Moving vehicle, two adults making major body movements on either side, no one’s hands on the wheel, another vehicle tailgating, driving on narrow two-lane streets that may or may not still have traffic present… what’s the worst that can happen?
(Don’t know about worst, but a car crash is what will happen, that car is going to crash and to the degree that they’ll be counting their lucky stars when they survive it.)
Damn it, Dave, this is no time for your creative interpretations of Ezekial 23:20, I have to save my gay daughter from the clutches of pokemans and Stan!
Just passing a note on from Jesus… He lived 2000 years ago! They drove camels back then, not motorized contraptions of death. Stop asking him to take charge of driving your vehicles! He doesn’t even have a learner’s permit.
There is a school of thought that he will, though.
The biggest, knottiest problem for most monotheistic religions is why all-powerful deities who are benign and worthy of worship let evil acts be carried out. Many millions of words have been written on this, some of them deeply insightful and highly intelligent, and some utterly stupid.
The further you get to what we tend to call evangelical or fundamentalist values in a religion, the more common the idea is that even on Earth bad things can only happen to the wicked, that Jesus will shepherd you through this life.
Basically, this is the world as a game of Super Mario, where there are certain ‘safe’ series of inputs to have a perfect life then beat the game and ascend to heaven, but the only way you’ll do it is by listening to your buddy over your shoulder who designed the game and has your back.
The Fundie’s idea of their deity is often very Mike-like. There’s a lot about being “properly” afraid of his power and all the things you must tip-toe around to protect against his wrath and there were constantly little tests designed so he could go “gotcha, those dinosaur fossils or gay feelings were just there to test your faith and you failed, instant Hell”. In some ways it had the same heads I lose, tails you win feeling as an interaction with Mike, which might be why Joyce finds him oddly charming.
Considering that Joyce seems like she could actually annoy Mike, I think it has shipping potential. Plus, Mike likes to make people see the faults in their beliefs.
its simple (at least for the Abraham based religions (Christianity Judaism and Islam ) anyways) long story short the reason evil is allowed to fester in this world is because God is respecting our choice. mankind choose to gain the knowledge of good and evil and thereby the choice to do good or evil. The world as it is today is the outcome of that decision.
Yeah, the usual lame excuse to the theodicy-problem!
Why does god have to respect the choice of those volcanoes also?
Also that free will of earth and see to destroy Lisbon, including almost every church in the city on an important church holiday is of course more important than maybe saving those ten thousands (estimates up to 100,000) people that were killed.
Nice job, almighty, all-knowing and allegedly omni-benevolent god!
Take away the religious worldview out of it, it boils down to Ross continuing to live in his own little world, which has no room for the harsh reality that Becky and everyone else are more than trappings to his self-image. Becky seems to be well aware of this. From Becky’s side of things, the guy who is supposed to be her father has been a part of her life in physical flesh only long enough for her to get used to it. May be the cause for her mother leaving…
Before someone claims that this situation isn’t believable, you should know that just today, Willis has already received 3.14 e-mails from people telling him how this strip perfectly echoes that time in their lives that they hangglided behind a car on a skateboard, fell off, hit another car’s windshield, jumped from that car to another moving car, and then got menaced by the son of a percussion instrument who was driving the car.
I’m enjoying this sequence, but I hope at least that there are realistic consequences soon for, oh I don’t know, the fact that no one is driving that car :/
This is interesting. I’ve seen a bit of Nickleback dislike, & don’t seem to understand it. Daniel the Human’s Sister introduced me to their music & while they do have their slower songs like the photo one, they’ve got some faster-beat ones too. In fact, if you insulted Nickleback to her, I recon this would be her reply…
Every Nickelback song is identical. There are sites where you can play two of their songs, one out of each channel, at the same time. They’re the definition of a formulaic band.
Identical? That’s news to me. I mean, they do have a certain style, but their songs do vary a lot. Unless you mean that they all have guitars in them.
…well, thanks guys. Now you got me into a a Nickelback Vevo binge after years of almost having forgotten them. What’s so bad about that? I forgot which titles belong which songs, and I only enjoy a small percentage of them…
There was a promo in 2003 for a comedy special where Brian Posehn told a joke with the punchline “Listening to Nickelback makes me want to kill Nickelback”. It never aired, so the joke from the promo attached itself to people’s minds like a parasite.
If people are saying that about the vigilante, I’m more interested in hearing the details than I am complaining about how just because I have no experience with violent vigilantes, so it’s clearly a thing that absolutely never happened.
Granted,a vigilante isn’t as viscerally personal, but hey.
Heh. I get it. It’s funny because superhero parkour is just as uncommon and unlikely as someone having a really terrible and abusive dad. And cause someone was physically unable to continue the comic because this story arc caused so many PTSD triggers from their own shitty childhood. And that’s hilarious, because… other people in pain… only life experiences are our own… um, sorry OP, you’re going to have to explain a little more in depth why this is so rip-roaringly funny, cause I seem to be missing the point.
It’s just a joke; there’s no point at all. I just found it amusing, after all the debate over the last few weeks over whether what was happening was realistic or not, that suddenly we have a college girl doing James Bond stuff that pretty much no one would claim was realistic. So I did, to be silly.
On one hand, I understand where you’re coming from: this arc has a LOT of triggers, I assume that was one of the main reasons Willis decided to introduce Becky in the first place. On the other hand, there’s no reason to take Durandal’s comment personally, and be passive aggressive about it. Nowhere in their post was there mention of unstable/unsafe childhoods being unlikely or uncommon.
I and many others have, or may be dealing with home lives similar to Becky’s.. Or god forbid, worse. Sometimes the only way you can stay sane is to find humor in the situation, and use laughter as a healing mechanism. I highly doubt Durandal posted that comment to belittle the message behind the arc.
Pretty much; all you have to do is look at some of the comments I’ve posted on earlier installments in the arc to see my feelings on that.
Basically; the earlier bit with the clearly mentally unstable person chasing two girls through the woods with a shotgun: a nailbiter. The current bit with the ridiculous stuntwork: ehhh… not so much.
Honestly, the message would have been delivered far more powerfully if the hospital visit were caused by the situation with the gun rather than, as it now appears it’s going to be, by 18-year-olds doing implausible James Bond stunts. But ah well.
What is Amazi-Girl even trying to do with that grappling hook right now? I don’t understand what her plan is at all. I got the following them on skateboard thing, and I assume her goal now is just to stop the car, but don’t see how she plans to achieve that short of letting the car drive over her hook and hoping it destroys a tire without ripping her arm off or cause the car to veer wildly. Also honestly I’d expect her to have caltrops if she’s prepared for anything. More than anything it just looks like she’s positioning the rope to keep the door closed, which would make no sense.
Oooh, she might be positioning it as an anchor to hold her on the car as she grapples with toedad over the other side, eventually defeating him and slipping in through the window to take over driving the car???
No, that’s pretty much the only thing I could think of as her plan from that angle. AG has amazing moves, but she may have watched too many action movies on this one…
I figured she was going to open the door, grab Becky (hence “hold on”), and slow their momentum with the grappling hook as they land on the hood of the red car. Not that I know that the red car is still following them, and Amber’s probably just assuming it’s still there.
Not that I’m saying this is a GOOD plan, but what part of her plan so far has been good anyway.
I thought she was going to open the door, too. But, the grappling hook is noe under Becky’s door! (how?) You can see the third tang. Maggie (red car) is now passing them. The problem with having Becky open the door for AG, is Becky will have to remove her seat-belt, it seems. That would put her in danger, like the other two!
Actually, it’s possible to shatter a car window by tapping across it with a hard object. The demo I saw online used a piece of spark plug, and the taps didn’t have to be all that strong.
Clearly Ross has gotten one of those self-driving cars that are all the rage. (Didn’t Tesla recently send a software update to all their cars that actually lets them drive themselves? I thought I saw this in the news recently.)
Ross probably thinks that cell phones are devil devices or something. I’ve literally seen an Amish man on a cell phone, and that says something about Ross. Something is wrong with him.
I mean, lots of things are wrong with him, just add that to the list I guess.
Not evil because of the tech; evil because of the risk that women could be harder to control and not have activities open for the supervision and authority of the family patriarch. It’s meant to isolate her. He probably has one himself.
Much harder to exist as a marginalized person in general without privacy. For instance speaking of phones: back when there were shared phones in the house in common rooms (mileage varies on age and poverty, ofc) you couldn’t exactly talk about hidden stuff. Or the on-edge panic of looking at “bad” things on a family computer, and that was already a huuuge improvement, since it was much less dependent on ‘happening to know someone that’s X despite both hiding it’.
This. Unfettered access to a phone or internet means unfettered access to demonic infiltration and ungodliness. After all, the world is a fallen one, full of immorality and smut, corrupting influences are everywhere and to protect one’s progeny’s souls, you must shelter them from such influences until such time as they are old enough to resist the temptations (usually around marriage, though for women that can extend largely because the original sin they carry due to the weakness and frailty of Eve). Otherwise they might be exposed to such unspeakable depravity as knowledge of reproductive health, exposure to gay people in happy relationships, or worse yet, proof that the world couldn’t actually be 6,000 years old.
Given that Becky has already tumbled head first into depravity and sinfulness and has completely lost connection with her role as a woman, being deluded with unwomanly notions regarding being a husband or a wife that has confused her very sou. And given that Toedad was stalwart for many a year, it would make the most sense if she was defying his orders on a massive scale and sneaking off with illegal cell phones and internets when his back was turned. I mean, it’s not like gayness happens naturally or anything.
And dear Bob I wish I was a lot less versed in these people’s thought processes.
They can’t fully drive themselves. It’s kind of like a cruise control for steering, just like cruise control keeps you at a set speed, it keeps you in a set lane.
Well, would be sufficient for the current situation. But I don’t think that Ross is the kind of guy who’d let a devil-in-the-box drive rather than himself.
From what I hear, you’re both right. Apparently he was born like all you meatsacks are, got a terminal case of death, then came back & scared his old mates good. Then he took an elevator up or something & is now immortal…
Eh, we Cybertronians were made when Primus made the original 13, or was it 4? Eh, guess I’m not even big on Cybertronian religion… 😛
Don’t licenses give you permission to drive legally? I know I once got a license & tried driving around, but turns out you need YOUR OWN license, not 1 you took from some random meatsack…
Hm.. what sort? The taillights look familiar, but I haven’t been able to place what it is. I wouldn’t have thought Ford: the shape is sort of ’90s t-birdish, but the taillights are wrong for that, and it’s definitely no mustang.
No gay demon is going to steal his daughter away when he is so close to restoring his family. If they must die here to save her soul, then so be it. At least her soul will be saved and reunited in Heaven with her family as is proper.
He really doesn’t care about anyone’s physical safety in this as is evident with the crazy driving and all the malarky with the gun. And that’s what makes him dangerous in this narrow strip of time before he either gets himself killed or gets hauled off to jail (oof, the strips where Joyce and Becky will have to give testimony are going to be really hard for both of them).
I dunno, she seemed pretty shocked when she found out he was prepared to kidnap her at gunpoint. I think she’s just too busy trying to stay alive/ keep her friends alive to freak out every time he brings out the gun.
I’m actually kind of glad her knees are bent up rather than straight (also, being kneeling would probably be prime kicking position but not prime grappling the car position), because if her leg was like right at him it would be obviouser that he could grab it and throw her down.
Yeah, that was my thought. One mostly blind kick backward, and by the time he recovers, that rifle will be a hundred yards away and under someone else’s wheels.
I was never trying to imply anyone would convict Becky, seeing how she’s literally done nothing wrong. They’d be hard pressed to convict AG too, as it would be self defense. The psychological effects of killing someone are very damaging, Amber’s been through enough already. Plus, evil jackass or not, Ross’s life still does have some value, the less violently they can defuse the situation the better.
Especially if this road also has car coming in the other direction… I don’t see any separation in the middle of the road in the third panel. Ross could get his toe head nipped by an oncoming truck!
As long as there’s not a fruit and vegetable stand by the side of the road we’re OK. Of course, this is Indiana in the fall, so it is certainly possible.
“Uh ok, what does this do?”
“Don’t touch i..!”(in that moment Ross went through the windshield,remember kids,ways keep your seats belts on and don’t be crazy batshit bigots!)
First things first. Why am I not surprised there was a no cell phone policy in the what’s-Becky’s-surname household. Smart phones a )have internet, internet has information, information is EVIL, b) they give a child the freedom to communicate => EVIL and c) phones are tiny machines the existence of which can only be explained through science and technology. EEEEVIIIL.
Seconldy, I love Becky’s “Come on!” reaction to Foedad taking the gun out again. Like, c’mon, dude, I thought we were done with that, damnit.
Next, Super-lady and Amazi-girl pretty much mean the same thing, but it’s important to get it right, especially when you’re performing a hostage rescue mission suction-cupped to the roof of a moving car, the driver of which has let go of the wheel so as to point a gun at you.
Lastly, in a universe where Amazi-girl doesn’t exist, I totally buy Joyce nicknaming Dorothy that.
Would Becky have been allowed to learn how to drive? Did her mom have a license? Toedad and his “I am the patriarch therefore I am in charge” attitude probably wouldn’t allow it.
Then again, a modern car with an automatic is easy to pick up on, even easier if you’ve ever paid attention to someone else driving. Becky could at least grab the wheel and keep them out of the trees, or maybe pop it into neutral and pull the handbrake.
What happens if it’s Sal who saves the day? Would Amb-erm, Amazi-Girl interpret it as “failing,” make it all about herself, and attack her arch-rival again?
Firing a 2-handed rifle while within 5′ of his target on a moving vehicle. If he can even keep the gun pointed in the right direction I’d be shocked. As long as he doesn’t think to use it as a club, he’s actually far less dangerous now than he would be completely disarmed.
They allow the owner to communicate privately with others, which implies that they are communicating something that they wouldn’t want their parents to overhear, which in turn implies that they are being disobedient.
“Hur dur, I’m gonna stop driving the car so I can stick my torso out of this moving vehicle and shoot at people.”
I hope the idiot at least took his foot off the gas so that the car will slow down… hopefully *before* they all crash and die.
(Well, before Amazigirl/Amber and Becky die. I don’t really care what happens to Toedad.)
He’s kind of stumpy (tall/big, but he doesn’t give the impression of long legs and that’s a weird angle), so I don’t really think he could still reach the gas, which I guess is good and bad (good:not going to spin/roll/flop and kill AmaziGirl and also may give the police extra seconds bad:may have better balance to shoot AmaziGirl)
Actually, if you look closely in panel 3, the rope isn’t actually tangled with the wheels at all, it’s just flying freely alongside the car. Amazi-girl only has the rope rolled around her arm in the last panel, so it can be assumed that she grabbed the loose end and rolled it up during the events in panel 4.
You can clearly see in the last panel that the only part of rope that is still connected to the car is the end fixed with the grappling hook. Still dangerous, but not as dangerous as if it were tangled into the wheels, thank gods. : )
And the criminal mastermind STILL hasn’t hung up….. but that’s part for the course with anyone that is willing to engage in this sort of destructive behaviour.
I’m pretty sure his rational for not allowing Becky was to have control over her, so her having a cell phone is something for him to be mad about because it is a sign of independence.
Well, yeah, 911 just means that this is do or die for their souls and he wants to see how deep the rot goes that would lead her to betray her family so.
And before anyone goes on about cartooniness, my ex’s granddad was similar in his method of control, talking about the abuse was the worst sin because that was betraying the family and family was the only thing to love and protect you. So, a 911 call was more worrisome as a sign of betrayal and disobedience rather than something to worry about on its own level. After all, he could get a 911 call sorted by having the family stick to the same page, so that’s what mattered the most.
You mix in a healthy dose of “this world doesn’t matter, only the next” and you get something as dangerous as this.
Maybe he saw the Top Gear where the driver traded places with another person in the car by climbing out and crawling across the top of the car…. with out stopping the car and completed before the car could come to a stop? Perhaps he expects Becky to take the wheel while he deals with Amazi-Girl on the roof?
My guess is that Red Car Woman, who has already accepted her role in the action movie life has become, is staying close by and intends to honk her horn at the most distracting possible moment.
Toedad is right behind Amazi-girl with a rifle. That’s…. really not good. If back-up doesn’t arrive soon, Amber is going to get shot. This looks bad. This looks really bad.
Meanwhile, Toedad appears to have his foul hands on Dina’s phone, so she’s not getting that back ever.
But he doesn’t appear to have hung it up, so that’s good (although that poor operator must be so confused as well as stressed, with “does 911 come through the roof?”)
And somewhere in the background, that one nerd among the 911 operators is going “I knew it! I KNEW she was real!” because they’ve gotten call about Amazi-girl before, and he kept trying to convince everyone that those weren’t just prank calls or a campus myth, and they’ve been making fun of him for weeks.
I personally believe that realistically there is a almost a certainty that a man as ..stout.. as Toedad would at some point bump into or kick the steering wheel and they plow into whatever is on the side of the road.
However as a work of fiction I sincerely hope that narrative causality doesn’t play out that way.
Neutral? Yes, absolutely. Emergency brake? Um, no. At speed, that is going to lead to brake failure, kind of the opposite of what you are going for, i think
It’s a mechanicaly linked to one of the rear brakes. You’ll get brake fade, especially if the car has rear drums, but you’ll stop even if you cook the brake fluid.
It’s also a decent way to flip the car. All it would take is Toedad hitting the wheel wrong for everything to go to hell fast. Best bet is to downshift to slow down or just shut off the motor.
