girl actually didn’t decide to attack. Even after Malaya jumped her, she was still trying to talk Sal into being the monster she envisions her as.
She was clearly picking a fight though.
First thing she does after her aggressive entrance and threatening words is tell Malaya to “come at her”. After knocking Malaya down she tells them to “come at me one at a time”. In this strip she is practically begging Sal for a fight.
Just because she hasn’t thrown a punch because she’s desperately clinging to the beer thing as an attempt to justify her violent desires and stay on her moral high horse doesn’t mean she hasn’t decided to attack. She already hit Malaya.
Amazi-Girl hit Malaya when Malaya attacked her. And she’s trying to goad Sal into attacking her too, so she has an excuse to hit Sal as well. But she hasn’t attacked Sal and I don’t think she will. It’s an important distinction to Amazi-Girl, I think, that she not be the attacker, because she can justify the violence if she’s fighting back against someone who has attacked her or an innocent first. Actively trying to provoke that attack so that she can ethically fight back is maybe cutting that distinction a little fine, but I think it’s important to her.
And note I’m talking about “Amazi-Girl” here, not “Amber”. Amber will (as demonstrated) totally stab you by surprise from behind after your threat has already been neutralized, or keep hitting you after you’ve gone down until someone drags her off of you, because she’s scared and angry and fights like a cornered rat. Amazi-Girl, on the other hand, is a superhero. That’s the fundamental core of her identity, the whole reason she even exists. And superheros don’t attack innocents; they can be violent, but they use that violence in defense of themselves or others. So Amazi-Girl won’t attack. She’ll offer herself to be attacked, and then fight back, but she won’t attack.
And those who insist that Amazi-Girl is dangerous to Amber and others and needs to go away… note that Amazi-Girl’s not just an outlet for Amber’s rage and violence. She’s a control on it. Amber is far and away the more dangerous of Ms. O’Malley’s personae.
Oh, sure, ‘swhy I said “further.” She started down that path with Blaine if not before.
I really routing for Amazi-Girl to completely fail. Once Amber can’t rely on it anymore she’ll have to actually start dealing with her trauma.
I’d agree if I thought failure was going to help Amber in that regard. That’s what makes this thorny. It’s not really THAT much of an improvement if Amber falls to the biker gang and goes back to being afraid of everyone and everything: I guess it makes her less of a danger to others, but it also makes her realistically a suicide risk.
I’d like for her to be swayed from her current dark path without losing the power that allows her to stand up when it’s really needed. SOMEONE has to stand against people like Blaine and Ryan. Someone has to tell other scared girls there’s hope. But right now, I can’t see any obvious ways for her to get there.
Agreed that this isn’t over yet. Remember, Amber stabbed Sal’s hand during Sal’s arrest – AFTER the cops had things under control.
Also, don’t be surprised if Sal knows that Amazi-Girl is Amber – and that Amber’s the girl who stabbed her. Sal may have plans of her own to launch against Amber – plans that involve cops, judges, other authority figures and permanent records. And once they link her father’s beating to her, watch out – this is Southern Indiana we’re talking about, where Honor Your Father and Mother is Iron Law, no matter what they did and/or do to the child.
Sal doesn’t know who Amber is. Sal didn’t know Amazi-Girl existed until a few minutes ago.
sal is also highly unlikely to invite cops to have anything to do with her, given her feelings on the system and such.
Sal doesn’t trust the cops or authority figures. Not likely.
Nah, too much.
I actually feel a little sorry for Amazi-girl here. This is kind of like a little girl seeing this cake. All she wants to do is (And please don’t make this sexual) eat the cake; all she can ever think about after seeing the cake is eating it. Then, when she finally gets the chance to eat the cake, the cake is all like “Nah. Ah’m gonna go let some other kid eat me” and just leaves the kid sitting there like an idiot, her greatest wish unfulfilled. Why can’t we let Amazi-girl metaphorically eat her metaphorical cake?
Why couldn’t the metaphor be not a cake? Cake seems to be quite a stretch, metaphor-wise. Puppy would be better (I avoided kitty for reasons of not sexualizing it.)
