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✪ Jonathan H. Gray says: “Beware the Tide Pods of March” ✪ @jongraywb.bsky.social ⋅ 6h
BNO News @bnonews.com ⋅ 7h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com ⋅ 1d
trash panzer @panzertron.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
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Kekeflipnote
“You remind me of the babe.”
“What babe?”
“The babe with the power.”
“What power?”
“The power over me.”
“…DELETED”
Who do?
You do!
Do what?<3
REMIND ME OF THE BABE!
Dance, magic, dance!
What babe?
The babe with the power.
What power?
It ain’t me babe
… Yup, you lost me
Watch the movie Labyrinth and witness the glory of the Bowie!Package.
AH SAW MAH BAY-BEH
CRYIN’ HARD AS BABE COULD CRY
What could I do?
My baby’s fun had gone
And left my bay-beh bluuuuuuue
Noboooody knew
What kind of magic spell to use!
Smack that baby! Make him pee!
It’s been a while. A long while. I haven’t seen a lot of those classic movies since they were current movies
Witness, and enjoy.
If they’d gone that way, it’d have lead straight to Ryan!
“Ow! She bit me!”
“Well what’d you expect velociraptors to do?”
Disembowel me with a slash from the claw on its toe?
* Joyce, Walky, Dorothy, Amazi-Girl, Danny, Sarah, Becky, Dina, Mike, Ethan, Ruth and Billie all pile up on Sal’s bed.
“Should you need us…”
You have no power over me.
Grampaw feel obliged to barge in and ‘correct’ everyone on the source of this bit of talk
Huh. Neato!
She really ought to make the connection now.
Yeah, this is very reminiscent of that other comic
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/03-when-god-closes-the-door/roof-top/
After playing through Life is Strange, both that comic and this one seem really bizarre (at risk of spoilers, part of the plot involves accidentally unlocked roof doors).
Honestly, it’s like the Force is staring her straight in the face.
if the this story arc ended right here, I’d feel it be satisfactory.
UNINSTALL!
*Five minutes later as trouble goes down*
Crap, should have left that on there…
Oh, wait, there it is on the app store. Haha, it has two stars…
Ah, Chekhov’s phone app!
Nice to see them on speaking level, and considering Marcie isn’t speaking (tee hee) to Sal right now she has no choice but to find someone resembling a friend
Quick, someone resemble at a friend!
Or just assemble a friend. The best ones are are the ones you make yourself. What?
I think Carla would be the one to talk to about “making” friends. Especially if someone brought some parts. Mechanical parts, Carla isn’t Dr. Frankenstein.
I resemble a friend. I’m not ACTUALLY a friend, generally, but I do resemble one so I’m told… xD
“Hello… Put me together… And I will be your friend…”
An 80% friend. Some machining required.
Aw, Sal <3
“UNINSTALL!’ is my new favorite sound effect.
BALEETED
Delorted! [distorted beeping noise]
DACHEATED
“Police Quest”?
… del Taco?
Demolition Man
DECAFFEINATED
I was just about to make that comment.
Mine is still “EXTERMINATE!”
Eh, I’m still partial to *the sound of a dinosaur’s brain stem flapping in the wind*.
I’m really liking how this grudging respect thing is developing. It’s almost an approximation of healthy!
If only AMBER could act like this around Sal.
or with Danny.
*plays ELO’s “Telephone Line” on the hacked Muzak*
Welcome to the Hall of Fame!
I have a message from another crime.
Where Darkness~ and Light~ are one.
You’re looking good–just like a snake in the grass…
A-G & Sal are both living in twilight.
I’ve just started watching Brooklyn Nine Nine, and I’m begining to think that Rosa Diaz is a grown-up Sal. Leather jacket, motorcycle, went to Catholic school, tough as nails and scary as hell, nice person deep down.
Wrong accent and ethnicity, of course, but it’s been established that Rosa lies about her past and may not even be using her real name, so maybe she suppressed the accent and passed off her “caramelness” as Hispanic.
Emily Goldfinch, bruh.
Standing on top of buildings with the wind blowing your cape is one of the best ways to look badass.
You just need a dramatic lightning storm in the background.
Then you get soaking wet. No thanks.
Just put it really far in the background.
Or be a badass who doesn’t mind getting a little wet. Batman’s outfit probably makes rain a lot easier to tolerate; the mask alone wards off waterlogged eyebrows.