So many people saying she’s doomed because that gun’s loaded with bullets, not criticism. It’s a rifle, it’s not like he’ll actually be able to shoot her from this angle. The mostly inevitable car crash however may cause a bit more damage…. than the last one she was in 10 seconds ago
I keep waffling between “this is great” and “this is silly”.
I don’t know. I think I expected a more grounded story arc out of this, and even with Amber showing up it still mostly felt normal, with her doing crazy stunts and then eating windshield, and now everything feels super cartoony.
I get that, and Willis made a great post a few days ago on the validity of varying the tension to keep reader’s interested, but this feels less like giving the reader breathing room and more just an inconsistent tone. One minute Amber’s getting flung off the car and smacking into a windshield, Ross slapping a horrified Becky and figuring out she called the cops, and then the next strip the most agreeable bystander in the world and Amber’s right back on her feet while Toedad does the dumbest thing imaginable.
I mean, I don’t watch Schindler’s List and think that it would be greatly improved by adding The Tick.
Actually a movie with premise of “like Schindler’s list but with a wacky nigh-unstoppable and probably crazy super here” sound like guaranteed blockbuster material to me 🙂 Unfortunately, it’s a new idea and thus will be sidelined until after the release of “Avengers 27 – even the fanatical fans are bored by now”
If you look at the happenings from our universe then, sure, they’re inconsistent, but if you immerse yourself in The Willis-Dumbing-verse, it’s all totes consistent. It’s working for me, anyway.
Maybe I’m thinking this has to be a wholly dramatic storyline. At the least I felt most invested in the darker moments, but, eh, this is still good too.
I think the objection is more that it started off relatively grounded, like it’s been introduced and then kept going that way, but now it seems like it’s getting /resolved/ in a tremendously silly fashion.
Things that start grounded should get resolved in a grounded way to keep its integrity but that’s imo I guess plus I don’t know what’s going to happen next.
Sorta related but… the more I read this story, the more I’m like, was there any reason why Becky couldn’t have turned Dina’s phone to silent, stuffed it in her underwear, and played subservient until they were hunkered down for the night somewhere and not a moving target?
Because she’s afraid and wants out now is one possible answer. There might be other reasons, admittedly, depending on how thorough Toedad’s plan is. But it just seems like everybody is trying to save Becky in the least sensible and most dramatic way possible.
Which is what comedy often is. So, yeah, tone shifts aside, I think this reads much better as offbeat comedy seasoned with drama rather than vice versa.
She finally used the phone when she saw Amazi-Girl. She was resigned to her fate (at least until she got home, and escaped again) She is moved to act when her friends are threatened.
In addition, Becky may not be able to keep a cell phone hidden. It’s contraband, and not only could she be searched either by Ross or whatever pray away he takes her to, but girl pockets are notoriously not large or useful. Better she use it now while she can (and while the police are scrambled looking for Ross, and when her doing so could help Amazi-Girl), than miss her chance.
Well, she kept it hidden successfully up until the point where she had hope again and needed to put her plan in motion to distract him from the superhero slowly making her way up to the car. So, she really pulled it out at the best time. I imagine absent superhero heroics, she may have tried to call the police and report her kidnapping when they had returned home, but given the circumstances and what she was trying to do, she really did the best she could possibly do and its quite a success.
The cops have a much more clear idea of what’s going on and she’s much more likely to receive official help than before.
It’s my opinion that when a bunch of people turn up every day to say “this is my life” and give genuine thanks for telling their story, the author has tapped into a great power. From that point on, he has a new responsibility to do right by those people.
Amazi-Girl is the one hold-out against this responsibility. She pushes the envelope so far it strains credibility, and this is happening in a comic where absolutely real problems that I myself can vouch for have been dismissed by some readers as hyperbole.
I’m not sure how to feel about this.
The flip side is that once Amazi-girl’s action sequence is over, we’re all going to see some real emotional fallout from this. Even for her. She’s up there in action movie stunt territory, but her issues are real.
I also still don’t think she’s going to wind up being the hero of this storyline, despite all the stunts.
See, I never understood why an author should be responsible for anything, even being entertaining. It’s still fiction, even if it rings close to home for the readers, at the end of the day it’s only a glimpse into a creative mind that we all should feel privileged just to be able to catch a glimpse of.
And, unless the author is writing an autobiography of your life specifically, there will always be elements that seem far out or unrealistic, and those elements will not be the same elements for everyone.
Sure, this sequence is very action movey, but real people do bad ass stuff all the time in the real world as well. And people DO dress up as superheroes, use gadgets and fight crime in our world too. Mostly they’re not involved in as extreme situations as these, but it’s not impossible either.
Look up Real Life Superheroes on Wikipedia, or google the phrase.
Ross shoots at amazi-girl and misses, instead hitting a coincidentally nearby Blaine, having recently been released from the hospital, who was on his way to the school in order to continue to harass Amber (or possibly retrieve Faz from the lost and found.)
No, he’s not going to, he’s coming from after retrieving Faz who has been in IU jail for a week (maybe two, how many Saturdays have we had since Parents’ Weekend)…
Yeah, “Becky thinks Amazi-Girl is a nickname for Dorothy because of the way the list is arranged” is a discarded punchline from that strip which I resurrected here.
And yet she carried out the instructions to the letter anyways… but that might explain the awkward interaction with Dorothy during the invitation and later on in the party. Oh, she’s Amazi-girl to her, and I’m just… Becky.
I reeeeally hope Willis doesn’t pull any crap like that with Joyce’s blatantly pervasive attraction to women.
That is just literally media being either “Bi women aren’t real” or “No no you don’t understand, she’s not a lesbian at all, she’s sooo heterosexual. This girl is her ~exception~! Her being way into this/these girl/s doesn’t mean she isn’t really just into men!! :^) “. So gross.
Personally I see her story as way more compelling read as being a lesbian dealing w/ hella compulsory heterosexuality (been there for sure) as opposed to a lot of the more self-understanding &/or self-accepting characters. Even Ethan in their Beard-duo knew he was gay, but tried living as pretend-straight. Not remembering any other character with a clear ‘internalized the compulsory heterosexuality garbage’ arc atm.
But yeah, either way not a fan of ‘the exception’ writing for wlw.
Joyce is definitely not lesbian. Or at the very least, with the Word of God statement early on that everyone is the same sexuality as their previous version, that would make things over in the Walkyverse very creepy.
She could be bi, but I don’t really see it. Her attraction to girls hasn’t really been portrayed as sexual – even to the degree she showed her physical attraction to Ethan. She does tend to form strong bonds with other girls, somewhat clingy and jealous, which could be an indication of romantic interest, but doesn’t have to be.
It’s also worth remembering that her closest friend, who probably helped form the pattern for her relationships with other girls, is gay and in love with her.
“Definitely not a lesbian”? Because clearly you’d know exactly how a lesbian deep in compulsory heterosexuality acts?
I dislike using some completely different not-in-canon comic as a metric for this one. I started with DoA and I prefer keeping it in its own story. All kinds of stuff is already different, and her portrayal is certainly more clearly as a wlw here. I really don’t care if it didn’t used to be in an alternate universe years ago. And literally all Willis would need to do to avoid your issue is to say ‘generally not the case, but not always’.
Anyway: Yes it has. It really, really, really has. Like, seriously? Are you kidding me? It’s absurdly transparent at this point and a common theme. She’s a huge mess.
Again on the “You don’t know compulsory het”, though: She had a scene where she blushed at him personally, and suddenly it’s “CONFIRMED STRAIGHT” for people? Well, that threshold certainly isn’t high in comparison, then, but regardless.. Your body can simulate that shit based on expectation. I’m serious. In the past I’ve been “”in love”” with non-women, and it was just seriously unhealthy, for bad reasons and not comparable to actually being in love, but I was convinced that’s what it meant to be at the time. You don’t have to be consciously pretending just because your brain tries to fit expectations around you. It varies. Some lesbians mention ‘assigning crushes’ because you were supposed to have them, others thought they felt them and focused on that instead of their genuine desires. You live in the real world, so that’s important. Regardless of what you think about a webcomic.
Becky was indeed her quasi-girlfriend for much of her life that she found a great deal of comfort in. To quote Sarah: “You are the only reason that girl grew up in her world with ANY semblence of sanity, aren’t you.”. Neither of them had clearly processed these feelings properly at the time, but many statements in the comic have them being very intimate by comparison back then. Like, that isn’t a point against her being sapphic? It’s actually very, very telling to have had that in a tough environment but not recognized it for what it was? Even Becky didn’t, and she’s clearly in a better state of mind to accept it, as we’ve seen.
And no, a kiss isn’t a magic spell that would’ve broken a lifetime of terrible indoctrination and societal expectations. She wasn’t at all in a state where she was ready to deal w/ that, unlike Becky who came into it both having thought about their mutual past and with one lesbian relationship already behind her. And a lot of wlw even start out being queasy about sapphic intimacy because of all that garbage. Just to add on an extra layer of confusion, there. Fun times.
I’m pretty much only expecting Joyce to start dealing with her feelings by the time Becky has solidly moved on, tbh. With the accompanying regret, awkwardness, loneliness. Things tend not to go great for Joyce. *ahem*
I find Walky pretty insufferable, too, regardless of “agreeing”. This girl is real to him, and it reeeally sucks when you’re not figured-out-and-fine to have straight jerks around messing with you about how they supposedly know you better than you yourself do. It can be even harder to consider yourself in that light if it’s just “so obvious” to everyone else. Like.. trauma, misery, breaking up inside, being closeted and so on aren’t funny? They’re not his to make light of? Stop treating her as if she’s weak for struggling. Sheesh. He could really do with some gentler, more caring scenes on this topic at some point where he’s, y’know, actually supportive and helpful to her troubles, not just poking fun at her despite her obvious discomfort. I’d prefer it being a wlw, of course. But when has DoA ever done the healthiest thing. 😛
I think the most likely thing for the comic is her being bi. It’s just simpler that way for Willis. Less hassle. But I’m really hoping for lesbian and trying to deal w/ all the externally-imposed attraction stuff in a character, not just skipping past it. Feels more accurate to me for how she’s written in DoA. Oh well. Long serious post. Bye.
Definitely by “Word of God” the same as the previous story. Normally I wouldn’t rely on her characterization in another non-canon story, but in this case the author has said to. Yes, he could change that, but I don’t really think “I lied about it. The main character of the comic is an exception.”
If he’d said ‘generally not the case, but not always’ originally, then I wouldn’t be making this argument. I could see it for a minor character he hadn’t brought over at first, but now? With the lead? Not happening.
Without that, I’d be far less certain, but still leaning towards straight.
And no, I’ve little idea how “a lesbian deep in compulsory heterosexuality acts”, but despite her repression about everything sexual, not just homosexuality, what little we’ve seen of her sexuality has been aimed at guys. At Ethan, in particular. There was her dream, there were plenty of not very subtle hints during her relationship. In the absence of Word of God, they could all be misdirection, I suppose.
And not just that she blushed, if you’re thinking of the same scene I am. That she made the move at all, even “joking”, as repressed as she is.
Bi is possible. Bi-romantic, even more so.
I just don’t see it. I don’t see Joyce as a lesbian. I don’t see externally imposed attraction in her. Could be interesting in a different character, though I don’t know who would fit particularly.
While “straight with an exception” is often poorly used by writers in an attempt to treat being LGBT as some spicy frisson and also as a way to exclude bisexuality as a valid sexual orientation (excluding Robin in Shortpacked, I mean. That was what she told herself before accepting she was “generally undefinably kinda queer”), heteroflexibility is real, and for what it’s worth, I also believe that Joyce is in a minute way romantically interested in women. At the least, I think it’s a perfectly valid interpretation of her character.
Danny also had a bit of “I think I’m attracted to men and women AND THAT MAKES NO SENSE” before he started to make progress.
Mike made some comment to Joyce regarding her *crush* on Sal. Joyce responded (sorta dreamily) “Oooohh, if only I could ignore everything below the neck”. So…canon-ish. I still think it is more like hero-worship. (not Amazi-hero, but modern, worldly women)
This is Becky’s chance. Just turn off the engine and throw the keys out of the window. Turning off the ignition won’t lock steering unless she turns it too far. Also, one good kick from AG would knock Fundie back far enough that he might fall out if the car.
Most automatic cars won’t let you turn them all the way off when they’re in gear, and you can’t shift to park at speed. Which is fine…just turn it to ‘battery only’ mode and snap the key off. Bonus points if you throw it into neutral first, and “maybe nobody dies” points if you throw it into neutral AND steer it safely.
Too bad they’re not in a 98 Stratus. You can turn one of those off in gear, if you never bothered to take it in after the recall on the ignition switch.
I wouldn’t even want a pistol at that range. A knife or baton are far more consistently effective. I mean, the dude is clearly one of those “Gun as a power talisman” nuts, but every situation he’s been in so far he’d have been better off with a knife or a baseball bat. He really needs to think his rabid criminal zealotry through better.
“death of amazi-girl”, it was a guest strip* illustrating one of danny’s nightmares after getting a mild case of food poisoning from a sub at galasso’s pizza (and subs).
*note: i am being facetious, that isn’t actually a thing. yet, i guess. if someone wants to do the thing, by all means help yourself to the prompt.
Damn you Willis!!
“Does 911 come in through the roof?”tm Is now burned into my brain.
Anytime I’m roleplaying and someone botches a simple thinking test I will see this strip in my mind.
No, no, you take the earpiece off the hook, and hold the mouthpiece up to your gob, and say: “Hello operator, can you please connect me to the Johnson residence? Thank you.”
don’t think he actually could do that with such a long-barreled gun. Had he just slammed on the breaks, however, amazi-girl would’ve been thrown off the car unless she had a death grip on that suction cup.
..she has equipment for sticking on a car? nice.
also..
is.. no one driving now?
that won’t end well.. Hello 2 corpses (Becky having used her seat belt)
or 1 very dead seat belt user and two “miracle you survived” people
Lessee… Ross’s foot isn’t on the pedal anymore, so he’s slowing down. Half of him is stuck out the window. In the event of a crash, Amber will be thrown off the roof and clear of the wreckage. A few weeks in the hospital for her. A few weeks in the hospital for Becky, too, as she’s in the safest position (seatbelt, better deceleration due to the crumple zone of the car). Ross, however, stands to be bisected by the frame of the car.
How does this even work? No one is steering, and I’m pretty sure no one is operating the pedals. Did he put it on cruise control so it’d keep going while he was climbing out the window with his gun? Hey, butthole, cruise control isn’t autopilot!
Well, the car would keep going even if he didn’t put it on cruise. At least coast for awhile. Which would be better than using cruise control.
For values of “better” that are still pretty bad. At least you’ll have slowed down somewhat before crashing.
Boy am I glad that he’s got a gun out there and I’m in here and I’m Amazi-girl and he’s got a gun out here and wait, I just remembered, We’re out here. But what I wanna know is. Who is toe dad?
When he said he would send her friends to hell, he really just meant he would stick their characters in the middle of the nether for a bit as punishment.
You have to read between the panels because there isn’t room for everything. We see Amazigirl removing something from her glove compartment possibly using her mouth. We don’the see what it is, but subsequently she has suction cup. Reasonable inference – she took the suction cup from her glove pocket, probably in a collapsed state. Ross engages in gyrations that throw Amazigirl onto the hood of the car following. We see her hit the windshield of the car in what is probably one of the least dangerous configurations even after being thrown hard enough to reach the hood. Meanwhile we see the suction cup fastened on the hood towards the front. Reasonable inference – she used the suction cup to slow her collision and partially control how she hit the windshield, making what could have been fatal survivable. We see Amazigirl leap for the other car. We infer that she uses the suction cup to anchor her in place while she retrieves the rope and grapple. And then heads for the roof, using the suction cup to hold her in place while she contacts Becky. Sal and Joyce are not yet on the scene so we infer that hijinks are about to get wackier. But this is only an inference and so could be wrong Things could end abruptly. There could be curve up ahead with a manure truck parked on the side. A manure truck that Ross flies over on his way to collide with the tree behind it.
Anyway, the point is that if Willis showed everything then Becky would still be being kidnapped next year. And so he has to trust us to jump to reasonable conclusions based on what he can show.
Now I feel like Amazi-Girl dropped that suction cup and the whole being thrown into a car thing was just so she could go fetch it and complete the rescue.
All you do at this point is just cringe at every dangerous choice someone makes after seeing that teaser of the hospital scene and Willis posted that probably knowing all this. That’s just evil.
Oh god…. If this was real life either Amazi-girl will be shot and possibly run over OR Toedad will be hit by a sign or drive into another car. No matter how this ends it is not going to be hugs and choco. I hope Joyce is ready to save the day on her first time being a badass on a motor bike!
the two aren’t mutually exclusive. If the car loses control as it’s slowing down it’s gonna be less dangerous than if the car lost control while it was going fast.
I thought so, but second-guessed it because – why?
Now looking it seems pretty clear from the orange lines around her hand. But what is she knocking for? Is it just to get Becky’s attention? If so, just because or does she actually need Becky to pay attention to her as part of her plan? Or is she planning to break the window? To get Becky to roll it down so that she can come in?
…mostly I’m just wondering why she isn’t making attention to the drivers side of the car where, last she knew, the crazy man with a gun was located.
Hoping Toedad’s chunky ass just falls off the edge of the car door, the gun goes off in the air and alerts passing patrolmen, Amazi-girl wangles into the driver’s seat and everyone celebrates Becky’s return with a rousing game of spin the bottle SHUT UP I CAN DREAM.