Why would the little girl want to eat a puppy? Is she really hungry?
considering in that case eating said cake involves beating the crap out of an innocent girl like some kind of psycho… no, no we cannot
because if she eats that cake, no matter how much she wants to, she’s throwing her life away.
Your analogy is great; except you should substitute the word “poison” for “cake.”
See, what the rest of us see is a battered and emotionally broken girl obsessed with something that can only hurt her more. I don’t feel bad for her that she’s being forcibly prevented from further assaulting people; I feel bad for her for everything that led her to want to assault people.
Nicely put.
(And rather poignant, considering it’s coming from Batman. It’s always easier to see other people’s problems, isn’t it?)
Technically, cake is still bad for you, even if it tastes good at the moment you eat it. And everyone can see you shouldn’t eat the cake.
All things in moderation… except for beating people up. I’ll stick with the poison metaphor; Amber wants a route that’s just plain toxic.
This ^
Because she doesn’t deserve the cake. She’s been bad and doesn’t deserve delicious moist Sal cake with revenge frosting.
Yes, Amber really should savagely beat Sal to a bloody pulp because that is the same as wanting cake.
I mean, we seem to be supposing this cake is a sentient entity, so eating it would probably be an act of extreme violence.
If I were to guess I’d say the “Nah. Ah’m gonna go let some other kid eat me” bit is merely an excuse the cake uses when ignorant minds don’t understand that the cake might not want to be eaten at all. After all, it’s not as if Sal’s walking off to let some other vigilante spread her blood across the parking lot.
HELL YES SAL!
So the winners are the fans?
Because shit did not hit them?
Yotomoe, that is the best response ever. I bow to you.
Damn it Amber you’re breaking my heart. Seeing her devolve in such a way is just painful yet so understandable. It’s all just so, so sad.
Also, scared old men? Kind of makes us think of someone’s father doesn’t it?
Blaine isn’t scared. He’s a mad beast.
I think Sal was going for the old scared dudes in charge, like, institutionalized racism.
Yes but I would probably say that Blaine, not matter how he may object, is scared. He is if nothing else, I’d say, scared of losing control. Hence is appearance at the dorm when he wasn’t on the list. He wanted to show power and that he still ruled the family. Not that he actually did but I think that he wanted to show that he did.
That all being said I agree with what you said about Sal’s meaning but coupled with Amber’s actions I think that there is an interesting parallel to examine, especially since this largely seems to be Amber trying to show power and control.
Sorry, but I’m confused on what institutionalised racism has to do with either Sal’s point or underage drinking.
Because Sal believes herself to have been the victim of institutionalized racism from the time she was small, even by her own parents, who picked Walky over her a lot of the time because he was a few shades lighter… which is part of what the recent Walky flashback was about, when only one of them got picked for the audition and he realized Sal was right.
See also, this strip: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/princess/
Did… did Sal just Social-Fu Amazi-Girl?
So it would seem! Sal is just that cool.
Sal learned some aikido with that ASL
Also, someone needs to help Sal on her english, not her math, cause I’ve never seen drive spelled D-I-V-E
Naw, she means take a dive, so it looks like Amazi-girl kicked all their asses so the cops arrest her when they show up.
I’d be a little surprised if it’s this one off Urban Dictionary:
dive
to perform oral sex, usually on females
that chick wanted me to dive her box, yo.
That interpretation does put a whole different spin on A-G’s line in the last panel!
Why would Sal say “let’s drive”? You don’t really drive skates.
Sal owns a motorcycle? Though you don’t really drive those either, I guess. I’m not familiar with this diving idiom, anyway.
Yeah, i guess I’m not familiar with the slang here? What does “lets dive.” mean?
Let’s leave. Let’s get out of here. You could also say it “Let’s bounce” or “Let’s skedaddle”
She is suggesting they remove themselves from Amazigirl’s company.
Unless it’s some sort of hoosier slang, I’d have expected her to say “Let’s Roll” or something.
That I respect, to bad the reason why she’s doing this is neither one of those things
…
Check, Please.
*cuts off the Limp Bizkit I was playing in anticipation for an ass-whooping*
Jesus, this whole storyline is sad, in a good way. Amber so wants a fight, and Sal just won’t give her one.