We already had this in 2013:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/blog/some-animated-ad-banners/
AG is much better with her cape than Director Krennic.
I know, right? Was it a deliberate contrast to Vader, like his colour scheme?
I suddenly ship it with the force of a thousand suns.
Fuck.
been shippin’ it since day 1, willisverses have had a severe lack of hatefuckin’ since shortpacked ended.
I think Ruth and Billie just squawked in protest.
Also I seem to recall a ‘I am mad at you’ fuck between Sal/Jason.
That was before the end of Shortpacked!
Fair enough!
Was that “Fuck” as an expression of exasperation at how you ship them…
…or “Fuck” as in a imperative statement direct at the two characters?
Congratulations on your victory. Your internets is in the mail.
Yes!
hey, you come out of me
so this is a good thing right? Now that Amazigirl is coming to terms with Sal, Amber should not be that far behind.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAno.
Hey, it’s a step.
Looking at where they are that first one is a doozey.
Maybe, maybe not. I think it depends how bad the dissociation has gotten.
I would humbly yet under no specific terms add there are healthy forms of dissociation, and there is what Amber/Amazi-girl are forcibly doing to their brain.
And at the risk of beating a dead horse, Amber does not suffer from clinical dissociation. The confusion is that she does engage in a willfull “dissociation” and it *is* a way to deal with emotional problems AND it is a responce to past trauma. The essentual difference is that instead of being something that involentarily happens to her, it’s something she has to actively work at. Everything considered, she makes it work surprisingly well. But Amber and Amazigirl are not really seperate people however comforting it is to Amber to pretend otherwise.
It’s unclear.Several commentators with experience have spoken to how familiar it seems.
There have been times when the switch to Amazi-Girl seemed instant and not deliberate – the recent times when Amber has come across Sal especially. What does seem clear is that whatever level of “dissociation” she does have it appears to be increasing. It’s much less pretense than it was at first. Her reactions are different – again most obviously, A-G doesn’t have the panic reaction to Sal that Amber’s shown again and again.
I’m not a psychiatrist and thus not qualified to diagnose her. Even if I was, it would be malpractice to diagnose her without actually examining her.
It’s worth remembering that Amber/AG is partially there so that Willis can have fun writing about a superhero? I mean, I know the nerd way is to analyse the crap out of fictional characters, but I seriously feel like people take the Ambernalysis a few steps beyond the level on which she is actually written.
Like, people don’t recognize her because she wears a mask and messes up her hair. This is a foolproof disguise in this world. It had duped really clever, observant people who know her well, and also Danny.
I would be surprised if Amber constitutes a careful examination of the concept of personality disassociation. It would kinda get in the way of having fun with AG beating up muggers.
Harsh reality getting in the way of cool, familiar tropes sounds like a pretty good descriptor of Dumbing of Age. Hell, Harsh Reality Getting in the Way of Cool, Familiar Tropes (HRGitWoCFT) would be a better NAME than Dumbing of Age.
AG beating up people has gotten substantially less fun lately, though, as her mental illnesses get worse and worse.
She also wears high boots so she’s taller, changes her voice, and carries herself more confidently. AG’s disguise isn’t too bad.
There’s definitely some of that. And that’s why I expect that however the AG plot resolves, we’ll still have an AmaziGirl for Willis to play superhero with.
That said, he’s definitely playing with trauma and disassociation as well. We’re really pretty far away from “having fun with AG beating up muggers” and have been ever since she beat Blaine into the ground.
I think other people have said it before, but it’s a disassociative as Batman & Bruce. At least in B:TAS, Bruce talks to Alfred in his Batman voice when discussing Batman Business & it feels natural.
My brain immediately made the Adam West’s Batman POW! sound effect when I read “UNINSTALL!” XD
The locator app is gone, but there’s still FourSquare. Amazi-Girl is the Mayor of that balcony.
Headcanon!
Once you hear it, you cannot in hear it!
I was watching some old episodes a few weeks ago, and in one episode (The Curse of Tut, I think) Batman punches a dude and the ‘sound effect’ that goes on screen is, I shit you not, “QUNCKKK!”
Maybe that henchman was part duck?
…I tried rereading it for that. Instead I got “Now look at this net!”
I can’t help but notice Sal looks kind of sad when she says AG surprises her. I wonder what that’s about.