Having a cell phone is considered defiance. To me that says “I have put myself so high in my beliefs that my word is literally law.” He says he was “slack” in his duties. I think the opposite is true. I think his wife chafed under his “rule” as he saw it and left. I don’t know about the size of the McIntire family but a disturbing amount of his thought processes seem to line up with the Quiverfull movement, where women are but a vessel to breed from. The fact is, I have struggled with faith as a whole for a long time. All the absolutes that the real world fails to fit into, it makes me hate the Toedad thought process all the more. Geez, Butts Disease, you’re good at dredging up old hates from wells thought dry.
Ross said she died ‘last year’, and it was Dana’s mom who had breast cancer. Cause of death for Becky’s mom hasn’t been revealed AFAIK, though Willis said it’d ‘probably come up in the strip’. (Which sounds to my suspicious mind like one of his deliberate understatements, but who knows.) (Also there’s a Joyce quote that’s bugging me and wouldn’t mind seeing where Willis confirmed it.)
If it’s an automatic, you generally can’t take the keys out while it’s in gear. Regardless of manual or automatic your best option is probably to pop it into neutral before doing whatever you do, but I’d bet Becky wouldn’t know much-anything about that.
So predictions for the next storyline when Amber’s in the hospital?
Is Blaine still there?
Who visits her?
Is her secret identity as Amazi-girl blown? Do the cops come after the illegal vigilante?
People who are not physically healthy are prone to being snippy and angry. Will it put further strain on her relationship with Danny?
Honestly, the cops should go after AmaziGirl, if only to get her psych help or something. Becky was much, much safer before AG got involved. She’s now endangered herself, Becky, bydrivers (like bystanders only behind the wheel), and, though few will shed a tear over this, Toedad.
What makes you so sure that it’s Amber in the hospital?
Over the last days we would have assumed that parrot chick to be an ex-Amber, if we hadn’t Willis’ “Nobody dies”.
However in this strip she has resurrected from an almost sure death (Oct 28), and has become The New Amazi-Girl, who announces herself like in a comic-book! (but unlike Lucy, without the question-mark!)
I’m not really that sure, but since Amber’s already suffered one injury and currently looks like she might be on the receiving end of a non-fatal shotgun wound, I thought it was a good guess. I actually predict multiple people will end up hospitalised, to be fair.
Mostly I was kinda sick of thinking about this storyline and wanted to encourage wild mass guessing about the next one.
its pretty fucked up that someone can literally prevent someone from having any way of contacting the outside world and not realize how abusive that is
Past the first two panels, this feels REALLY off. Like, it starts off following the tone and character behaviors that they’ve had for the rest of the arc, but then Becky calls Ross’s attention to Amber’s presence on the roof even though she’d realized not to when she saw Amber following the car. Then when Ross starts climbing out the window after Amber, Becky doesn’t seem to be taking it very seriously, never mind that he’s starting an armed confrontation with someone she believes is a 911 responder, making even more dangerous than the last time he started threatening people even if not for the fact that he’s STOPPED DRIVING THE STILL-MOVING CAR.
Meanwhile Amber is knocking on the window, which would’ve gotten Ross’s attention if she didn’t already have it, and it’s not at all clear what she’s trying to do.
I’m sure Willis has reasons for taking the confrontation in this direction, but still, the way things are going in these particular moments seems to derail a lot of the tone and character behavior that this story arc has been solid on otherwise.
what happened to the old shot up to bump in the roof from inside the car?? is he going out of the car to fight on top of it with the interloper?? is there a tunnel some few hundred yards ahead?? who’s riding on a cloud of dust in the horizon?? see next strip, next day!!
So, this is the part where AwesomeCarDriverLady drives up beside Toedad’s car and nudges it sideways with the front of hers, sending him falling out the window, while Amazi-girl is fine because suction cups, and then Becky takes the wheel, right?
I doubt Becky was ever supposed to get a driver’s license. Deciding where she could go and then driving her there would have been her headship’s prerogative if she hadn’t dived headlong into sinful worldly blargle blargle.
This looks really bad, but maybe Becky will grab the wheel and kick her dad in the nuts for good measure. He can’t see it coming right now, so she could probably get away with it.
I agree that the behavior in these panels have taken a diff. direction than the way things were going.
Why bother to tell Becky to hang on, she has obviously been doing that?
Why didn’t AG just go thru Toedad’s window and not screw around with her butt to him? She has the ropes positioned to brace her as she swings down into his window-but too late now.
She is not in a good position to kick back at him- just bring her ankles down flat and pin the rifle temporarily, maybe.
But, he sure as Hell can swat her off the top of the car with his rifle.
So I guess when Sarah told Becky about the night Joyce was drugged, she left out the part about Amazi-Girl showing up, because Sarah thinks AG is a nutcase.
God is now officially Ross’ co-pilot. He’s not only psycho, he’s stupid. How in hell does he propose to cock that single shot peashooter anyway, much less aim? I think they’re about to be sideswiped by a truck going in the other direction and Ross will be a shitstain on the grille of a Peterbilt.
At best, they might get a radius the car is in. Eventually. 911 calls work best from a land line. The lack of proper 911 Cel-phone tracking is a major issue.
Old information. All cell phones these days are equipped with GPS that can be accessed by LEO 24/7 even with the phone turned off. That’s the reason your phone battery dies in a couple of days even when you turn off the phone. The ostensible reason is to track 911 calls even if they hang up, but they can also use this to find out who was in an area at a certain time of day to find possible suspects for crimes. Say someone gets killed, they check the GPS records and find out there were 2 cell phones in the same vicinity, the victim’s and Joe Shmoe, Joe just became the prime suspect.
I’m not sure how recently things have changed, but the source for my information is from about 10 months ago. According to a USA Today article in February, this is a major limitation of cel phones/911 interaction.
Well a lot of the issues are in the details. And latency until info is available to 911 centers: In short, your phone’s apps are connected directly to the GPS unit inside the phone. The 911 system relies on getting that information through a relay process.
Cars don’t just stop when you take your foot off the gas. They coast and depending on the speed of the car and the incline of the road, they could coast for a while.
Cruise control? Or do you not have that in America? I am more concerned by the fact no-one is currently steering, and the people on the roof/hanging out the windows will be messing up the car’s balance.
I’m guessing this is just another moment of levity before they crash. Amber’s not going to be shot here, but there’s no way she actually succeeds in saving Becky.
It looks like the hook is under Becky’s door. Dunno how she (AG) brought it with her, when leaping. I couldn’t figure the path of the rope, going from the back of the car, and making a sharp right at Becky’s door…ohhh, til I saw the hook. Still can’t figure the game-plan, though.
Is that red car alongside and slightly ahead of ToeDad’s car in panel #3 the same red car that Amazi-Girl jumped off of? Don’t tell me that after everything else already she was going to try to get in front of him to slow him up or stop him!!
She’s also in a perfect position to slow up and let her car drift back into ToeDad, causing him to drop the rifle.
I am pleased to note that the 911 call is still connected. Hopefully cops will be here soon. Although in Toedad’s current state I’m not sure the presence of cops will actually help much, he seems too far gone to care about cops.
Ross, may I point out to you that the name of the comic is Dumbing of Age, not Dumbasses Who Should Know Better. Though you do seem to need some consequence driven education, just like the younger generation.
Such as, stay inside the car with both hands on the wheel you soon to be prison bongo.
That’s been established from when Becky first showed up and was the basis for her needing Dina’s. It’s shitty but perfectly in keeping with the rest of the parenting ways from their community.
“Hang tight.” Because you’re going to get her out? AG, there’s no way out on that side unless you let go of the rope. If you let go of the rope, you only have one point of attachment to the car. This is like the fable of the monkey and the walnuts.
We’ve learned two things about Ross. Firstly, he sucks at priorities (stop the call before quizzing her about the ‘phone, maybe?). Secondly, everything he has ever learned about what is possible whilst fighting in a car, he learned from Hollywood… And he’s actually trying to apply it now. Like I’ve said in previous posts – catastrophically low intelligence.
I suspect that Amazi-Girl is planning to somehow flip the car onto its roof. As others have pointed out, this will kill Ross. No-one wants her to have to face that. This is thus an ideal moment for Sal and Joyce to zoom up and for Joyce to ‘yoink’ the gun out of Ross’s hands.
That would definitely kill Ross, it would also most likely kill her too, and has a chance of killing Becky, not to mention the fact that it could easily cause another car accident if a passerby car can’t stop in time. I really doubt that’s her plan.
(There are already 362 comments above that I haven’t yet read, but this is what I came here to say, so I’m saying it. That last panel makes my eyebrows rise above my hair, if you know what I mean…)
Letting go of the steering wheel of a speeding vehicle. I’d be surprised, but we’ve already established that Toedad is a selfish, amoral shit-for-brains.
Yesss, yeeeeeees, put your face in kicking distance from the Amazie-Boots. That’s a VERY GOOD plan. *staples fingers, makes popcorn (which is hard with stapled fingers but you do what you do)*
Well there goes my predictions. All Amazi-Girl needs to do now is deliver a swift kick to Ross’s toenail of a face to knock him out of the car.
Also, Ross doesn’t even let Becky have a phone? I know conservative parents are strict, but that’s pushing it.
I would assume a cell, actually. Presumably with a bible, a cot, a bucket, and total silence to contemplate her “sins”. Somewhere isolated, no contact. Probably withhold food and water as a means of suppressing resistance.
Im all for bending the rules of physics and reality at least in as it keeping Amazi-Girl from becoming a stain on the road, but this is getting a little too silly…
How so? It’s like, on a bus, if you jump forward you’re not gonna fly to the back. Your body’s going the same speed. You’d just be jumping forward. Same principle.
I understand that. But by that same token, if we assume that Toedad there was going at least 30, 40 mph, that means Amazi-Girl (and all her internal bits) were moving 30-40 when she came to a sudden and really violent stop against another car. She should be full of broken ribs and internal damage, not parkour-ing from one moving car to the next… given how the comic normally rolls, it just feels like this is stretching credibility a bit too much.
I was going to say ludicrous, but silly might also be suitable. I assume that Amber must have a really solid history of martial arts, gymnastics and parkour in her backhistory that isn’t mentioned in her bio.
Yeah, I get a lot of the martial arts and parkour stuff, but how could she practice car stunts without a) getting seriously hurt and jailed and b) without her piece-of-shit-father knowing about it?
I mean, I’m not complaining about Amaziegirl being amazing, I’m just curious about the road there.
We got the martial arts thing that Blaine sent her to after the Sal incident, we don’t know she took any lessons in parkour but she certainly has done a lot of study of the subject given her escape from Dorothy and Walky at the library.
Hmm. From memory: Blaine insisted she took self-defence classes in lieu of therapy after the first hostage situation; she told Dorothy she excelled at track & field in high school; there was disappointment in the comments around the library chase that parkour wasn’t taught in CS; Amber taught herself to sew while making the costume. Oh! and she benefits from a low centre of gravity and her bones were rendered super-dense in a lab accident.
That’s everything I can think of in-comic, but her superpower is basically Batman-like levels of training and preparation. Whenever Rule of Cool is in play, of course.
“….and then he hit me, threatened me and my friends and brought out the gun again, all this taking place, as I remind you, when he was kidnapping me and most likely crashing a car with me in it.”
“Yes, that’s a serious list of grievances. Would the ToeShaped so called father please list his accusations against the rad daughter.”
I know that you’re trying to lighten the moment with humour. However, I suspect that, if taken alive, Ross will go through the trial in silence except for an attempt to deliver a sermon on the witness stand on the grounds that he “does not recognise this court’s authority over my god-given rights as father”. He’ll go to jail with his head held high, viewing himself as a prisoner of conscience and already planning how to carry on from where he left off when he’s released.
Either way, that’s going to be rough for Joyce, Dina, and Becky and I suspect that Joyce’s parents might try to intervene on the matter, possibly on his behalf (after all he is a good Christian man).
I don’t believe any lawyer with a shred of legal savvy would allow Fundie to testify. Getting an all male fundamentalist Christian jury will be impossible, and that would be the only way for there to be even the slimmest hope of getting him acquitted. He’s committed local, state, and federal crimes. The feds will try him first, those sentences don’t allow for parole. Charges will be filed at the state and local level, and those charges will be listed as “pending” to get around any statute of limitations issues. When, and if, he gets out of federal lockup, he’ll walk right into custody on the other charges. District Attorneys love this kind of case. It’s a slam dunk and their conviction record jumps up a little. As for the Browns speaking up for him, he pulled a gun on their daughter. Others in the church may stand behind him (The pastor and his cronies will rally for him if they share his fundamentalist leanings), but I believe the Brown’s love their daughter too much to let that one slide. Of course, his fate will be a passing mention since it’s a sideline to the real story.
I also hope our Bard enjoys reading our wild speculations as much as we enjoy speculating.
I’m glad ToeDad at least took the time to wonder if emergency services would actually come through the roof of a moving car. I mean, he hasn’t taken the time to consider anything else, so this feels like something of a victory.
Becky. Becky dear, please turn around and take hold of the wheel or something. BECKY PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TURN AROUND. YOU TOO, AMAZI-GIRL. I DO NOT KNOW HOW SERIOUSLY I AM SUPPOSED TO TAKE THIS ACTION SEQUENCE so my level of concern is fluctuating IT IS VERY EXCITING TODAY!
Also, glad to see Ross didn’t have the smarts to end the call. +14 seconds of evidence and counting.
And now he is outside the car. Time for Sal and Joyce to show up.
Seriously. He knows the best thing that can happen is for Amazi-girl to beat him up, right? Before Joyce shows up and vents her rage all over him, while Sal holds him down.
I doubt that he’s thinking that far ahead. Right now, the only thing in his head is: “Kill the demon-spawn on the roof of my car before she defiles my daughter.”
I would love to think there’s an estate for her to inherit, but his asshole level, Walmart pants and old, busted car make me think otherwise. (I went back to check whether he might have damaged the bumper while ‘retrieving’ his car from the impound, but we didn’t get a shot of it before it was towed – the damaged rear end has been prominent enough that I was wondering whether it’s a clue to Ross’ mental state, lack of funds, prior lawbreaking or any/all of the above.)
Well brand new those rifles start at a grand and most people tend to buy rifles based around what they can afford so hes probably got more stuff as well
Considering his mental state, I’d say there’s at least 3 years of food and water hoarded somewhere. That and the survival gear should pay for at least a bachelor’s degree. Add a survival cabin in the woods and Becky can make a nice start in life.
I wonder what he picked for his survivalist tactical name?
I’m sooo hoping that rifle has some kick to it! Normally when standing on solid ground you can brace yourself. Also in movies/tv they are firing forwards or backwards braced by the window frame of the doors and not firing sideways.
This may result in a interesting coming to Jesus meeting.. “Uh Sir, he just self purged the gene pool.”
AND who has the cell phone now?
It’s a .223, which is a completely different beast. Similar bullet diameter, but a much larger cartridge packing a lot more powder and correspondingly more kick.
But still, it’s not like it’s a 12 gauge or something.
Correction noted. I’ve never used a .223, so I’d probably have assumed it wasn’t much different from a .22 even if I hadn’t misremembered which calibre the gun used.
Either Toedad is about to get kicked in the face (hopefully falling out of the car and getting brain damage from the impact), or Amazi-Girl is about to get shot in the Amazi-Ass. I really hope it’s the first option.
Becky’s dad is really f..ked up in the head. And please dont let Sal have it right that something terrible happens to Amazi-Girl/Amber.
Whatup possible can go wrong sitting on a car driving at high speed with the owner out of the window with a rifle.
Dammit is it sunday already 🙂
next scene, car has managed to drive off of the road because toe dad let go of the wheel and, given his size, has likely nudged the steering wheel too much.
This scene illustrates pretty well both the similarity and difference between father and daughter, their spontaneity and tendency to act before thinking.
But while Becky uses it to cheer on Amazi-Girl (while forgetting that the car is no longer being controlled by her father), Ross uses it to try to kill someone (while ALSO forgetting that the car is no longer being controlled)
I wonder if there are any low overpasses ahead. I can picture a Speed-like scenario where a standing Ross gets his toe-shaped head chopped off while Amazi-Girl ducks.
So we can add “abusing Cruise Control” to the list of offenses and crimes.
However I never really considered that an actual self-driving car could enable its “passengers” to have “super hero fights” on the roof while still in motion. This may be the first truely negative thing I’ve come across for the technology.
Amazi-Amber reminds me of Sonic the Hedgehog here, for some reason. Maybe it’s the smooth hero-saves-the-day and never-loses vibe (though it’s a stark contrast to the obvious harsh reality about to shoot her from behind.)
It seems Toe is more concerned about the phone than who Becky called. Granted he may not have seen the number she dialed when he spotted the phone, but if he doesn’t at least suspect she called 911, he’s as much a dumbf*** as he is vile.
His “what have you done?” might imply he does, but it’s not totally clear yet.
His refusal to let Becky even have a phone, after everything we’ve seen so far, is yet another indicator of what Becky endured before college. Having a cell phone opens up the possibility of reaching out for help and resources, without his knowledge. In other words, it can be a gateway to independence. To refuse Becky that was yet another way to enforce control and keep her trapped. If that’s true, than Toe likely knows the legal ramifications of his actions, should they be reported.
I have no idea how some fundamentalists view technology and won’t pretend to know or understand. Considering the abusive nature of the Toe however, it comes down to power and control.
Well, the good news is that Ross will have earned himself a planetary restraining order by the time he is released from jail (we all remember that Australia’s non-aboriginal population was there because of a continental restraining order).
The bad news is that we are still in need of enough survivors apart from Ross himself to get him into jail in the first place.