It’s sorta strange to see Sal use minced oaths like “dang”, when we know how foul-mouthed she can be (especially when playing Mario Kart).
I fucking cuss like a goddamn sailor, bongo. But even I say Dang and Crap from time to time.
I think it’s like how she would talk if paraphrasing Joyce’s thoughts — using the words Joyce would use, not her own vocabulary. In other words, Sal’s saying that she thinks Amazi-Girl’s a kind of goody-two-shoes (super-)hero…
All I got from this is that making AG suffer psychologically is easier than playing Mario Kart.
And on that note I’m hopping on Amazon to pre-order Mario Kart 8.
Making Amber suffer psychologically is, like, Trauma Theatre easy-mode.
It’s been a while since I did the initial F-bomb count, and I wasn’t smart enough to actually preserve which-strip information while counting, so I may be a little fuzzy on the details, but as I recall, in the whole first three weeks of school (up to the argument with Walky on family day evening), Sal dropped exactly two F-bombs, both of them on Walky. She said things like “freakin'” or “fu-” pretty often, but rarely busted out the full “fuck”.
She has been… much more prolific since. Even leaving out the Mario-Kart cluster bombing, in the last three (in-comic) days she’s said “fuck’ more than she did in the first three weeks. I’m not sure if this is intentionally indicative of something. Maybe the whole Avalon-uniform fiasco on get-totally-ignored-by-your-family-except-for-the-racist-remarks weekend soured her on trying to pose as the good little girl, so she’s not self-censoring like she was before.
Maybe kind of makes sense that she’s gone back to being someone who says “dang” for Amazi-Girl’s benefit.
It may be a matter of mood. Sal may drop f-bombs when she’s in a comfortable setting, around people she knows. In social settings, she may use more restrained language. (Yes, drinking beers in a Walmart parking lot is a social situation – except Marcie, she doesn’t really know these people well.)
Not only does that not make sense, but Sal didn’t even say white.
That was a reply to a comment that disappeared, not without reason.
Thankfully, I’d say. I was about to point to that person that out of 1950 US senators, only NINE were black. So yeah. Even ignoring the utter lack of sense… oh screw it, I don’t even know why I care
Sam is a lot smarter than she lets on.
Correction: Sal is a lot smarter than people tend to assume, based on her surface appearance and presentation.
Much like her brother.
Wow. I just got a ton more respect for Sal (and Willis, I guess) for acknowledging that in the real world, masked vigilantes are usually bullies and thugs who think the law is too lenient with “undesirables”.
Well I was expecting a “meh” from Sal, and I got it.
I expected it to come after Amber mentioned something about the convenience store incident, but I got it, so I’ll take it.
See they can just leave her in their dust. I’m pretty Amber hasn’t went out and bought an Amazi-cycle off panel.
Developed some respect for Sal, and I’ve got to say I’m digging the DoA Carla. “Assert my dominance through sweet pranks”. I can dig that.
She got that trick from Mike.
So…so Sal isn’t Amazi-girl?
How can she possibly be Amazi-Girl when she is busy being Spider-Car?
The Black Bandit?
Scar-Hand?
Blackscar?
(These are all hero/villain names… various people… came up with for her.)
I was actually going to type Spider-Car but decided it was unfunny so I bailed.
I didn’t know I’d actually posted.
You sure showed me, WordPress!
Don’t tell Billie. She’d crack.
Let’s hear it for old men.
That should have included this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxi7JRJrod4
well, that was anticlimactic.
Probably not over. Just sayin.
The storyline title is “Up All Night To Get Vengeance”, and the night’s barely started.
Of course, much of the last storyline wasn’t about being a churchmouse…
Actually, it’s been established that it’s past 4am. The night’s mostly gone.
It’s been a while since I was in college, but from what I recall, 4am Monday night/Tuesday morning… the night’s still young! Sleep? You can sleep tomorrow night! Or in class. That’s what they make you take that Computers for Morons class for, right?
That would be kinda funny if the next strip was just the sunrise.