Could be recognition that AG is trying to do better, and knowledge that that’ll be a long and painful road.
I’m not sure what’s kicking around in Sal’s head here – could be she’s missing Marcie and talking about last night reminded her of it, or she’s feeling bad about using the app, or heck maybe she’s sad for AG because of what you’ve suggested. It could also be some sort of ‘I don’t deserve that kind of power because I am reckless/angry/an idiot’ etc. type thing.
There’s a lot of things I can see this being, but I can’t quite pin down anything on her here.
I think she’s realizing that she misjudged AG a bit. I mean, justifiably, because AG was far from her best around Sal, but Sal knows maybe better than anybody in the cast how pesky emotions can make a person be less than the best possible version of themselves.
That’s another potential explanation. She’s definitely seeing more than the awful side of AG she’s seen before.
Sal, I think it’s time to start dressing for fall.
I’m really liking that these two are becoming partners.
It’s only October 4th, roughly, in universe. Probably not THAT cold yet.
You mean despite huge load of power she had over you already? In all honesty this is turning out like I thought it would, the only way Amber would get past the scorn and bitterness she has for Sal is if she found a Outlet for it and one way she could have found it is through short term confrontation or this. I wonder if Sal will do the same thing for Amber/Amazi-girl that Marcie did for her all these years.
Reasonably I think this is a better solution, to be honest just like anyone I would have thought seeing the two butt heads would have been…interesting, but I still haft to listen to my more rational side. Guess AG vs Sal will just haft to be a dream match that will never be.
Well, now, grudging respect doesn’t mean they’ll never ever fight again. Especially since Sal still has her issues with AG (escalation, haring off without a plan) and AG still has unresolved issues with Sal, whether she’ll admit it or not before shunting them off to Amber. And, y’know, Sal still helped traumatize Amber and AG still stabbed, stalked, and harassed Sal.
I don’t think this will be as chummy a friendship as people seem to suspect. At best, I can see them being friends but still arguing a bunch because they think very differently.
Oh yeah of course, I not saying it’s over I’m just saying I can see where this is going.
I think that was their best endgame, at least as their relationship stands. XD
We still have to get through the inevitable explosion from Sal, who wears gloves even to sleep, upon discovering that AG/Amber gave her the scar on her hand.
Yeaaaaah, methinks her feelings about that will be…a thing.
If nothing else, every superhero team-up has to be accompanied by a superhero face-off.
*sour face*
You are correct of course, it is superhero tradition. But damn if that tradition doesn’t usually make the heroes involved look like overgrown children.
Wow, how many years have I waited for them to be —bff’s!!
Sal, don’t you know that superheroes don’t pose ?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6mB3VDkkVZY
So, from enemy to grudging respect. Next comes friendly rivalry followed by vitriolic best buds if I have my usual “two people antagonistic to each other become friends” formula correct.
To be honest, it would feel super creepy having a locator for a phone that didn’t belong to me. Even with the phone owner’s permission.
The locator app is still there, actually. Sal accidentally uninstalled Pokemon Go.
And so begins her Star of Darkness.
“I want you to have some amount of power over me, and thereby also have some amount of responsibility for me.”
“Hmmmm, let me think. How about NOPE!”
“Ah’m not gonna be responsible for your bullshit, ah’m barely responsible for mah OWN bullshit!”
“I thought it was someone else… you didn’t bring cookies, did you?”
Man, Amazi-girl in the last panel looks so sad. Sal wanted nothing of her convoluted comic-bookie plan to bond with her.
“I’m the one with cookies”
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/tall/
“Walky, keep your cookies in the jar”
Uninstall~ Uninstall~
Ah, nostalgia.
Wait what? When did they catch Ryan? And doesn’t Ryan have her phone?
They caught up to him and got it back, though he end up escaping again
She got it back last night.
The thing is that I suspect that Sal feels ‘having power’ over Amazi-Girl is to be playing the game by Amazi-Girl’s rules, something that she doesn’t want to do. That said… I’m not usre that she doesn’t want to play the game at all.
Now, just out of interest, who else was Amazi-Girl expecting to meet up there?
You could argue Sal’s entire fight with Marcie right now is because on some level, Sal still believes it’s a game worth playing.
That’s a really good perspective. There’s a part of Sal who would LOVE to dress up in spandex and punch evildoers.