And frankly, I have no idea how to make him keep the world’s laws when he considers himself to be enacting God’s.
At this point, I just want to repeatedly punch Ross in the face and yell “STOP BEING A COMPLETELY FUCKING STUPID FUCKING ASSHOLE!” until he stops being a completely fucking stupid fucking asshole. Or dies. From face-punching.
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this is all kinds of safe
BECAUSE THERE’S A GUNshut up NRAThis could end very well, or very badly.
My money’s on BADLY. INCREDIBLY SO.
Also, the inevitable “DON’T TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF THE WHEEL, DUMBASS!”
Hands, eyes, everything is off that wheel. Yea, this is gonna end up terribly.
This is a guy who literally believes in “Jesus take the wheel.”
It’s literally a metaphor.
Wel played. All my internets are yours.
Moving vehicle, two adults making major body movements on either side, no one’s hands on the wheel, another vehicle tailgating, driving on narrow two-lane streets that may or may not still have traffic present… what’s the worst that can happen?
(Don’t know about worst, but a car crash is what will happen, that car is going to crash and to the degree that they’ll be counting their lucky stars when they survive it.)
“may or may not still have traffic present”?
Check panel three!
Ah, missed that. Yup, they’re fucked.
Eh, they’ll be fine.
I’m thinkin’ that is Maggie (red car) having dropped Amazi-Girl at her destination, continuing on her way to get her windshield fixed.
Looked again, that car is oncoming. It has headlights!
Maggie pulled a bootlegger and is coming back around to punch butthole dad right out of his window?
Is hemisection or bisection of toe-dad in the cards? I don’t see this as unlikely when the car rolls over…
OH man, it would be so poetic if Toe-dad was Bi-Sex-ted.
Not even mad, that was well done.
Alas. Poor Toedad, we knew him too well.
Honestly I’d rather not know him at all.
Damn it, Dave, this is no time for your creative interpretations of Ezekial 23:20, I have to save my gay daughter from the clutches of pokemans and Stan!
Or Satan if you’d like, accursed typos.
You know, I never did trust Stan around my daughters.
Excelsior!
jesus has the wheel…no worries…..wait….what?
Just passing a note on from Jesus… He lived 2000 years ago! They drove camels back then, not motorized contraptions of death. Stop asking him to take charge of driving your vehicles! He doesn’t even have a learner’s permit.
But he has a heck of a wheel collection.
So you think Jesus would try taking charge by going for the camel humps on Amazigirl rather than the wheel in the car?
…I have seen some shoehorned-in references to Amazi-girl’s breasts but this is just silly.
I just hope Becky knows how to drive. Jesus isn’t going to take the wheel.
Aw darn I should’ve scrolled down, Cheryl already had this covered!
There is a school of thought that he will, though.
The biggest, knottiest problem for most monotheistic religions is why all-powerful deities who are benign and worthy of worship let evil acts be carried out. Many millions of words have been written on this, some of them deeply insightful and highly intelligent, and some utterly stupid.
The further you get to what we tend to call evangelical or fundamentalist values in a religion, the more common the idea is that even on Earth bad things can only happen to the wicked, that Jesus will shepherd you through this life.
Basically, this is the world as a game of Super Mario, where there are certain ‘safe’ series of inputs to have a perfect life then beat the game and ascend to heaven, but the only way you’ll do it is by listening to your buddy over your shoulder who designed the game and has your back.
If your buddy is Mike, you should worry.
If your diety is Mike you should worry even harder.
The Fundie’s idea of their deity is often very Mike-like. There’s a lot about being “properly” afraid of his power and all the things you must tip-toe around to protect against his wrath and there were constantly little tests designed so he could go “gotcha, those dinosaur fossils or gay feelings were just there to test your faith and you failed, instant Hell”. In some ways it had the same heads I lose, tails you win feeling as an interaction with Mike, which might be why Joyce finds him oddly charming.
So, are you secretly shipping Mike and Joyce? I kinda am, but I’m also the sort who slows down for train wrecks.
Honestly, I wouldn’t inflict this form of Mike on anyone romantically. Not even Toedad.
Considering that Joyce seems like she could actually annoy Mike, I think it has shipping potential. Plus, Mike likes to make people see the faults in their beliefs.
its simple (at least for the Abraham based religions (Christianity Judaism and Islam ) anyways) long story short the reason evil is allowed to fester in this world is because God is respecting our choice. mankind choose to gain the knowledge of good and evil and thereby the choice to do good or evil. The world as it is today is the outcome of that decision.
Yeah, the usual lame excuse to the theodicy-problem!
Why does god have to respect the choice of those volcanoes also?
Also that free will of earth and see to destroy Lisbon, including almost every church in the city on an important church holiday is of course more important than maybe saving those ten thousands (estimates up to 100,000) people that were killed.
Nice job, almighty, all-knowing and allegedly omni-benevolent god!
No cookie for you!
Take away the religious worldview out of it, it boils down to Ross continuing to live in his own little world, which has no room for the harsh reality that Becky and everyone else are more than trappings to his self-image. Becky seems to be well aware of this. From Becky’s side of things, the guy who is supposed to be her father has been a part of her life in physical flesh only long enough for her to get used to it. May be the cause for her mother leaving…
The good and perfect ending can be achieved by Amazi-Girl following the advice given by “The Frantics”. BOOT TO THE HEAD!!!!
That or Mr. Canoe Head can show up 🙂
Remember, he is Canada’s only aluminum crime fighter.
Before someone claims that this situation isn’t believable, you should know that just today, Willis has already received 3.14 e-mails from people telling him how this strip perfectly echoes that time in their lives that they hangglided behind a car on a skateboard, fell off, hit another car’s windshield, jumped from that car to another moving car, and then got menaced by the son of a percussion instrument who was driving the car.
oh hush.
No, no. I want to hear details.
Hahahaha!
I’m enjoying this sequence, but I hope at least that there are realistic consequences soon for, oh I don’t know, the fact that no one is driving that car :/
Of course there will be consequences! I mean, no one is manning the radio, what if a Nickleback song comes on?!
then they’ll have their ARMS WIDE OPEN
And crash.
UNDER THE SUNLIGHT
I thought that was Creed?
you ask as though I can tell the difference
the difference between Creed and Nickleback is vast: one sucks and one really sucks.
so not much at all.
“Even Jesus Hates Creed”
“Look at this photograph /
Every time I do it makes meCRASH”
Nickelback was on the whole time.
This is interesting. I’ve seen a bit of Nickleback dislike, & don’t seem to understand it. Daniel the Human’s Sister introduced me to their music & while they do have their slower songs like the photo one, they’ve got some faster-beat ones too. In fact, if you insulted Nickleback to her, I recon this would be her reply…
Every Nickelback song is identical. There are sites where you can play two of their songs, one out of each channel, at the same time. They’re the definition of a formulaic band.
They’re a lot less terrible when they’re playing someone else’s songs.
*looks at Burn it to the Ground’s 809s hair band imitation*
*looks at How You Remind Me’s mid-90s grunge imitation*
*looks at first album*
No.
Identical? That’s news to me. I mean, they do have a certain style, but their songs do vary a lot. Unless you mean that they all have guitars in them.
…well, thanks guys. Now you got me into a a Nickelback Vevo binge after years of almost having forgotten them. What’s so bad about that? I forgot which titles belong which songs, and I only enjoy a small percentage of them…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs4tNeGyTyI
Identical.
There was a promo in 2003 for a comedy special where Brian Posehn told a joke with the punchline “Listening to Nickelback makes me want to kill Nickelback”. It never aired, so the joke from the promo attached itself to people’s minds like a parasite.
I know college, am I right’
Hangglid? …Hangglideded?
Hangglode.
Hanged glide.
Something similar did happen to me, deliberately and with plenty of planning on the longest straight road in the world, but it did happen.
If people are saying that about the vigilante, I’m more interested in hearing the details than I am complaining about how just because I have no experience with violent vigilantes, so it’s clearly a thing that absolutely never happened.
Granted,a vigilante isn’t as viscerally personal, but hey.
I dunno, that sounds suspiciously like pi in the sky…
Heh. I get it. It’s funny because superhero parkour is just as uncommon and unlikely as someone having a really terrible and abusive dad. And cause someone was physically unable to continue the comic because this story arc caused so many PTSD triggers from their own shitty childhood. And that’s hilarious, because… other people in pain… only life experiences are our own… um, sorry OP, you’re going to have to explain a little more in depth why this is so rip-roaringly funny, cause I seem to be missing the point.
It’s just a joke; there’s no point at all. I just found it amusing, after all the debate over the last few weeks over whether what was happening was realistic or not, that suddenly we have a college girl doing James Bond stuff that pretty much no one would claim was realistic. So I did, to be silly.
Also, it was probably my last chance to write something silly for a while, given that tragedy is almost certainly coming pretty soon.
On one hand, I understand where you’re coming from: this arc has a LOT of triggers, I assume that was one of the main reasons Willis decided to introduce Becky in the first place. On the other hand, there’s no reason to take Durandal’s comment personally, and be passive aggressive about it. Nowhere in their post was there mention of unstable/unsafe childhoods being unlikely or uncommon.
I and many others have, or may be dealing with home lives similar to Becky’s.. Or god forbid, worse. Sometimes the only way you can stay sane is to find humor in the situation, and use laughter as a healing mechanism. I highly doubt Durandal posted that comment to belittle the message behind the arc.
Pretty much; all you have to do is look at some of the comments I’ve posted on earlier installments in the arc to see my feelings on that.
Basically; the earlier bit with the clearly mentally unstable person chasing two girls through the woods with a shotgun: a nailbiter. The current bit with the ridiculous stuntwork: ehhh… not so much.
Honestly, the message would have been delivered far more powerfully if the hospital visit were caused by the situation with the gun rather than, as it now appears it’s going to be, by 18-year-olds doing implausible James Bond stunts. But ah well.
What is Amazi-Girl even trying to do with that grappling hook right now? I don’t understand what her plan is at all. I got the following them on skateboard thing, and I assume her goal now is just to stop the car, but don’t see how she plans to achieve that short of letting the car drive over her hook and hoping it destroys a tire without ripping her arm off or cause the car to veer wildly. Also honestly I’d expect her to have caltrops if she’s prepared for anything. More than anything it just looks like she’s positioning the rope to keep the door closed, which would make no sense.
Oooh, she might be positioning it as an anchor to hold her on the car as she grapples with toedad over the other side, eventually defeating him and slipping in through the window to take over driving the car???
Eeehhhhh – maybe a stretch.
No, that’s pretty much the only thing I could think of as her plan from that angle. AG has amazing moves, but she may have watched too many action movies on this one…
I figured she was going to open the door, grab Becky (hence “hold on”), and slow their momentum with the grappling hook as they land on the hood of the red car. Not that I know that the red car is still following them, and Amber’s probably just assuming it’s still there.
Not that I’m saying this is a GOOD plan, but what part of her plan so far has been good anyway.
I thought she was going to open the door, too. But, the grappling hook is noe under Becky’s door! (how?) You can see the third tang. Maggie (red car) is now passing them. The problem with having Becky open the door for AG, is Becky will have to remove her seat-belt, it seems. That would put her in danger, like the other two!
Oops, not Maggie-red-car. This one has headlights, oncoming.
Actually, it’s possible to shatter a car window by tapping across it with a hard object. The demo I saw online used a piece of spark plug, and the taps didn’t have to be all that strong.
It has to be a _very_ hard object, with a sharp point. Spark plug fragments are just about the only commonly available object to qualify.
Or those little hammers that are specially made for that purpose, you can get them an any hardware store.
She has one in a glove pocket.
ehh if she takes out a back tire it wouldn’t veer that much
source had a rear tire blow on me on the highway… not fun but controllable
It’s probably easier to keep control if there’s actually someone driving the car.
I’m worried about how flat and stretched out her cape is in the last panel, too.
I’m worried about next strip when things start to get crazy.
“start”
…Who’s driving?
BEARTOE IS DRIVING HOW CAN THAT BENot Pikachu, please don’t sue!
YOU CANT HANDLE THE RUTH
Billie can, though.
BIG AMERICAN PARTY!
AXEL FOLEY! JUDGE REINHOLD!
KOREAN ANIMATION STUDIO!
WE ARE SLAVES.
You guys are all the best!
THERE IS NO ESCAPING THIS TIME!
EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG!!!
Looks like the ticking time bomb is about to go off.
Jesus took the wheel. Duh
Why’s he running around all the time just taking wheels? What does he even do with them?
Everyone should have a hobby.
Becky, take the wheel!
Jesus took the wheel maybe?
You beat me to the joke! Well played, sir!
Clearly Ross has gotten one of those self-driving cars that are all the rage. (Didn’t Tesla recently send a software update to all their cars that actually lets them drive themselves? I thought I saw this in the news recently.)
Ross probably thinks that cell phones are devil devices or something. I’ve literally seen an Amish man on a cell phone, and that says something about Ross. Something is wrong with him.
I mean, lots of things are wrong with him, just add that to the list I guess.
Not evil because of the tech; evil because of the risk that women could be harder to control and not have activities open for the supervision and authority of the family patriarch. It’s meant to isolate her. He probably has one himself.
Much harder to exist as a marginalized person in general without privacy. For instance speaking of phones: back when there were shared phones in the house in common rooms (mileage varies on age and poverty, ofc) you couldn’t exactly talk about hidden stuff. Or the on-edge panic of looking at “bad” things on a family computer, and that was already a huuuge improvement, since it was much less dependent on ‘happening to know someone that’s X despite both hiding it’.
This. Unfettered access to a phone or internet means unfettered access to demonic infiltration and ungodliness. After all, the world is a fallen one, full of immorality and smut, corrupting influences are everywhere and to protect one’s progeny’s souls, you must shelter them from such influences until such time as they are old enough to resist the temptations (usually around marriage, though for women that can extend largely because the original sin they carry due to the weakness and frailty of Eve). Otherwise they might be exposed to such unspeakable depravity as knowledge of reproductive health, exposure to gay people in happy relationships, or worse yet, proof that the world couldn’t actually be 6,000 years old.
Given that Becky has already tumbled head first into depravity and sinfulness and has completely lost connection with her role as a woman, being deluded with unwomanly notions regarding being a husband or a wife that has confused her very sou. And given that Toedad was stalwart for many a year, it would make the most sense if she was defying his orders on a massive scale and sneaking off with illegal cell phones and internets when his back was turned. I mean, it’s not like gayness happens naturally or anything.
And dear Bob I wish I was a lot less versed in these people’s thought processes.
He probably has a cell phone. But his daughter is not permitted one.
Maybe a cell phone, but smart phones are so alien to him that he hasn’t stopped the call yet (at least until panel two).
Maybe he isn’t aware that it is giving away his position?
He might however having thrown it out of the window in one of the following panels.
They can’t fully drive themselves. It’s kind of like a cruise control for steering, just like cruise control keeps you at a set speed, it keeps you in a set lane.
Well, would be sufficient for the current situation. But I don’t think that Ross is the kind of guy who’d let a devil-in-the-box drive rather than himself.
Jesus is, of course.
I thought he takes the wheel…
A-hyuk! Why, I’m driving!
AMAZI-GIRL IS IMMUNE TO wait is that thing real
“CURSES! Lethal Force! MY ONLY WEAKNESS!”
Uh….WHO’S DRIVING????????
The cars actually a decepticon, that’s the only logical answer
I don’t recognize it, so I don’t think it’s 1 of my old team. that said, if 1 “died” & got away with only a buggered bumper, go him…
Jesus take the wheel!
“But I don’t know how to drive….”
here you go http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=2153
🙂 🙂 🙂
JESUS HAS TAKE THE WHEEL
WAIT, JESUS WAS BORN AND DIED BEFORE CARS WERE INVENTED! WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Depending your sources he might not be dead.
I wonder what’s toedad’s opinion on that.
From what I hear, you’re both right. Apparently he was born like all you meatsacks are, got a terminal case of death, then came back & scared his old mates good. Then he took an elevator up or something & is now immortal…
Eh, we Cybertronians were made when Primus made the original 13, or was it 4? Eh, guess I’m not even big on Cybertronian religion… 😛
But he doesn’t have a driver’s license or taken a driving test for that matter.
Those only prove you know how to drive. You have to know how to drive prior to getting them, so their absence doesn’t prove you don’t.
Don’t licenses give you permission to drive legally? I know I once got a license & tried driving around, but turns out you need YOUR OWN license, not 1 you took from some random meatsack…
I distinctly remember about him driving demons out. He probably was the designated driver which sounds unfair considering he made all the wine.
Maybe it is one of those new fangled Tesla Model S’s?
Nope, 10 year old Ford.
Hm.. what sort? The taillights look familiar, but I haven’t been able to place what it is. I wouldn’t have thought Ford: the shape is sort of ’90s t-birdish, but the taillights are wrong for that, and it’s definitely no mustang.
Ross had it retrofitted with AutoPilot technology.
Or, maybe, Ross is a psychopath.
No gay demon is going to steal his daughter away when he is so close to restoring his family. If they must die here to save her soul, then so be it. At least her soul will be saved and reunited in Heaven with her family as is proper.
He really doesn’t care about anyone’s physical safety in this as is evident with the crazy driving and all the malarky with the gun. And that’s what makes him dangerous in this narrow strip of time before he either gets himself killed or gets hauled off to jail (oof, the strips where Joyce and Becky will have to give testimony are going to be really hard for both of them).
Becky has gotten desensitized to the gun fast.
I think that she (just like Joyce) is so done with this at this point…..I just hope Amazi-girl knows a bit about Disarms…….