CHAPTER OVER
In an interesting way, this is a brilliant deconstruction of great super hero/villain pairings you see in comics, being they are such great foils for each other. At their root, Sal and Amber feel like the same character to me. Both are characters that have been traumatized by horrible factor(s) of their lives (Sal by family favoritism and racism, Amber by abuse, etc.) and because of these traumas they have lashed out in unhealthy ways. In fact it was Sal’s outbreak that helped build on Amber’s trauma, making her feel afraid and weak, and giving her father something else to emotionally abuse her over. And now the destructive actions of Amber are coming full circle towards Sal. It kind of feels like Laertes going after Hamlet. In a world that wronged Hamlet, Hamlet wronged Laertes, who then continues the destructive cycle.
Hmmm… this… could still lead to my favored ending to this whole scenario wherein Sal helps Amazi-Amber to deal with her issues by sitting around drinking with her. Honestly I feel like that would almost be the best ending, in large part because, while far from being the same causes, they both presented the symptoms of their anger in the same way, violent acting out. The only difference is that Sal seems to have already figured out how to deal with her trauma in a significantly healthier way while Amber still requires the Amazigirl persona to help her compartmentalize her issues, forcing them to stay in a box until the box can no longer hold all the discontent and anger. so really, if there’s any hope for Amber /not/ getting put in either prison or an institution even for a short time, Sal’s ironically the best she has.
dang it danny face… you ruin my intentions with your danny-ing up of things….
Wow, Amber, YOU ARE SCARY.
Really. That’s it. Scary.
Really? You sure its not sad and pathetic?
It’s that grin. She has her father’s face more and more every time she smiles.
Hey, at least we went one comic without Amber pulling off a certifiably scary grin.
You know, like her father.
This is how I’d hoped it would go.
Love Sal, knew she wouldn’t go for a 4 to 1 beat-down.
And having been sent away once already, maybe this kind of thing could send her up for hard time, so she is going to make it count, if it happens at all. Not a gang stomp against a screwed up crusader without the brains to consider a 4 to one may not go well for herself.
I think walking away and letting Amazi-girl rage/plead is just what she would do.
But, will Malaya? We know Carla will, and that Marci will follow Sal where ever she goes. But Malaya is mean nuts.
Going for a dive Sal? Suspect David dropped an ‘r’.
This may not end with anyone in physical pain, but what can Amazi-girl do now? Amber has it in her head that this is the last night she can settle with Sal, as she thinks her story will be in the paper via Dorothy.
With all her avenues closed, what in Hell is she going to do? Her back was to the wall before, and now she is really up against it.
Having seen that just like Ethan said, Sal isn’t the person she was years ago, ideally this would force Amber to confront the idea that there’s no reason she needs to be the same person she was either. That maybe she should seek out alternatives to slapping a mask over the violence her father put in her.
It would actually be kind of neat if this lead up to Amber getting Sal to pass on a bit of what they taught in Juvenile Detention about correcting harmful behaviors.
Wait, no, where are you going?! C’mon! Fight! Fight! Fight! What if someone put some kick-ass rave music on in the background? It’ll be cool! Guys?
But… but… but…. punchings?
Yes, this is the better way to go. I love this.
Damn. I was so hoping that Amber would kick her ass and take Sal down a peg. Don’t go around acting like the baddest bongo in town if you aren’t going to back it up. A motorcycle and a juvie record does not a badass make.
-1
Sal doesn’t THINK she’s cool, though. She tells people not to look up to her, the attention makes her uncomfortable. (Though she probably wants a large amount of it, too– awkward split, there).Joyce and Co. decided she’s cool.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/bunk/
Kind of says it all in terms of Sal’s relationship with cool.
Being cool and being tough (or giving off the appearance of being tough) are not quite the same thing. They intersect a lot, but one does not equal the other.
You do realize that you’re essentially saying, “This college freshman’s attitude annoys me, therefore someone should beat the shit out of her?” Regardless of Sal’s badassness, whether or not she has it, and her attitude towards it, she has done nothing to justify violence.
You don’t get it. Sal may or may not think she is cool, and this means she needs to be brutally punched in the face. It’s pretty simple!
“Beat the shit out of her”? No. But a good swift kick in the taco? Sure. Remember that Sal didn’t do “nothing”….she threatened to stab someone over some cash in a register and traumatized Amber.