There’s a part of her who knows the price is too high.
(Amazi-girl totally hoped for some more rooftop cookies. http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/03-when-god-closes-the-door/roof-top/)
Maybe not quite so much the spandex, but being able to confront people who unrepentantly, knowingly, and intentionally shit on other people and would otherwise get away with it and knock their teeth down their throats?
That has some appeal for her.
I’m still expecting a story arc that concludes with the college news website showing a poor-resolution CCTV image of Amazi-Girl and Sal beating on some thugs in a store. The headline reads “Amazi-Girl and The Spyder Foil Convenience Store Hold-Up!” with another article underneath titled: “Why The World Needs Heroes” by Dorothy Keener.
Hah, that would be poetic. ;p
Oh my goodness.
I can’t decide if I want it or not. Gimme a sec. XD
… and DoA became a superhero comic so gradually we never noticed…
Walky.
Cookies.
The one time Gordon tried to Lojack the Batmobile, Batman sent the gadget back to him in a wrapped box with a pretty bow on it, with a card that read: “LOLOL NICE TRY, JIM.”
“Found a few surveillance bugs, destroyed most of them. Returned expensive one to Gordon. Nothing unexpected.”
She doesn’t need your silly tech, if she’ll want to hunt you down she will use her finely honed instincts of a city predator.
Good, screwed-up people doing good things.
I can’t decide if I want Sal to figure out their connection immediately or never.
Or do we think she may already know?
I don’t think she knows. I don’t think she recognised Amber – as she already met her a few times and during these times it did not seem for her that she remembered anything, like
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/03-when-god-closes-the-door/her-physicality/
I think she did not connect things – yet. Also, she met Amber only a few times, but ran into Amazi-Girl a bunch of times, so I think it’s not surprising for her to
first: not recognise Amber being Amazi-Girl and
second: to not realise that she and Amazi-Girl/Amber share a past.
I think it’s because the assault/raid she did in the past wasn’t traumatising to her – at least not to the extent it was to Amber. She probably just remembers someone attacked her back and it got her into jail (or youth penitentiary? – something like that), but can’t remember the face of said person.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure Sal barely remembers anything about the person that stabbed her hand. She’s not really the sort to hold on to trauma like that, and it doesn’t look like she really got that good a look at her anyway. Remember Amber hid during the robbery, so from Sal’s perspective, some person she barely-if-ever saw came from behind her and stabbed her hand. She went from “Who-” to “AGGHSFXXKGLE@#%@!!#@!” in like a half a second.
I’m not sure it wasn’t traumatizing – she keeps her gloves on 24/7 except when her folks visit for a reason.
She wouldn’t recognize Amber though. Amber hid during the robbery, Sal’s back was to her during the arrest and she was a bit busy screaming when Amber stabbed her hand.
“That was you? Ah remember you bein’ more red an’ shouty.”
She doesn’t remember her and Ethan doesn’t remember Sal, and AG is struggling with how to feel about being the only one still holding on to that memory.
Only Amber/AG are still holding against the reality shift.
at some point she’s going to have to realize they’re twins.
Oh, c’mon! Willis already pulled that ‘switched at birth’ crap on Walky in the Walkyverse. Doing it here would not only be cruel, it’d be repetitive. And boring.
…I think they meant for AG to realize that Sal and Walky are twins.
In this universe, Beef is Walky’s actual twin.
In this whole superhero analogy, I never expected Sal to end up being Commissioner Gordon. I figured it would end up either Dorothy or Ethan.
Actually, IMO at least, Sal is Amber’s Selina Kyle – The former antagonist with a strong emotional tie (positive or negative) who also increasingly becomes an enabler.
Apple have an App that allows you to do that, but is password protected, and allows you to deactivate it on other devices you no longer use, remotely.
Amber has built her own custom version that lacks all of that functionality, plus advertises her secret identity.
Yeah, the “Amazi-App!” branding ain’t subtle.
So, the NSFW banner has changed and I’m just making eye contact with Mike’s nipples.
Okay, so, Panel analysis time!
Panel one: Oh, Amazi-Girl. She looks like she’s been up here thinking for a while. She seems to like finding high places to come and think. And it’s not like the past few days haven’t been extremely rough on her, so she has a lot to think about. Danny, Ryan, Sal, etc. And obviously about herself. Her shifting so much blame on AG worries me, it really does. This will probably get worse before it gets better.