This probably isn’t the first time Ross has done something like this.
I dunno, she seemed pretty shocked when she found out he was prepared to kidnap her at gunpoint. I think she’s just too busy trying to stay alive/ keep her friends alive to freak out every time he brings out the gun.
Becky, you made him promise to put that away. If he had it in arm’s reach he did not keep that promise.
Curses, child locks, my one weakness.
Now’s your chance, Becky, kick him!
Amazi-girl’s better placed for that right now.
Why not both?
In the head and crotch. It’s not like he is using any of them properly anymore.
I’m actually kind of glad her knees are bent up rather than straight (also, being kneeling would probably be prime kicking position but not prime grappling the car position), because if her leg was like right at him it would be obviouser that he could grab it and throw her down.
Yeah, that was my thought. One mostly blind kick backward, and by the time he recovers, that rifle will be a hundred yards away and under someone else’s wheels.
Or he’ll die, since he’s been kicked out of a moving car.
At this point, I don’t think there would be many courts who would convict Becky
Amazigirl yeah, but probably for reasons more to do with vigilantism
I was never trying to imply anyone would convict Becky, seeing how she’s literally done nothing wrong. They’d be hard pressed to convict AG too, as it would be self defense. The psychological effects of killing someone are very damaging, Amber’s been through enough already. Plus, evil jackass or not, Ross’s life still does have some value, the less violently they can defuse the situation the better.
Or roll up the window fast. Decapitate his legs.
I don’t think car windows are that strong
Decapitate…. his legs.
Does that mean “cut his toe off”?
@Timemonkey: kick him Becky! Where you came from.
This is going to end badly, isn’t it?
Especially if this road also has car coming in the other direction… I don’t see any separation in the middle of the road in the third panel. Ross could get his toe head nipped by an oncoming truck!
Define badly.
Amazi-Girl is immune to criticism. Bullets however…
Well she’s positioned perfectly to kick the gun out of his hands anyway.
Not really. She’s resting on her thighs with knees bent. Can’t get much power from a kick without repositioning first.
Bullets are immune to criticism as well
Man, no kidding!
How the hell is he even going to aim while coming out of a window in a car that’s probably going to spin out of control in the next second.
she’s less than a foot away. he doesn’t have to aim, he just has to rest the muzzle against her.
That’s not going to be the case when the car spins out.
Have you got an actual TM on Amazi-Girl, Willis?
copyright
no stealies
Both, really. Library of Congress handles Copyrights but the Department of Commerce handles Trademarks.
The hovertext would never lie.
I thought it was “tm” without the “i”. Ha!
OC Do Not Steal
This will not end well.
…and then a fireworks truck appears…
By a propane tank farm…
…but Ruth drives in front of them and crashes her car to save the day
I don’t see how that would help in this situation.
Don’t forget the busload of school kids on a collusion course with both ross and the fireworks.
As long as there’s not a fruit and vegetable stand by the side of the road we’re OK. Of course, this is Indiana in the fall, so it is certainly possible.
“My cabbages!!”
a manure truck would do.
Man, Amazi-girl looks perfectly positioned to just stomp on the Toe.
Yo, Jesus, if you’re ever actually gonna take the wheel, NOW’S THE FUCKING TIME.
whack ‘im in the head with it!
…that’s a suggestion for Jesus, not for what to do to Jesus.
No, they need that to not crash.
“Uh ok, what does this do?”
“Don’t touch i..!”(in that moment Ross went through the windshield,remember kids,ways keep your seats belts on and don’t be crazy batshit bigots!)
Now, post-immediate reaction…
First things first. Why am I not surprised there was a no cell phone policy in the what’s-Becky’s-surname household. Smart phones a )have internet, internet has information, information is EVIL, b) they give a child the freedom to communicate => EVIL and c) phones are tiny machines the existence of which can only be explained through science and technology. EEEEVIIIL.
Seconldy, I love Becky’s “Come on!” reaction to Foedad taking the gun out again. Like, c’mon, dude, I thought we were done with that, damnit.
Next, Super-lady and Amazi-girl pretty much mean the same thing, but it’s important to get it right, especially when you’re performing a hostage rescue mission suction-cupped to the roof of a moving car, the driver of which has let go of the wheel so as to point a gun at you.
Lastly, in a universe where Amazi-girl doesn’t exist, I totally buy Joyce nicknaming Dorothy that.
Aaand I can’t believe I forgot the “Does 911 come in through the roof” line. Definitely one of my favouritests ever.
It’s like he’s tried breaking open a computer to get the files because someone said the files were in there
You where not surprised there was a no cell phone policy in the MacIntyre-household because it has been mentioned in the comic before!
Right! MayIntyre! Also, I had completely forgotten about that conversation, but maybe it was somewhere in my subconscious? XD
Darn it. *MacIntyre. Stupid typos.
That’s it. I’m hearing the Benny Hill theme during this entire sequence now.
Damnit, now I am too.
For reference, it’s called “Yakety Sax”
Amazi-Girl is immune to criticism.
Bullets, however…
Bullets are immune to criticism, too.
You suck bullet
*doesn’t move*
Curses foiled again!
Actually, some bullets are quite sensitive. Just because they’re used to kill people doesn’t mean you should say hurtful things to them.
What happens when an immune force meets an immune object?
There’s an immune collision.
Especially in the US.
Bullets are just a particularly harsh variety of criticism, she’ll be fine.
The Nostalgia Critic uses this method too from time to time for his reviews. It’s actually effective!
Especially when used on the artist. But it’s frequently overkill.
Okay someone has to drive the car!
Would Becky have been allowed to learn how to drive? Did her mom have a license? Toedad and his “I am the patriarch therefore I am in charge” attitude probably wouldn’t allow it.
Then again, a modern car with an automatic is easy to pick up on, even easier if you’ve ever paid attention to someone else driving. Becky could at least grab the wheel and keep them out of the trees, or maybe pop it into neutral and pull the handbrake.
What happens if it’s Sal who saves the day? Would Amb-erm, Amazi-Girl interpret it as “failing,” make it all about herself, and attack her arch-rival again?
Amber might. Amazigirl wouldn’t.
Hey Ross, you forgot a small detail: Whi’s driving!!??
Who is Whi?
Was supposed to be *Who. “Thanks keyboard!”
Whi is wiigii for who. ; )
Actually no wait that would wgi not whi. .-.
Doctor is Dictir?
Trying to fire a two-handed gun while driving can’t possibly turn out badly.
well, he might just use it as a club, but yeah. short-range combat while both participants are dangling from a moving vehicle? should be fun.
Well, he’ll just have to stop doing one of them, then.
…he seems to have made his choice.
Firing a 2-handed rifle while within 5′ of his target on a moving vehicle. If he can even keep the gun pointed in the right direction I’d be shocked. As long as he doesn’t think to use it as a club, he’s actually far less dangerous now than he would be completely disarmed.
He’s actually far more dangerous now, because him not steering can mean killing three persons instead of only one.
Even more when another car is involved in the accident.
What’s his problem with cellphones?
the independence from patriarchal tyranny?
He’s one o’ them lie-burr-tary-yuns! GIT EM!
They allow the owner to communicate privately with others, which implies that they are communicating something that they wouldn’t want their parents to overhear, which in turn implies that they are being disobedient.
Because he totally cant control everything she would do on them. Them new fangled technologies are the devils work!
He thinks of Becky as his property. Having a phone means she did something without his consent. He’s an asshole like that.
access to information and communication with people he doesn’t have any control over.
Google “tomato staking” and look for pages about kids rather than plants.
I did the thing and… holy shit. Those households sound like waking nightmares.
Becky already had a cell phone: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/06-strange-beerfellows/hands/
Pretty sure she just borrowed it from her roommate/girlfriend at the time.
Except Joyce had her number. I think this might be a retcon.
It’s the handset for the landline in her dorm room at Anderson.
(Think this was confirmed but can’t remember exactly when.)
On the other hand, http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/sarcasm/
That’s not a cellphone, it’s a cordless telephone.
(As already stated by SDGlyph; just want to add the link to the wikipedia article)
Yes, kids, there was a time when you couldn’t contact someone by phone if they were away from the cave hunting dinosaurs or whatever!
Remember, Becky’s access to the Internet was very much restricted. Not allowing her a cell phone makes sense.
“Hur dur, I’m gonna stop driving the car so I can stick my torso out of this moving vehicle and shoot at people.”
I hope the idiot at least took his foot off the gas so that the car will slow down… hopefully *before* they all crash and die.
(Well, before Amazigirl/Amber and Becky die. I don’t really care what happens to Toedad.)
He’s kind of stumpy (tall/big, but he doesn’t give the impression of long legs and that’s a weird angle), so I don’t really think he could still reach the gas, which I guess is good and bad (good:not going to spin/roll/flop and kill AmaziGirl and also may give the police extra seconds bad:may have better balance to shoot AmaziGirl)
Or he engaged the cruise control?
If Ross is out the sunroof and Becky’s hands are on the window, then clearly Bear is driving.
Every reaction is equal and opposite.–K9
This doesn’t seem physically possible, re: Ross’s stance in the last frame.
I know right
That’s what Jimmy’ kept screaming.
YES.
And Grif.
Also Amber’s tow line looks all sorts of tangled in the wheels of the car, which is bad given that it’s wrapped round her arm. Very bad. Squick bad.
Nah, its hooked cleanly under the car body. No tangle problems… at the moment, anyway.
Actually, if you look closely in panel 3, the rope isn’t actually tangled with the wheels at all, it’s just flying freely alongside the car. Amazi-girl only has the rope rolled around her arm in the last panel, so it can be assumed that she grabbed the loose end and rolled it up during the events in panel 4.
You can clearly see in the last panel that the only part of rope that is still connected to the car is the end fixed with the grappling hook. Still dangerous, but not as dangerous as if it were tangled into the wheels, thank gods. : )
I don’t think Willis is going to Immortan Joe Amber….
JESUS TAKE THE WHEEEEEEEL
Or possibly Becky. SOMEONE TAKE THE WHEEL
… other than ToeDad?
Actually, even ToeDad. SOMEBODY DRIVE!!
(OMG there’s cross-traffic too they’re soo dead)
Gah, not cross-traffic, oncoming traffic, my bad
And the criminal mastermind STILL hasn’t hung up….. but that’s part for the course with anyone that is willing to engage in this sort of destructive behaviour.
he doesn’t own a cell phone either, probably can’t handle a computer. Most probably doesn’t know how the phone work.
That 911 Operator is along for the strangest ride…
So he’s more concerned with the possibility of cellphone ownership than the big giant 911 phone call going on?
Course maybe he doesn’t know how to use a cellphone if he’s forbidden their devil-magic in his house. Or whatever his reationale is.
The rationale is that cell phones allow private communication that he can’t monitor, and are therefore a form of secrecy and disobedience.
Eeeeeeehhhwwwww. I was sort of holding out hope he’d end up with a redeeming point somewhere, but… ah that fits the abuse-y vibe. 🙁
I’m pretty sure his rational for not allowing Becky was to have control over her, so her having a cell phone is something for him to be mad about because it is a sign of independence.
Didn’t think of it that way. Damn I just got more creeped out by him than before, now. 🙁
Does he even realize it was 911? Or is he just reacting to the forbidden phone?
The “Does 911 come in through the roof?” line sounds more like Becky’s speech pattern than his.
Well, yeah, 911 just means that this is do or die for their souls and he wants to see how deep the rot goes that would lead her to betray her family so.
And before anyone goes on about cartooniness, my ex’s granddad was similar in his method of control, talking about the abuse was the worst sin because that was betraying the family and family was the only thing to love and protect you. So, a 911 call was more worrisome as a sign of betrayal and disobedience rather than something to worry about on its own level. After all, he could get a 911 call sorted by having the family stick to the same page, so that’s what mattered the most.
You mix in a healthy dose of “this world doesn’t matter, only the next” and you get something as dangerous as this.
I predict this car will be stopping quickly. In some sort of horrible way, but quickly.
Dude what the HELL are you doing while driving.
Technically, nothing.
Ross, you idiot, just stay in the car and point the gun straight UP! Geez, do I have to do all the thinking for you?
the rifle is way too long.
Yes! Actually, could you get on that whole thinking for him thing? Apparently his cognition is no longer functioning, so he could really use a rental.
Maybe he saw the Top Gear where the driver traded places with another person in the car by climbing out and crawling across the top of the car…. with out stopping the car and completed before the car could come to a stop? Perhaps he expects Becky to take the wheel while he deals with Amazi-Girl on the roof?
ROSS DON’T YOU DO IT
DON’T YOU DO IT
This strip is all sorts of action movie stupid. And we love it for that.
It’s probably going to get stupider. Joyce and Sal will arrive and fight on a motorcycle. Then the cops will come.
and the Amazi-girl will run away stealing Sal’s bike, making them finally proper arch-nemesises
That would be epic!
My guess is that Red Car Woman, who has already accepted her role in the action movie life has become, is staying close by and intends to honk her horn at the most distracting possible moment.
I suspect Red Car Woman is making her own 911 phone call while Hanging back and following at a safe distance.
Toedad is right behind Amazi-girl with a rifle. That’s…. really not good. If back-up doesn’t arrive soon, Amber is going to get shot. This looks bad. This looks really bad.
Meanwhile, Toedad appears to have his foul hands on Dina’s phone, so she’s not getting that back ever.
But he doesn’t appear to have hung it up, so that’s good (although that poor operator must be so confused as well as stressed, with “does 911 come through the roof?”)
Hang tight…Super lady!….Amazi-Girl….Oh I thought that was Joyces name for Dorothy.
911 operator: What the hell is going on out there?
and the operator is in a call center in India
+1 for broken telephone reference!
And somewhere in the background, that one nerd among the 911 operators is going “I knew it! I KNEW she was real!” because they’ve gotten call about Amazi-girl before, and he kept trying to convince everyone that those weren’t just prank calls or a campus myth, and they’ve been making fun of him for weeks.
(shit, now my brain is trying to develop a spin-off about that guy)
I’m sure the 911 dude you speak of is Manny. 🙂
I’m afraid I don’t understand that reference. ._.’
he’s a prostitute
(not really)
Oooh right Manny from Shortpacked!. I totally forgot that was his name. ><"
I personally believe that realistically there is a almost a certainty that a man as ..stout.. as Toedad would at some point bump into or kick the steering wheel and they plow into whatever is on the side of the road.
However as a work of fiction I sincerely hope that narrative causality doesn’t play out that way.
more like narrative casuality, right ?
Getting her cell back is likely least of Dina’s worries right now. Cause where in Hell is she?
Not sure, but we have her in a preview panel for January 2016, so she can’t be too badly injured.
It’s her ghost, actually.
And then the car crashes.
Yesss, she did the font thing! Everything’s gonna be alright.
I hope Becky uses this opportunity to stop the car so police can catch up.
Put it in reverse? Take the key?
Push the shifter into neutral and pull the handbrake. Even if her dad set the cruise control, that will stop the car.
Neutral? Yes, absolutely. Emergency brake? Um, no. At speed, that is going to lead to brake failure, kind of the opposite of what you are going for, i think
It’s a mechanicaly linked to one of the rear brakes. You’ll get brake fade, especially if the car has rear drums, but you’ll stop even if you cook the brake fluid.
It’s also a decent way to flip the car. All it would take is Toedad hitting the wheel wrong for everything to go to hell fast. Best bet is to downshift to slow down or just shut off the motor.
Ok, but does Becky know any of this?
OH COME ON ! Your not even trying not to get everyone killed!
Thank you, we needed a little interjection of humor after these days of serious darkness.
So many people saying she’s doomed because that gun’s loaded with bullets, not criticism. It’s a rifle, it’s not like he’ll actually be able to shoot her from this angle. The mostly inevitable car crash however may cause a bit more damage…. than the last one she was in 10 seconds ago
When you can speak in blue speech balloons, speaking in fonts is pretty easy.
Speaking in fonts in basically the super-heroes’ equivalent of speaking in tongues, isn’t it.
Heh. Don’t get cocky, AG, dropping the logo of your own book when you introduce yourself…
Also that dude totally doesn’t know how to end a call.
That’s what happens when you and your family distance yourself from modern day technology for God knows how many years.
You touch the big red “End Call” button.
You don’t really have to know anything.
well, he doesn’t. Also depending on his age and seeing he doesn’t wear glass, he may not be able to properly see the icon.
“We don’t believe in Icons in this house, as the good Lord says!”
That presumes he KNOWS what that symbol even means.
well, if you want to kill yourself via horrible car accident, this is how you do it.
I keep waffling between “this is great” and “this is silly”.
I don’t know. I think I expected a more grounded story arc out of this, and even with Amber showing up it still mostly felt normal, with her doing crazy stunts and then eating windshield, and now everything feels super cartoony.
If I wanted a grounded story arc, I’s read Prince Valiant. This is fun.
I get that, and Willis made a great post a few days ago on the validity of varying the tension to keep reader’s interested, but this feels less like giving the reader breathing room and more just an inconsistent tone. One minute Amber’s getting flung off the car and smacking into a windshield, Ross slapping a horrified Becky and figuring out she called the cops, and then the next strip the most agreeable bystander in the world and Amber’s right back on her feet while Toedad does the dumbest thing imaginable.
I mean, I don’t watch Schindler’s List and think that it would be greatly improved by adding The Tick.
Actually a movie with premise of “like Schindler’s list but with a wacky nigh-unstoppable and probably crazy super here” sound like guaranteed blockbuster material to me 🙂 Unfortunately, it’s a new idea and thus will be sidelined until after the release of “Avengers 27 – even the fanatical fans are bored by now”
Wasn’t that movie already made? Inglorious Bastards?