…and then Amber stabbed her. And then 5 years passed.
Was it really 5 ears ago? Huh. I wasn’t aware of how long ago it occurred.
Nonetheless, it obviously stayed with Amber, and this is her misguided way of dealing with it.
In the taco???? Are you actually implying what it sounds like you’re implying????
Butt… taco…
Butt taco…
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
So, Amazi-Girl needs to beat Sal, because Sal thinks she’s cool without proving it. But doesn’t by defeating Amazi-Girl and calmly refusing her twisted game not prove her badassness? So the attitude is totally justified.
This isn’t about proving who is cool, but rather who is tough.
Sal probably heard about AG beating the crap out of a grown man, and this is a way for her to back out without losing face in front of her friends.
Why on earth would any human being who is a member of a civilized society care about proving who’s tough?
Hey, I didn’t say it would make sense. Amber not’s thinking right, and feels that proving she’s tougher than Sal will alleviate the negative self-worth and anxiety stemming from the gas station robbery.
Also, if people actually knew the answer to your question, MMA fighting wouldn’t exist.
No, you. You seem very invested in proving that Sal’s not as tough as you seem to feel she’s been projecting.
MMA is sport. You’re hardly proposing that Sal should test her body against Amber’s within any setting like that. You’re proposing that Sal needs to get attacked in a Walmart parking lot.
You’re right. Looking back on my previous comments, it looks like I let my distaste for Sal cloud my better judgement. She’s actually exercising good judgement while Amber is dead set on working her issues all over Sal’s face.
It’s kind of weird that I was so invested in seeing one fictional character beat the crap out of another fictional character. *shrugs*
Maybe you identify with Amber on some level, and subconsciously equated Sal with some bully or other force in your life that you, personally, have wished for redress against?
Ruth’s expression makes my comment seem so meanly sarcastic. :p
Sal just said, a strip or two ago, sdhe had no idea who Amazi-Girl was since she doesn’t pay attention to the news.
Sal’s been taking lessons from the Fonz.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Fonzie: I’m gonna do something for you, Cunningham, I never did for anyone before. I’m gonna teach you the secret of being tough.
Richie: Wow, you don’t think I could ever…
Fonzie: WHO told you to talk?
Richie: I’m sorry, Fonz.
Fonzie: That’s the secret.
Richie: What? ˆI think I missed it.
Fonzie: You see how nervous you just got?
Richie: Yeah, but I thought you were gonna kill me.
Fonzie: Hey, that’s the point – I intimidated you. That’s because I got a majestic bearing, I got style, I got an attitude, I got a tough voice.
Richie: Let’s face it, you’re a good fighter.
Fonzie: Hey, I’m the best! But in the entire time you’ve known me, have you ever seen me in a fight?
Richie: Well no, but that’s just because the other guy backs down first.
Fonzie: I rest my case.
4th Panel – “Let’s dive”
I’m hoping that means muff-dive, but I suspect not :((
Might be “dive” as in a submarine — literally, sink out of sight.
OK, I’m clutching at straws here…..
So… is the alt text sarcastic, implying that Sal is totally wrong? Or is it not?
Arguably Amazi-Girl was using the drinking age law to arbitrarily terrorize Sal, so the alt text is sincere.
Amber… You know you’re teetering on the edge when a former juvenile delinquent is proving to be wiser and more level-headed than you. :/
Former being the important word there. No shame in measuring poorly against Sal, she’s just a normal citizen like you or I.
How would you like it if people were like it if you failed a course and years after the fact people were saying “You know you’re stupid when a former F-Student’s getting better marks than you” ignoring the fact that your marks have been perfectly respectable for years? Or something similarly relatable to whatever it is you do in your life?
Everybody’s got a fuck-up or two to their name.
I only just noticed it’s a new chapter.
wow…really liking Sal less and less as the days go on….
Why Sal? She did a better turn here than Amber, so it seems an ill-placed comment.
Yeah people that choose peaceful resolutions over violence piss me off too.
Wait, what?
I see Ghandi and I just get so mad. Why didn’t he stage a violent uprising and put British heads on spikes? What was that non-violent resistance crap?