Panel two: Surprise Sal! Fun times. Can I just say here Sal looks very pretty in this strip? Like, she usually does, but particularly so here imo.
On to meat – Sal, considering you are one of the most aloof people in the strip, this is fun to hear you bring this up. Though admittedly she’s not trying to look superhero badass while she does so. I think she’s still seeing somewhat how she’s feeling. They do have quite a bit in common, at least from when Sal was younger.
And of course some of it is just her making fun of AG again. Sal is never not going to make fun of AG. AG is constantly straddling the line between ridiculous and badass.
Who were you thinking it’d be AG? Walky? Danny maybe? Dorothy? Interesting. Though I notice she took Sal surprising her a lot better than I thought she might have. She really seems to be building on that grudging working respect from last night. I’m back and forth on whether I want these two to be friends, but they’re definitely making improvements.
Panel three: AG looks far more annoyed in this panel! I’m not sure it’s because she used the app or because she had to give her the app in the first place. Possibly a bit of both.
And Sal’s comment…yeah. Considering how AG has been acting around her, I’d be shocked she let her have that on her phone period, even if it were to stop Ryan. It’s not the kind of thing you’d expect…
Panel four: Hence Sal’s comment here. AG has been showing that, while she is prone to escalation and haring off with no plan and potentially making bad situations worse, she really does have the intentions of helping stop criminals and protecting people. I think Sal can relate to those motives – that’s why she ended up whooping Leland’s ass. So, yeah, AG IS showing her a different side of herself. The side people who weren’t Sal got to see before. And this could be a good thing for their relationship but it might actually not be good in general – if Sal starts thinking she may have been wrong, A) She and Danny are going to have some serious disagreements in their future and B) It will keep the person who was the most invested in stopping AG before she hurts or kills someone (or herself) from seeing if she is on a downward slide. If she starts doubting whether AG is really as bad as she thought, this could end VERY dangerously for AG. Nobody wants that. And potentially bad for Sal too, since the law is much less kind to black folks than white ones.
I’m 99% sure that’s why Sal is looking sad – she’s seeing a new, more sympathetic side of AG who clearly thinks the worst of herself. I think she can relate.
Panel five: Oooooh, this one is fun! There are a few reasons to ditch that app:
1) Worst comes to worst, nobody can prove she had it (at least, not easily)
2) Power comes with responsibility – Sal won’t be her babysitter.
3) …Again, I think Sal is starting to get a view of where AG is coming from and she knows she wouldn’t want someone able to tail HER when she was in a bad place, so she’s doing AG a solid. More of that grudging working respect that is both so good to see and potentially very dangerous. I like this panel.
4) Sal’s had enough of people trying to control her over her time, and she doesn’t want to be the one to control folks.
AG looks both sad and kind of confused here – much as Sal doesn’t know the whole story for AG, AG doesn’t know the whole of Sal. She only knows her as the robbery girl and the girl who was justifiably pissed she stalked but helped her anyways catch Ryan. A girl like that would have justifiable reasons to want power over her – but Sal doesn’t. There’s a lot more to Sal than she knows. It’s both confusing for her and it makes her kind of sad because she wanted this to be a ‘I paid a debt’ thing for stalking Sal. She definitely wants to be the good guy all the time, but AG can’t because she is human and flawed and CAN’T always be the good guy, nobody can. It’s one thing AG needs to work on.
Also, YAY! Sal found her sidekick!
Where? What’d I miss?
I’m joking about AG. People have been calling Sal her sidekick for a while and considering how shitty AG was to Sal up until the hunt for Ryan started, it grossed me out. I now call AG Sal’s sidekick because
– She’s the one always saving AG (AG is the sidekick in distress)
– She’s got her own vehicle and is therefore more independent (traditionally the hero’s part)
And
– She’s usually the one to talk AG down from something silly. Again, traditionally hero’s part.
tl;dr – It’s a personal joke. AG is the sidekick in this scenario.
Yeah, Sal and Amazi-girl are getting closer to each other ever so slowly. Both unable and unwilling to let too much of the other person into their heads. Neither of them wants to play by the other’s rules. But still they are slowly getting closer.
Yuuuuuup.
Zen question: What is the sound of an app uninstalling?