Wasn’t that a documentary?
If you look at the happenings from our universe then, sure, they’re inconsistent, but if you immerse yourself in The Willis-Dumbing-verse, it’s all totes consistent. It’s working for me, anyway.
I guess.
Maybe I’m thinking this has to be a wholly dramatic storyline. At the least I felt most invested in the darker moments, but, eh, this is still good too.
I think the objection is more that it started off relatively grounded, like it’s been introduced and then kept going that way, but now it seems like it’s getting /resolved/ in a tremendously silly fashion.
Things that start grounded should get resolved in a grounded way to keep its integrity but that’s imo I guess plus I don’t know what’s going to happen next.
And by “it started off relatively grounded” I’m referring specifically to the Becky vs religious homophobia subplot.
And the Dinaraptor attack from Jurassic Park didn’t tip you off?
Hmm…
Sorta related but… the more I read this story, the more I’m like, was there any reason why Becky couldn’t have turned Dina’s phone to silent, stuffed it in her underwear, and played subservient until they were hunkered down for the night somewhere and not a moving target?
Because she’s afraid and wants out now is one possible answer. There might be other reasons, admittedly, depending on how thorough Toedad’s plan is. But it just seems like everybody is trying to save Becky in the least sensible and most dramatic way possible.
Which is what comedy often is. So, yeah, tone shifts aside, I think this reads much better as offbeat comedy seasoned with drama rather than vice versa.
She finally used the phone when she saw Amazi-Girl. She was resigned to her fate (at least until she got home, and escaped again) She is moved to act when her friends are threatened.
@Winter: “was there any reason why Becky couldn’t have turned Dina’s phone to silent, stuffed it in her underwear” — it might have started vibrating?
In addition, Becky may not be able to keep a cell phone hidden. It’s contraband, and not only could she be searched either by Ross or whatever pray away he takes her to, but girl pockets are notoriously not large or useful. Better she use it now while she can (and while the police are scrambled looking for Ross, and when her doing so could help Amazi-Girl), than miss her chance.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/02-i-was-a-teenage-churchmouse/girlpants/ See its been covered before!
Well, she kept it hidden successfully up until the point where she had hope again and needed to put her plan in motion to distract him from the superhero slowly making her way up to the car. So, she really pulled it out at the best time. I imagine absent superhero heroics, she may have tried to call the police and report her kidnapping when they had returned home, but given the circumstances and what she was trying to do, she really did the best she could possibly do and its quite a success.
The cops have a much more clear idea of what’s going on and she’s much more likely to receive official help than before.
I think you and merbrat are right. Becky was resigned to going back home to save Joyce, but seeing Amazi-Girl made her go into action now.
It’s my opinion that when a bunch of people turn up every day to say “this is my life” and give genuine thanks for telling their story, the author has tapped into a great power. From that point on, he has a new responsibility to do right by those people.
Amazi-Girl is the one hold-out against this responsibility. She pushes the envelope so far it strains credibility, and this is happening in a comic where absolutely real problems that I myself can vouch for have been dismissed by some readers as hyperbole.
I’m not sure how to feel about this.
Feel privileged to read a unique comic.
The flip side is that once Amazi-girl’s action sequence is over, we’re all going to see some real emotional fallout from this. Even for her. She’s up there in action movie stunt territory, but her issues are real.
I also still don’t think she’s going to wind up being the hero of this storyline, despite all the stunts.
See, I never understood why an author should be responsible for anything, even being entertaining. It’s still fiction, even if it rings close to home for the readers, at the end of the day it’s only a glimpse into a creative mind that we all should feel privileged just to be able to catch a glimpse of.
And, unless the author is writing an autobiography of your life specifically, there will always be elements that seem far out or unrealistic, and those elements will not be the same elements for everyone.
Sure, this sequence is very action movey, but real people do bad ass stuff all the time in the real world as well. And people DO dress up as superheroes, use gadgets and fight crime in our world too. Mostly they’re not involved in as extreme situations as these, but it’s not impossible either.
Look up Real Life Superheroes on Wikipedia, or google the phrase.
Just to be clear, I wasn’t referring to anything about Ross’s actions during the last few stips. I was strictly talking about Amazi-Girl.
Ross shoots at amazi-girl and misses, instead hitting a coincidentally nearby Blaine, having recently been released from the hospital, who was on his way to the school in order to continue to harass Amber (or possibly retrieve Faz from the lost and found.)
he then falls over on mary, who suffocates.
eh… Mary’s a jerk, but I don’t think she should die. Having her be completely and publicly humiliated would be good tho.
He then falls over on Mary, who… is moderately annoyed?
isn’t she always?
He then, in his surprise, pees on Mary.
…again ?
No, he’s not going to, he’s coming from after retrieving Faz who has been in IU jail for a week (maybe two, how many Saturdays have we had since Parents’ Weekend)…
Ross how are you even…
Um, in any case Becky thought Amazi Girl was Joyce’s nickname for Dorothy? No wonder she was certain that Joyce was a lesbian too.
It also brings to light a different thing about “Call AmaziGirl?” crossed out.
“Is this what she wants me to call Dorothy?”
That was the first thing that popped into my mind too, connecting-the-dots style.
Yeah, “Becky thinks Amazi-Girl is a nickname for Dorothy because of the way the list is arranged” is a discarded punchline from that strip which I resurrected here.
And yet she carried out the instructions to the letter anyways… but that might explain the awkward interaction with Dorothy during the invitation and later on in the party. Oh, she’s Amazi-girl to her, and I’m just… Becky.
At this point I’m sure its more of a single target sexuality.
I reeeeally hope Willis doesn’t pull any crap like that with Joyce’s blatantly pervasive attraction to women.
That is just literally media being either “Bi women aren’t real” or “No no you don’t understand, she’s not a lesbian at all, she’s sooo heterosexual. This girl is her ~exception~! Her being way into this/these girl/s doesn’t mean she isn’t really just into men!! :^) “. So gross.
Personally I see her story as way more compelling read as being a lesbian dealing w/ hella compulsory heterosexuality (been there for sure) as opposed to a lot of the more self-understanding &/or self-accepting characters. Even Ethan in their Beard-duo knew he was gay, but tried living as pretend-straight. Not remembering any other character with a clear ‘internalized the compulsory heterosexuality garbage’ arc atm.
But yeah, either way not a fan of ‘the exception’ writing for wlw.
Joyce is definitely not lesbian. Or at the very least, with the Word of God statement early on that everyone is the same sexuality as their previous version, that would make things over in the Walkyverse very creepy.
She could be bi, but I don’t really see it. Her attraction to girls hasn’t really been portrayed as sexual – even to the degree she showed her physical attraction to Ethan. She does tend to form strong bonds with other girls, somewhat clingy and jealous, which could be an indication of romantic interest, but doesn’t have to be.
It’s also worth remembering that her closest friend, who probably helped form the pattern for her relationships with other girls, is gay and in love with her.
“Definitely not a lesbian”? Because clearly you’d know exactly how a lesbian deep in compulsory heterosexuality acts?
I dislike using some completely different not-in-canon comic as a metric for this one. I started with DoA and I prefer keeping it in its own story. All kinds of stuff is already different, and her portrayal is certainly more clearly as a wlw here. I really don’t care if it didn’t used to be in an alternate universe years ago. And literally all Willis would need to do to avoid your issue is to say ‘generally not the case, but not always’.
Anyway: Yes it has. It really, really, really has. Like, seriously? Are you kidding me? It’s absurdly transparent at this point and a common theme. She’s a huge mess.
Again on the “You don’t know compulsory het”, though: She had a scene where she blushed at him personally, and suddenly it’s “CONFIRMED STRAIGHT” for people? Well, that threshold certainly isn’t high in comparison, then, but regardless.. Your body can simulate that shit based on expectation. I’m serious. In the past I’ve been “”in love”” with non-women, and it was just seriously unhealthy, for bad reasons and not comparable to actually being in love, but I was convinced that’s what it meant to be at the time. You don’t have to be consciously pretending just because your brain tries to fit expectations around you. It varies. Some lesbians mention ‘assigning crushes’ because you were supposed to have them, others thought they felt them and focused on that instead of their genuine desires. You live in the real world, so that’s important. Regardless of what you think about a webcomic.
Becky was indeed her quasi-girlfriend for much of her life that she found a great deal of comfort in. To quote Sarah: “You are the only reason that girl grew up in her world with ANY semblence of sanity, aren’t you.”. Neither of them had clearly processed these feelings properly at the time, but many statements in the comic have them being very intimate by comparison back then. Like, that isn’t a point against her being sapphic? It’s actually very, very telling to have had that in a tough environment but not recognized it for what it was? Even Becky didn’t, and she’s clearly in a better state of mind to accept it, as we’ve seen.
And no, a kiss isn’t a magic spell that would’ve broken a lifetime of terrible indoctrination and societal expectations. She wasn’t at all in a state where she was ready to deal w/ that, unlike Becky who came into it both having thought about their mutual past and with one lesbian relationship already behind her. And a lot of wlw even start out being queasy about sapphic intimacy because of all that garbage. Just to add on an extra layer of confusion, there. Fun times.
I’m pretty much only expecting Joyce to start dealing with her feelings by the time Becky has solidly moved on, tbh. With the accompanying regret, awkwardness, loneliness. Things tend not to go great for Joyce. *ahem*
I find Walky pretty insufferable, too, regardless of “agreeing”. This girl is real to him, and it reeeally sucks when you’re not figured-out-and-fine to have straight jerks around messing with you about how they supposedly know you better than you yourself do. It can be even harder to consider yourself in that light if it’s just “so obvious” to everyone else. Like.. trauma, misery, breaking up inside, being closeted and so on aren’t funny? They’re not his to make light of? Stop treating her as if she’s weak for struggling. Sheesh. He could really do with some gentler, more caring scenes on this topic at some point where he’s, y’know, actually supportive and helpful to her troubles, not just poking fun at her despite her obvious discomfort. I’d prefer it being a wlw, of course. But when has DoA ever done the healthiest thing. 😛
I think the most likely thing for the comic is her being bi. It’s just simpler that way for Willis. Less hassle. But I’m really hoping for lesbian and trying to deal w/ all the externally-imposed attraction stuff in a character, not just skipping past it. Feels more accurate to me for how she’s written in DoA. Oh well. Long serious post. Bye.
Also the Grace gravatar I ended up with looks so grumpy. Heheh.
Definitely by “Word of God” the same as the previous story. Normally I wouldn’t rely on her characterization in another non-canon story, but in this case the author has said to. Yes, he could change that, but I don’t really think “I lied about it. The main character of the comic is an exception.”
If he’d said ‘generally not the case, but not always’ originally, then I wouldn’t be making this argument. I could see it for a minor character he hadn’t brought over at first, but now? With the lead? Not happening.
Without that, I’d be far less certain, but still leaning towards straight.
And no, I’ve little idea how “a lesbian deep in compulsory heterosexuality acts”, but despite her repression about everything sexual, not just homosexuality, what little we’ve seen of her sexuality has been aimed at guys. At Ethan, in particular. There was her dream, there were plenty of not very subtle hints during her relationship. In the absence of Word of God, they could all be misdirection, I suppose.
And not just that she blushed, if you’re thinking of the same scene I am. That she made the move at all, even “joking”, as repressed as she is.
Bi is possible. Bi-romantic, even more so.
I just don’t see it. I don’t see Joyce as a lesbian. I don’t see externally imposed attraction in her. Could be interesting in a different character, though I don’t know who would fit particularly.
While “straight with an exception” is often poorly used by writers in an attempt to treat being LGBT as some spicy frisson and also as a way to exclude bisexuality as a valid sexual orientation (excluding Robin in Shortpacked, I mean. That was what she told herself before accepting she was “generally undefinably kinda queer”), heteroflexibility is real, and for what it’s worth, I also believe that Joyce is in a minute way romantically interested in women. At the least, I think it’s a perfectly valid interpretation of her character.
Danny also had a bit of “I think I’m attracted to men and women AND THAT MAKES NO SENSE” before he started to make progress.
I’ve had her pegged as a closeted bisexual for a while.
I kind of think so as well, or at the least bi-romantic with a preference for guys.
As for my other headcanon, I’m angling that Walky’s bi. The way he engages in Gay Bravado like I used to makes me think he could be.
Mike made some comment to Joyce regarding her *crush* on Sal. Joyce responded (sorta dreamily) “Oooohh, if only I could ignore everything below the neck”. So…canon-ish. I still think it is more like hero-worship. (not Amazi-hero, but modern, worldly women)
Me, I read that as closet. I personally suspect that in some time, possibly years, she’ll regret letting Dina ninja her.
This didn’t end well in Lethal Weapon either
Turn around, bright eye–uh I mean, Amazi-Girl!
This is Becky’s chance. Just turn off the engine and throw the keys out of the window. Turning off the ignition won’t lock steering unless she turns it too far. Also, one good kick from AG would knock Fundie back far enough that he might fall out if the car.
Most automatic cars won’t let you turn them all the way off when they’re in gear, and you can’t shift to park at speed. Which is fine…just turn it to ‘battery only’ mode and snap the key off. Bonus points if you throw it into neutral first, and “maybe nobody dies” points if you throw it into neutral AND steer it safely.
Too bad they’re not in a 98 Stratus. You can turn one of those off in gear, if you never bothered to take it in after the recall on the ignition switch.
Happy Halloween, everybody!
Ross, get ready for several weeks in the recovery wing.
Wait, who’s driving the car?
Jesus is.
Ooooh rifle in close combat… should have brought a pistol. Once Amazi-Girl engages, he’s going to hit everything but her.
Unless he has a level or two of zealot bad ass.
I wouldn’t even want a pistol at that range. A knife or baton are far more consistently effective. I mean, the dude is clearly one of those “Gun as a power talisman” nuts, but every situation he’s been in so far he’d have been better off with a knife or a baseball bat. He really needs to think his rabid criminal zealotry through better.
OH FUCK SHES GONNA DIE AGAIN
When did she die last?
“death of amazi-girl”, it was a guest strip* illustrating one of danny’s nightmares after getting a mild case of food poisoning from a sub at galasso’s pizza (and subs).
*note: i am being facetious, that isn’t actually a thing. yet, i guess. if someone wants to do the thing, by all means help yourself to the prompt.
You might be thinking of Ruth.
I am seeing a distinct lack of hands on steering wheels in that last panel.
I can’t see how any foot can be on the gas pedal.
Cruise control.
‘Aw c’mon, not again’?
That’s pretty… mild, as far as reactions about your dad taking his hands off the wheel of a car and going to shoot a would-be rescuer.
Yeah, I’m really confused by Becky’s reaction here. It doesn’t seem to fit the situation at all.
“Aw come on, Dad, not the gun AGAIN! I told you about that just fie minutes ago!” Is how I assume the thought process is working.
Damn you Willis!!
“Does 911 come in through the roof?”tm Is now burned into my brain.
Anytime I’m roleplaying and someone botches a simple thinking test I will see this strip in my mind.
Dorothy is Amazi-Girl, confirmed.
Amazi-girl is about to enter bullet hell.
She is not a Toehou fan.
(so very sorry, I am a sinner)
Deaf to all but the Becky.
Wait, wait. Embodiement of scarlet driver.
Nice
Grr, that pun, danmaku me come over there
Perfect Becky blossoms !
Perfect position for a kick.
Toedad didn’t even end the call.
I would be thoroughly not surprised if he didn’t know how.
“How do these newfangled phones work? WHERE’S THE BUTTONS?”
“How do you put the receiver back on the hook to hang up when the WHOLE THING IS JUST ONE THING?”
No, no, you take the earpiece off the hook, and hold the mouthpiece up to your gob, and say: “Hello operator, can you please connect me to the Johnson residence? Thank you.”
WHO IS DRIVING
Why didn’t he just shoot the roof of the car ? How much more stupid is this guy?
uh, the rifle seems too long to put it vertically in the car AND being able to shoot it properly.
The shortest model of Ruger 1 is 36.5″ long. Very, very awkward to aim inside a car.
don’t think he actually could do that with such a long-barreled gun. Had he just slammed on the breaks, however, amazi-girl would’ve been thrown off the car unless she had a death grip on that suction cup.
That would damage His Property. Of course, if the car starts veering off his chosen course for it, all bets are off. He’d probably crash it for spite.
I am.
Stomp on the accelerator and see what happens.
BEAR IS DRIVING
JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL!
Where should he take it?
..she has equipment for sticking on a car? nice.
also..
is.. no one driving now?
that won’t end well.. Hello 2 corpses (Becky having used her seat belt)
or 1 very dead seat belt user and two “miracle you survived” people
Lessee… Ross’s foot isn’t on the pedal anymore, so he’s slowing down. Half of him is stuck out the window. In the event of a crash, Amber will be thrown off the roof and clear of the wreckage. A few weeks in the hospital for her. A few weeks in the hospital for Becky, too, as she’s in the safest position (seatbelt, better deceleration due to the crumple zone of the car). Ross, however, stands to be bisected by the frame of the car.
“Ross, however, stands to be bisected by the frame of the car.”
A girl can dream, can’t she?
Amazi-girl is using a suction cup with one hand, and the rope grapple-hooked under the car with the other arm to stay on the car. : )
I’m worried about Amazigirl but Toedad is about to land himself in 20 to life. WTF.
He’s already doing twenty to life for kidnapping.
Also being caught on recording saying he’d send her friends to Hell right after he nearly killed Amber.