Probably because violent revolutions almost never work, and just make things worse?
The sarcasm is weak in this one.
(Or the deadpan, too strong)
Relax, Dave, some people just prefer angry-violent-Sal to levelheaded-Sal. That, or he’s trolling.
You’d relax less if you could see his posting history like I can.
You mean the whole “Perhaps I am a Texan who may or may not own legally purchased semi automatic firearms…” thing?
You might want to throw in the sense of entitlement and all-around inability to ignore any opinions he doesn’t like.
Et Tu Willis?
Ouch again people.
Jump on me because I happen to disagree with Sal’s rather antagonistic viewpoint towards laws?
(And yes I know she’s a fictional character….just an unlikable one…arrogant, self pitying, anarchistic….that was the point yes?)
Beyond that enough with the personal attacks on the readers please.
It’s probably cuz she doesn’t have her Beauti-fro. Noone can dislike a Beautifro.
A few years back I might have asked myself, “is there any universe in which Sal is the level-headed one?”
Nice to have an answer to that question.
Awesome.
I find it a bit hard to believe Amazi-girl can’t struggle herself free. Of the three girls holding her two are on roller skates. It can’t be hard to make them lose their footing.
Carla, specifically, seems to be “inviting” Amber to pull her closer, put her right foot behind Carla’s right foot and then throw all her weight on Carla’s upper torso. She would be on the ground in half a second.
Marcie would be harder to get rid of, but as soon as she has her right arm free a wide array of “attacks” are possible. The Amazi-girl we know wouldn’t have a problem there. And Malaya would be no threat after that.
I notice that both Malaya and Carla are paying more attention to Sal than Amazi-Girl (see where their eyes are focused). If Amazi-Girl really wanted to break free and flee the scene make a brilliant tactical retreat, she’s 90% there already.
She doesn’t have to break free. Sal-tachi are leaving, and presumably don’t intend to take her with them.
Yeah, c’mon AG! There’s just 3 of em! What’s the hold-up? Use the classic head-knocking together move on the two on your arms, then the backwards head butt to Malaya (would normally be the back kick between the legs, but probably not as effective here) and let’s get this party started. Better to burn out than fade away.
Marcie chose the best grabbing angle.
A couple of problems with this plan, Sal
-AG’s may not give up that easily. Up until now, she’s been trying to goad them into attacking her – this gives her a moral high ground. However, she’s aggressed against Sal before, and if they try to walk away, she may decide to screw the high ground. She has little to lose at this point, anyway.
-Second, can we be sure the girls will listen to Sal? Marcie, sure, and Carla means no harm, but Malaya still has the bit in her teeth. She may want to continue the fight on her own.
Now I kind of want to see Sal and the rest of her posse take off, and Amazi-Girl hobbling after them in pursuit, dragging Malaya, who’s latched onto her ankle determinedly trying to chew through an Amazi-Boot.
Desire to draw a NSFW drawing based on this comic is VERY tempting.
Do it you won’t
Hush, Yoda, don’t discourage him.
MYOB, Riku.
Is it weird of me I keep thinking that this is going to end up with Sal convinced Amazi-Girl is a white supremicist? Not because Sal isn’t wrong about racial matters but the fact they’re talking about two different things. Sal is talking about being targeted by the cover of her skin and Amber just said she doesn’t care about that (unaware of it). I doubt Willis will go that way but it is an interesting thought.
Mostly because Amazi-Girl isn’t LISTENING to Sal.
FIGHT YOUR RIVAL! Wait second thought never mind.
Even with the whole situation seemingly about to defuse, this is legit scary. I’m getting afraid to check updates.
Dammit, Ethan, I’m serious! Stop smiling!
Amazi-girl’s got the Shit-eating grin down pat and then some.
I kind of get the feeling that Amber is going to bring up the hypocrisy of not liking people using laws to terrorize people vs holding a knife to some kids throat. though I wonder what Joyce would do if she found out here hero Sal held a knife to Ethan’s throat
Damn Sal is far deeper than she lets on.
Oh my god…Sal is the female Mike.
Sweet pranks. so, like pies ?
I was hoping they meant get “skates” – but. This works.
Also, vigilantism is technically against the law