Always assuming he survives.
How does this even work? No one is steering, and I’m pretty sure no one is operating the pedals. Did he put it on cruise control so it’d keep going while he was climbing out the window with his gun? Hey, butthole, cruise control isn’t autopilot!
That DOES sound like the kind of thing he might do ಠ_ಠ
Cruise control is an autopilot. It’s just not a very good one.
Well, the car would keep going even if he didn’t put it on cruise. At least coast for awhile. Which would be better than using cruise control.
For values of “better” that are still pretty bad. At least you’ll have slowed down somewhat before crashing.
Well I think a car crash might just be preferable over getting shot in the back.
And since Becky wears a seatbelt she might have chances to only get a couple of scratches, while her father miracuously gets squashed by the car.
well
amazi-girl is prepared for everything isn’t she?
so too is ross, though…practicing driving with his knees while (aiming?) and firing his weapon from extremely close range.
or he’s going to use it as a bludgeon. probably a better idea. you know, for the extremely zealous religious fundamental kidnapping sort.
hand on trigger, so probably not.
If Im on the roof, and youre out the window, and she’s looking at me…
Then who is driving the car?
Jesus apparently.
Boy am I glad that he’s got a gun out there and I’m in here and I’m Amazi-girl and he’s got a gun out here and wait, I just remembered, We’re out here. But what I wanna know is. Who is toe dad?
Watch Amazi-Girl swooce right in.
You ran way. You’re gay. BUT OOOOH THAT DARN CELLPHONE! YOU PROBABLY PAY POCKET MINECRAFT ON IT! THE DEVIL’S GAME!
When he said he would send her friends to hell, he really just meant he would stick their characters in the middle of the nether for a bit as punishment.
Open the driver-side door. Kick him out. Get control of the car. Hope he gets stubbed by oncoming traffic.
HAH, the joke is his head looks like a toe.
BUT HOW DID SHE GET THE ROPE AGAIN
You have to read between the panels because there isn’t room for everything. We see Amazigirl removing something from her glove compartment possibly using her mouth. We don’the see what it is, but subsequently she has suction cup. Reasonable inference – she took the suction cup from her glove pocket, probably in a collapsed state. Ross engages in gyrations that throw Amazigirl onto the hood of the car following. We see her hit the windshield of the car in what is probably one of the least dangerous configurations even after being thrown hard enough to reach the hood. Meanwhile we see the suction cup fastened on the hood towards the front. Reasonable inference – she used the suction cup to slow her collision and partially control how she hit the windshield, making what could have been fatal survivable. We see Amazigirl leap for the other car. We infer that she uses the suction cup to anchor her in place while she retrieves the rope and grapple. And then heads for the roof, using the suction cup to hold her in place while she contacts Becky. Sal and Joyce are not yet on the scene so we infer that hijinks are about to get wackier. But this is only an inference and so could be wrong Things could end abruptly. There could be curve up ahead with a manure truck parked on the side. A manure truck that Ross flies over on his way to collide with the tree behind it.
Anyway, the point is that if Willis showed everything then Becky would still be being kidnapped next year. And so he has to trust us to jump to reasonable conclusions based on what he can show.
Now I feel like Amazi-Girl dropped that suction cup and the whole being thrown into a car thing was just so she could go fetch it and complete the rescue.
(I’m talking about Amazi-Girl’s intentions, not the logic of the narrative, when I use the word ‘so’.)
Now, would be a good moment for the lady that helped Amazi-Girl to help out… or for Sal to show up…
She went past Ross’ car. Not sure what she could do, now. (short of being a blockade)
Based off what we’ve seen of her so far I wouldn’t put it past her.
Looked at it, again. Not Maggie (red car). This one is heading towards them. I see headlights. uh-oh…
Every single thing happening in this page is a bad idea.
All you do at this point is just cringe at every dangerous choice someone makes after seeing that teaser of the hospital scene and Willis posted that probably knowing all this. That’s just evil.
God is his co-pilot. Or auto-pilot. Or maybe it’s just that NO ONE IS DRIVING THE CAR!
One of the few times Jesus refused to take the wheel.
Oh god…. If this was real life either Amazi-girl will be shot and possibly run over OR Toedad will be hit by a sign or drive into another car. No matter how this ends it is not going to be hugs and choco. I hope Joyce is ready to save the day on her first time being a badass on a motor bike!
Im guessing everyone is gonna be taken out one by one until its just Joyce and Ross left.
it occurs to me that with Ross halfway out the window, no one has their foot on the gas pedal and the car is going to start slowing down.
Slow down or lose control. If Becky jiggles the wheel, Ross should miss his shot.
I can’t believe Ross would actually kill someone like that.
the two aren’t mutually exclusive. If the car loses control as it’s slowing down it’s gonna be less dangerous than if the car lost control while it was going fast.
After what I’ve seen so far, I can’t believe he hasn’t done it already. Then again, that warning shot he shot on campus has probably come down by now…
He’s a frightened and stupid man. Frightened and stupid men in deep holes have a tendency to keep digging as they can’t see any other way out.
There is just.. WAY too much going on in that last panel.
I’m thinking he’s just about to shoot… then Sal and Joyce are there, pulling the gun away from him.
That’s my bet too.
SEROIUSLY!?
(eeeh, decided to leave in the typo. For emphasis?)
Ross has clearly watched one to many action movies.
Worse, he is too low-intelligence to differentiate between movies and reality.
His grasp on reality isn’t very strong to begin with…
Maybe around the college area the speed limit is only 35 mph?
Right?
Right?
25, I’m told by people who have checked the route on Google Maps.
Sorry, that was my mistake. Random832 found the right stretch of road and it’s apparently 55.
I think they’re all on a collision course to wackiness!
You know, that red car has a history of sending people flying. I wonder if Fundie will be it’s next victim. Maybe Christine has a younger cousin.
Somehow Ross wakes up inthe Amazon …
And at this point the 911 operator goes “WTF is happening there?”
Erm… So I just noticed that the poll doesn’t have Amber/Amazi-Girl on it. This isn’t going to end well, is it?
Thats because she’s already too important. Walky, Joyce, Dorothy and Billie also arnt on it.
Also no Toedad. What if I wanted to see more Toedad?
By the way: NO, I DON’T WANT TO SEE MORE TOEDAD.
aw
It doesn’t have Joyce, Walky or Dorothy in it either.
As one of the top 5 most appearing characters, Amber/Amazi Girl doesn’t show up in the poll. And neither do Dorothy, Walky, or Billie
I stand corrected
What exactly is causing the “KNOCK KNOCK” sound there, I wonder?
Amazi-girl knocking on the car window? Why is this a question?
I thought so, but second-guessed it because – why?
Now looking it seems pretty clear from the orange lines around her hand. But what is she knocking for? Is it just to get Becky’s attention? If so, just because or does she actually need Becky to pay attention to her as part of her plan? Or is she planning to break the window? To get Becky to roll it down so that she can come in?
…mostly I’m just wondering why she isn’t making attention to the drivers side of the car where, last she knew, the crazy man with a gun was located.
I’m thinking she may break the window, because she’s strapped off the door from what I can see
She wants Becky to brace herself as she’s about to do something aggravating, high-SFX and generally disabling to the car.
Amazi-Girl is knocking
Amazi-Girl is the one who knocks.
Who’s there?
Hey, Becky called her Dorothy, not Dottie!
JESUS TAKE oh never mind i need to post earlier
Hoping Toedad’s chunky ass just falls off the edge of the car door, the gun goes off in the air and alerts passing patrolmen, Amazi-girl wangles into the driver’s seat and everyone celebrates Becky’s return with a rousing game of spin the bottle SHUT UP I CAN DREAM.
I think Toedad is taking “God is my co-pilot” a little too seriously.
I find that punchline much funnier than I think I should….
Having a cell phone is considered defiance. To me that says “I have put myself so high in my beliefs that my word is literally law.” He says he was “slack” in his duties. I think the opposite is true. I think his wife chafed under his “rule” as he saw it and left. I don’t know about the size of the McIntire family but a disturbing amount of his thought processes seem to line up with the Quiverfull movement, where women are but a vessel to breed from. The fact is, I have struggled with faith as a whole for a long time. All the absolutes that the real world fails to fit into, it makes me hate the Toedad thought process all the more. Geez, Butts Disease, you’re good at dredging up old hates from wells thought dry.
Becky’s mother died of cancer a few years ago.
Sorry, been a while.
Ross said she died ‘last year’, and it was Dana’s mom who had breast cancer. Cause of death for Becky’s mom hasn’t been revealed AFAIK, though Willis said it’d ‘probably come up in the strip’. (Which sounds to my suspicious mind like one of his deliberate understatements, but who knows.) (Also there’s a Joyce quote that’s bugging me and wouldn’t mind seeing where Willis confirmed it.)
Maybe she got to know Joe’s father.
Aw shit. This is gonna get more sordid, ain’t it.
this would be a good opportunity for becky to reach over and take the keys out of the ignition, actually.
unless that’d be super dangerous, i guess. i don’t actually drive so there might be nuances of car operation i’m missing here.
itd be better for her to brake and park the car but id be surprised if she has any idea how to do that
If it’s an automatic, you generally can’t take the keys out while it’s in gear. Regardless of manual or automatic your best option is probably to pop it into neutral before doing whatever you do, but I’d bet Becky wouldn’t know much-anything about that.
So predictions for the next storyline when Amber’s in the hospital?
Is Blaine still there?
Who visits her?
Is her secret identity as Amazi-girl blown? Do the cops come after the illegal vigilante?
People who are not physically healthy are prone to being snippy and angry. Will it put further strain on her relationship with Danny?
Honestly, the cops should go after AmaziGirl, if only to get her psych help or something. Becky was much, much safer before AG got involved. She’s now endangered herself, Becky, bydrivers (like bystanders only behind the wheel), and, though few will shed a tear over this, Toedad.
Becky is perfectly safe. She has Amazigirl and a concerned father looking out for her.
What makes you so sure that it’s Amber in the hospital?
Over the last days we would have assumed that
parrotchick to be an ex-Amber, if we hadn’t Willis’ “Nobody dies”.However in this strip she has resurrected from an almost sure death (Oct 28), and has become The New Amazi-Girl, who announces herself like in a comic-book! (but unlike Lucy, without the question-mark!)
I’m not really that sure, but since Amber’s already suffered one injury and currently looks like she might be on the receiving end of a non-fatal shotgun wound, I thought it was a good guess. I actually predict multiple people will end up hospitalised, to be fair.
Mostly I was kinda sick of thinking about this storyline and wanted to encourage wild mass guessing about the next one.
Well, it’s possible this may not end well…in some respects.
At this rate, though, Toedad will be Toejam within a few more strips.
“How do you do that?”
Dr. Doom: “Do what?”
“Talk in all caps like that?”
Dr. Doom: “Silence, minion.”
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x176/Azimerthemad/silenceminion_zpsbcaeoqaz.png
Most cars won’t let you take the key out of the ignition, it’s locked in. Some cars do and they will keep running .
I could swear I pressed the reply button. It was a reply to neeks.
its pretty fucked up that someone can literally prevent someone from having any way of contacting the outside world and not realize how abusive that is
Let’s hope Amazi-Girl’s skull has the power to stop bullets.
Past the first two panels, this feels REALLY off. Like, it starts off following the tone and character behaviors that they’ve had for the rest of the arc, but then Becky calls Ross’s attention to Amber’s presence on the roof even though she’d realized not to when she saw Amber following the car. Then when Ross starts climbing out the window after Amber, Becky doesn’t seem to be taking it very seriously, never mind that he’s starting an armed confrontation with someone she believes is a 911 responder, making even more dangerous than the last time he started threatening people even if not for the fact that he’s STOPPED DRIVING THE STILL-MOVING CAR.
Meanwhile Amber is knocking on the window, which would’ve gotten Ross’s attention if she didn’t already have it, and it’s not at all clear what she’s trying to do.
I’m sure Willis has reasons for taking the confrontation in this direction, but still, the way things are going in these particular moments seems to derail a lot of the tone and character behavior that this story arc has been solid on otherwise.
i mean i doubt theres any way ross wouldnt have noticed that there ws someone on the roof
A real person would be surprised by the sound of someone on the roof and remark on it, irrespective of the situation.
I read panel 3 as being Ross speaking, which makes things make a little more sense, though I admit the ‘Whoa!’ sounds a bit more like Becky.
Same for me! It was Becky who seemed to have good knowledge what happens when you bring a rifle to school grounds, not Ross.
Ross is the one not knowing what happens when you call 911 – he acts as he believes helicopters where flying in.
what happened to the old shot up to bump in the roof from inside the car?? is he going out of the car to fight on top of it with the interloper?? is there a tunnel some few hundred yards ahead?? who’s riding on a cloud of dust in the horizon?? see next strip, next day!!
So, this is the part where AwesomeCarDriverLady drives up beside Toedad’s car and nudges it sideways with the front of hers, sending him falling out the window, while Amazi-girl is fine because suction cups, and then Becky takes the wheel, right?
I doubt becky ever had any chance to even be in the pilot seat.
I doubt Becky was ever supposed to get a driver’s license. Deciding where she could go and then driving her there would have been her headship’s prerogative if she hadn’t dived headlong into sinful worldly blargle blargle.
This looks really bad, but maybe Becky will grab the wheel and kick her dad in the nuts for good measure. He can’t see it coming right now, so she could probably get away with it.
I agree that the behavior in these panels have taken a diff. direction than the way things were going.
Why bother to tell Becky to hang on, she has obviously been doing that?
Why didn’t AG just go thru Toedad’s window and not screw around with her butt to him? She has the ropes positioned to brace her as she swings down into his window-but too late now.
She is not in a good position to kick back at him- just bring her ankles down flat and pin the rifle temporarily, maybe.
But, he sure as Hell can swat her off the top of the car with his rifle.
Loved the ‘does 911 come in thru the roof now’.
Crash imminent…….10, 9, 8, 7
A cellphone too! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?
So I guess when Sarah told Becky about the night Joyce was drugged, she left out the part about Amazi-Girl showing up, because Sarah thinks AG is a nutcase.
Ooh, good call.
To be fair, I think Sarah and Amber both agree with that sentiment.
Yeah, Amber agreeing is indeed canon.
God is now officially Ross’ co-pilot. He’s not only psycho, he’s stupid. How in hell does he propose to cock that single shot peashooter anyway, much less aim? I think they’re about to be sideswiped by a truck going in the other direction and Ross will be a shitstain on the grille of a Peterbilt.
A Ruger 1 cocks itself when you close the breech.
No, I don’t admire Big Toe Daddy for his gun safety habits.
God’s not gonna copilot for that crazy guy.
Maybe the Old Testament God?
*oh look there’s a car in the other lane just to remind us about oncoming traffic*
Old Testament God is wondering why Toedad hadn’t already stoned Becky to death.
I bet the cops are very concerned and, hearing Ross, is currently tracking the cell phone since he never TURNED IT OFF
At best, they might get a radius the car is in. Eventually. 911 calls work best from a land line. The lack of proper 911 Cel-phone tracking is a major issue.
Old information. All cell phones these days are equipped with GPS that can be accessed by LEO 24/7 even with the phone turned off. That’s the reason your phone battery dies in a couple of days even when you turn off the phone. The ostensible reason is to track 911 calls even if they hang up, but they can also use this to find out who was in an area at a certain time of day to find possible suspects for crimes. Say someone gets killed, they check the GPS records and find out there were 2 cell phones in the same vicinity, the victim’s and Joe Shmoe, Joe just became the prime suspect.
I’m not sure how recently things have changed, but the source for my information is from about 10 months ago. According to a USA Today article in February, this is a major limitation of cel phones/911 interaction.
Found the USA Today article.
Well a lot of the issues are in the details. And latency until info is available to 911 centers:
In short, your phone’s apps are connected directly to the GPS unit inside the phone. The 911 system relies on getting that information through a relay process.
Also, what you’re talking about is still a radius effect. At best, the signal is pinpointed at the location of the tower it is connecting to.
I hope someone is filming this, because the Mythbusters will have a field day.
Whose foot is on the gas?
Ctrl+F ‘mythbusters’ on last week’s strip.
A lot of commenters have blamed a person called “Cruise Control” to be the one whose foot is on the gas!
Dear god, that car is still moving after the 911 strip?
So THAT’S why Becky hated Dorothy!!!!!
How is the car still moving without his foot on the pedal? Ross isn’t that tall!
Maybe he put a brick on the gas pedal. I’m pretty sure that’s more than just a ticket.
Cars don’t just stop when you take your foot off the gas. They coast and depending on the speed of the car and the incline of the road, they could coast for a while.
Cruise control? Or do you not have that in America? I am more concerned by the fact no-one is currently steering, and the people on the roof/hanging out the windows will be messing up the car’s balance.
That’s a likely theory. I sure hope Becky keeps the vehicle in control.
I would assume momentum.
I predict next comic, the cops come. Or Sal and Joyce.
Behind you, Amazi-Girl. Suction cup his ugly face.
I’m guessing this is just another moment of levity before they crash. Amber’s not going to be shot here, but there’s no way she actually succeeds in saving Becky.
I bet you’re fun at parties.
Why else would Joyce be running in a future strip if Toedad hadn’t stopped?
It makes no narrative sense if Amazi-Girl is the one who saves the day. Why even show Joyce and Sal speeding after them if that’s the case?
My guess it’s so that Sal can save Amazigirl at the last minute or vice versa or maybe they just team up. But I’m just guessing.
It looks like the hook is under Becky’s door. Dunno how she (AG) brought it with her, when leaping. I couldn’t figure the path of the rope, going from the back of the car, and making a sharp right at Becky’s door…ohhh, til I saw the hook. Still can’t figure the game-plan, though.
Use off-axis force (sideways via the grappler) to flip the car onto its roof.
So that situation of Ross looming over Amazi-girl with a gun is very dire, but I’m also concerned, if Ross is gun-looming who is driving???
That’s NOT how “Jesus take the wheel” works!!!
Is that red car alongside and slightly ahead of ToeDad’s car in panel #3 the same red car that Amazi-Girl jumped off of? Don’t tell me that after everything else already she was going to try to get in front of him to slow him up or stop him!!
She’s also in a perfect position to slow up and let her car drift back into ToeDad, causing him to drop the rifle.
Red car is facing the wrong way, so I’d guess it is oncoming traffic.
I am pleased to note that the 911 call is still connected. Hopefully cops will be here soon. Although in Toedad’s current state I’m not sure the presence of cops will actually help much, he seems too far gone to care about cops.
He’s a lunatic. At this rate, I hope he’ll be shot in the head by force.
That’s not actually a cure for mental illness.
Those lunatics that persist in their lunacy after being shot in the head are a distinct minority.
That’s a permanent cure for mental illness…. and a lot of other things.
Ross, may I point out to you that the name of the comic is Dumbing of Age, not Dumbasses Who Should Know Better. Though you do seem to need some consequence driven education, just like the younger generation.
Such as, stay inside the car with both hands on the wheel you soon to be prison bongo.
…of COURSE she isn’t allowed to have a cellphone. so he was always an abusive asshole on top of the other bullshit
man I hope to hell the storyline after this has some happy shit in it
I’m confused. Are you equating abusive asshole with withholding a cell phone? That’s the line for you?
It’s abusive because he wants to control who Becky is allowed to communicate with.
That’s been established from when Becky first showed up and was the basis for her needing Dina’s. It’s shitty but perfectly in keeping with the rest of the parenting ways from their community.
Duuuuh
Who’s driving ?
Whoever is driving in all of Ross’s favorite TV shows and movies when the protagonist does this.
“Hang tight.” Because you’re going to get her out? AG, there’s no way out on that side unless you let go of the rope. If you let go of the rope, you only have one point of attachment to the car. This is like the fable of the monkey and the walnuts.
“Hang tight” because the car is about to do some acrobatics.
We’ve learned two things about Ross. Firstly, he sucks at priorities (stop the call before quizzing her about the ‘phone, maybe?). Secondly, everything he has ever learned about what is possible whilst fighting in a car, he learned from Hollywood… And he’s actually trying to apply it now. Like I’ve said in previous posts – catastrophically low intelligence.
I suspect that Amazi-Girl is planning to somehow flip the car onto its roof. As others have pointed out, this will kill Ross. No-one wants her to have to face that. This is thus an ideal moment for Sal and Joyce to zoom up and for Joyce to ‘yoink’ the gun out of Ross’s hands.
That would definitely kill Ross, it would also most likely kill her too, and has a chance of killing Becky, not to mention the fact that it could easily cause another car accident if a passerby car can’t stop in time. I really doubt that’s her plan.
Who. is. driving. ???.
(There are already 362 comments above that I haven’t yet read, but this is what I came here to say, so I’m saying it. That last panel makes my eyebrows rise above my hair, if you know what I mean…)
Mike is driving through a hastily installed remote control.
Letting go of the steering wheel of a speeding vehicle. I’d be surprised, but we’ve already established that Toedad is a selfish, amoral shit-for-brains.
Not, strictly speaking, amoral. Probably irredeemable, but not strictly speaking amoral.
Yesss, yeeeeeees, put your face in kicking distance from the Amazie-Boots. That’s a VERY GOOD plan. *staples fingers, makes popcorn (which is hard with stapled fingers but you do what you do)*
Wait, I thought popcorn *was* the staple. Henceforth you will be known as the popcorn Bagge.
Well there goes my predictions. All Amazi-Girl needs to do now is deliver a swift kick to Ross’s toenail of a face to knock him out of the car.
Also, Ross doesn’t even let Becky have a phone? I know conservative parents are strict, but that’s pushing it.
If she had a phone, then he couldn’t monitor every aspect of her life for “sin”.
At this point, he’s probably considering keeping her on a leash.
I would assume a cell, actually. Presumably with a bible, a cot, a bucket, and total silence to contemplate her “sins”. Somewhere isolated, no contact. Probably withhold food and water as a means of suppressing resistance.
And then Sal or Joyce catch up snatching the gun from Ross.
OMG DUDE, KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!!!!!!
^actual thought process when I read it.
I keep expecting to see Danny driving drunk the other way,
and Ruth of all people, trying to save him .
Man, that would be so weird,
Im all for bending the rules of physics and reality at least in as it keeping Amazi-Girl from becoming a stain on the road, but this is getting a little too silly…
How so? It’s like, on a bus, if you jump forward you’re not gonna fly to the back. Your body’s going the same speed. You’d just be jumping forward. Same principle.
I understand that. But by that same token, if we assume that Toedad there was going at least 30, 40 mph, that means Amazi-Girl (and all her internal bits) were moving 30-40 when she came to a sudden and really violent stop against another car. She should be full of broken ribs and internal damage, not parkour-ing from one moving car to the next… given how the comic normally rolls, it just feels like this is stretching credibility a bit too much.
I was going to say ludicrous, but silly might also be suitable. I assume that Amber must have a really solid history of martial arts, gymnastics and parkour in her backhistory that isn’t mentioned in her bio.
It’s implied.
Pretty strongly implied – and shown.
“More like Amazi-Squirrel”
Maybe… maybe toedad is the hospital patient… and nobody goes to visit him (let me dream okay)
Nobody but Mike.
Um… exactly HOW did Amaziegirl practice these kind of stunts?
She trained for years to be the best at everything!
Yeah, I get a lot of the martial arts and parkour stuff, but how could she practice car stunts without a) getting seriously hurt and jailed and b) without her piece-of-shit-father knowing about it?
I mean, I’m not complaining about Amaziegirl being amazing, I’m just curious about the road there.
/ObligBatmanReference
Car-hopping’s like parkour, right? Just with the added challenge of an unstable base? Eh, I’m just gonna roll with it.
Has she studied martial arts and parkour? I didn’t know it was even in her backstory.
We got the martial arts thing that Blaine sent her to after the Sal incident, we don’t know she took any lessons in parkour but she certainly has done a lot of study of the subject given her escape from Dorothy and Walky at the library.
Hmm. From memory: Blaine insisted she took self-defence classes in lieu of therapy after the first hostage situation; she told Dorothy she excelled at track & field in high school; there was disappointment in the comments around the library chase that parkour wasn’t taught in CS; Amber taught herself to sew while making the costume. Oh! and she benefits from a low centre of gravity and her bones were rendered super-dense in a lab accident.
That’s everything I can think of in-comic, but her superpower is basically Batman-like levels of training and preparation. Whenever Rule of Cool is in play, of course.
She’s a Cheerleader for goodness sake. She has practiced everything.
Amber was never a cheerleader. You might be thinking of Billie.
Amazi-Girl trained for years to be the best at cheerleading. She just doesn’t do it because fuck that shit. Billie would bust a vein if she knew.
Amazi-Girl can also beat Batman at DDR.
But can she beat the cute eyed version of Batman?
oh that is just unsafe
Good time for the cavalry to arrive: Dina and the police, perhaps. Okay, I really just want to know Dina’s all right😎.
“….and then he hit me, threatened me and my friends and brought out the gun again, all this taking place, as I remind you, when he was kidnapping me and most likely crashing a car with me in it.”
“Yes, that’s a serious list of grievances. Would the ToeShaped so called father please list his accusations against the rad daughter.”
“She had a CELLPHONE.”
“…we may need some extra time for this one. “
I know that you’re trying to lighten the moment with humour. However, I suspect that, if taken alive, Ross will go through the trial in silence except for an attempt to deliver a sermon on the witness stand on the grounds that he “does not recognise this court’s authority over my god-given rights as father”. He’ll go to jail with his head held high, viewing himself as a prisoner of conscience and already planning how to carry on from where he left off when he’s released.
Either way, that’s going to be rough for Joyce, Dina, and Becky and I suspect that Joyce’s parents might try to intervene on the matter, possibly on his behalf (after all he is a good Christian man).
He pointed a gun at their daughter.
I don’t believe any lawyer with a shred of legal savvy would allow Fundie to testify. Getting an all male fundamentalist Christian jury will be impossible, and that would be the only way for there to be even the slimmest hope of getting him acquitted. He’s committed local, state, and federal crimes. The feds will try him first, those sentences don’t allow for parole. Charges will be filed at the state and local level, and those charges will be listed as “pending” to get around any statute of limitations issues. When, and if, he gets out of federal lockup, he’ll walk right into custody on the other charges. District Attorneys love this kind of case. It’s a slam dunk and their conviction record jumps up a little. As for the Browns speaking up for him, he pulled a gun on their daughter. Others in the church may stand behind him (The pastor and his cronies will rally for him if they share his fundamentalist leanings), but I believe the Brown’s love their daughter too much to let that one slide. Of course, his fate will be a passing mention since it’s a sideline to the real story.
I also hope our Bard enjoys reading our wild speculations as much as we enjoy speculating.
I love the fact that despite everything that’s going on, Becky still takes time to definitely remind her father that, yes, she HAS A GIRLFRIEND.
No, no. Joyce’s nickname for Dorothy is “perfect cinnamon roll”. Easy mistake though.
I’m glad ToeDad at least took the time to wonder if emergency services would actually come through the roof of a moving car. I mean, he hasn’t taken the time to consider anything else, so this feels like something of a victory.
I think that line is Becky’s.
Ah, so it is. Or perhaps it’s the car’s line…
Yeah, it’s not bombastic enough to be butthole dad’s.
“Toedad, I am here to beat you up for breaking ALL THE TRAFFIC LAWS.” ohandsomeotherstuff
Becky. Becky dear, please turn around and take hold of the wheel or something. BECKY PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TURN AROUND. YOU TOO, AMAZI-GIRL. I DO NOT KNOW HOW SERIOUSLY I AM SUPPOSED TO TAKE THIS ACTION SEQUENCE so my level of concern is fluctuating IT IS VERY EXCITING TODAY!
Also, glad to see Ross didn’t have the smarts to end the call. +14 seconds of evidence and counting.
BECKY TAKE THE FUCKING WHEEL FOR GOD’S SAKE!!! How’s this *not* going to end with all them dead?????
Dumbing of Age: Fury Road!
And now he is outside the car. Time for Sal and Joyce to show up.
Seriously. He knows the best thing that can happen is for Amazi-girl to beat him up, right? Before Joyce shows up and vents her rage all over him, while Sal holds him down.
I doubt that he’s thinking that far ahead. Right now, the only thing in his head is: “Kill the demon-spawn on the roof of my car before she defiles my daughter.”
I really hope that Becky gets a GoFundMe page or something out of this.
And also that she, y’know, survives.
Odds are if Toedad dies, she inherits the estate (doesn’t sound right to call it that when he seems like such a redneck degenerate).
If he gets arrested, then at least Becky can have somebody drive her home so she can get her clothes & stuff.
If he’s incapacitated for a long time, then maybe she’ll be granted power of attorney and have access to his money.
I guess this all depends on whether or not she has any siblings too. Was that ever mentioned?
I would love to think there’s an estate for her to inherit, but his asshole level, Walmart pants and old, busted car make me think otherwise. (I went back to check whether he might have damaged the bumper while ‘retrieving’ his car from the impound, but we didn’t get a shot of it before it was towed – the damaged rear end has been prominent enough that I was wondering whether it’s a clue to Ross’ mental state, lack of funds, prior lawbreaking or any/all of the above.)
He put her into Anderson, so some money seems to be available!
Well brand new those rifles start at a grand and most people tend to buy rifles based around what they can afford so hes probably got more stuff as well
I mean ruger no 1 rifles like what Toedad is using, not rifles in general
Considering his mental state, I’d say there’s at least 3 years of food and water hoarded somewhere. That and the survival gear should pay for at least a bachelor’s degree. Add a survival cabin in the woods and Becky can make a nice start in life.
I wonder what he picked for his survivalist tactical name?
Can you will an estate to “my daughter’s husband?”
Wait? What happened to Car-girl, Amazi-girl’s new Sidekick?!
Wait wait wait, where’s the good guy with the gun to sort this situation out?
Disarmed by the people that fear his gun will jump out of the holster and run down the street killing people all by itself.
I’m sooo hoping that rifle has some kick to it! Normally when standing on solid ground you can brace yourself. Also in movies/tv they are firing forwards or backwards braced by the window frame of the doors and not firing sideways.
This may result in a interesting coming to Jesus meeting.. “Uh Sir, he just self purged the gene pool.”
AND who has the cell phone now?
It’s a .22. Their kick is pretty mild.
It’s a .223, which is a completely different beast. Similar bullet diameter, but a much larger cartridge packing a lot more powder and correspondingly more kick.
But still, it’s not like it’s a 12 gauge or something.
Correction noted. I’ve never used a .223, so I’d probably have assumed it wasn’t much different from a .22 even if I hadn’t misremembered which calibre the gun used.
Time for Joyce and Sal to make their appearance. As a plot device, they are installed and ready for use.
Either Toedad is about to get kicked in the face (hopefully falling out of the car and getting brain damage from the impact), or Amazi-Girl is about to get shot in the Amazi-Ass. I really hope it’s the first option.
So you’re telling me Joyce doesn’t call Dorothy ‘Amazi-Girl’? Nice dream crushing, Willis.
What? Perfect cinnamon roll isn’t good enough for you?
This story line is the bomb!!!
Becky’s dad is really f..ked up in the head. And please dont let Sal have it right that something terrible happens to Amazi-Girl/Amber.
Whatup possible can go wrong sitting on a car driving at high speed with the owner out of the window with a rifle.
Dammit is it sunday already 🙂
next scene, car has managed to drive off of the road because toe dad let go of the wheel and, given his size, has likely nudged the steering wheel too much.
Dominion – Sisters of Mercy – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWvOHT0zfXY
WHO’S DRIVING THE CAR?
The same guy who drives the protagonists’ cars in action/adventure movies when they do the same thing as Ross is doing here.
It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.
Riders of the Storm — The Doors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS-af9Q-zvQ – Driving with Jim
This scene illustrates pretty well both the similarity and difference between father and daughter, their spontaneity and tendency to act before thinking.
But while Becky uses it to cheer on Amazi-Girl (while forgetting that the car is no longer being controlled by her father), Ross uses it to try to kill someone (while ALSO forgetting that the car is no longer being controlled)
I wonder if there are any low overpasses ahead. I can picture a Speed-like scenario where a standing Ross gets his toe-shaped head chopped off while Amazi-Girl ducks.
And then people will be all like “Why is there a giant, chopped-off toe lying on the road? And WHY DOES IT HAVE A FACE?”
I’m starting to wonder if Mike’s gonna save the day at all…
So we can add “abusing Cruise Control” to the list of offenses and crimes.
However I never really considered that an actual self-driving car could enable its “passengers” to have “super hero fights” on the roof while still in motion. This may be the first truely negative thing I’ve come across for the technology.
I don’t think you understand what “negative” means
Jesus, take the wheel! (again)
Well, this isn’t going to go well – he does not strike me as a nimble giant toe.
And nothing hurt like stumbling your big toe against something hard like a furniture. Or an oncoming car.
Amazi-Amber reminds me of Sonic the Hedgehog here, for some reason. Maybe it’s the smooth hero-saves-the-day and never-loses vibe (though it’s a stark contrast to the obvious harsh reality about to shoot her from behind.)
It seems Toe is more concerned about the phone than who Becky called. Granted he may not have seen the number she dialed when he spotted the phone, but if he doesn’t at least suspect she called 911, he’s as much a dumbf*** as he is vile.
His “what have you done?” might imply he does, but it’s not totally clear yet.
His refusal to let Becky even have a phone, after everything we’ve seen so far, is yet another indicator of what Becky endured before college. Having a cell phone opens up the possibility of reaching out for help and resources, without his knowledge. In other words, it can be a gateway to independence. To refuse Becky that was yet another way to enforce control and keep her trapped. If that’s true, than Toe likely knows the legal ramifications of his actions, should they be reported.
I have no idea how some fundamentalists view technology and won’t pretend to know or understand. Considering the abusive nature of the Toe however, it comes down to power and control.
Well, the good news is that Ross will have earned himself a planetary restraining order by the time he is released from jail (we all remember that Australia’s non-aboriginal population was there because of a continental restraining order).
The bad news is that we are still in need of enough survivors apart from Ross himself to get him into jail in the first place.
And frankly, I have no idea how to make him keep the world’s laws when he considers himself to be enacting God’s.
Have God strike him with lightning thus causing him permanent nerve damage so he can’t move well.
well
that car is going to crash
She’s a was.
At this point, I just want to repeatedly punch Ross in the face and yell “STOP BEING A COMPLETELY FUCKING STUPID FUCKING ASSHOLE!” until he stops being a completely fucking stupid fucking asshole. Or dies. From face-punching.
gdamn loving this webcomic.
Jesus built my hotrod
OK, couldn’t resist. If AG is going to do the speaking-in-fonts thing, she needs a logo to go with it!
Wonderfun! I’d buy that comic!
I’m surprised Willis used a slightly less impressive logo than two years ago.
http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=1930
amazi-girl, batman in disguise.
Hey, Amber is not alone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJQi7yYhVVA