Blaine: “I am inevi-.”
Sydney: *Punches him* “No, I am inevitable! You are just an ant that I can squash with my foot!”
Ruth: “And I am Ironman! Weeeeee!!!!!”
“You think you’re the only asshole out there? There’s a whole universe of assholes. You just don’t know them yet. Big assholes. Small assholes. Wide assholes. Ti-I’m sorry this is this is turning into a Slipshine comic let me start over.”
This is legit starting to, like, feel dumb, though. Am I the only one who feels like this is dumb? I swear I hope Willis has some good reason for this and it’s not gonna be as dumb as it feels, I don’t wanna be a negative nellie, it just feels really dumb right now.
Dumbing of Age tries to be marginally more grounded than its sibling comics and, this, this whole “Asshole Initiative” thing, it felt dumb with Toedad and it feels dumber here. Everybody can’t know each other. Blaine can’t just be uniting an Axis of Awful to get revenge on Amber. It just feels dumb.
Turns out Blaine is ALSO a huge nerd and really want his own Legion of Doom. Also, we only see his initial approach, it’s possible he’s just failed at everything so far.
For crying out loud. Asher’s gang probably had mob connections. Blaine can’t operate freely on campus so he attempts to recruite an old acquaintance who can. Nothing dumb about it. If you think it’s too much of a coincidence that this is the same gang that started to use Sal to be realistic, then I have to remind you that this is a story. It has no obligation to be realistic. It has an obligation to be interesting. Tell me this development isn’t interesting.
And he’s already established as an Asian kid in a criminal gang, while Blaine is established as linked to the mob – with at least hints (Yuri) that it’s an Asian mob. (I can’t remember if it’s been explicitly called out as Korean or if I’m just remembering SP!.)
orthe really obvious which every one seems to be missing. Blain was stalking Amber and witnessed the punchening ( is that a word? i feel like that should be a word.) he saw Walky hit asher. saw Amber was with walky . made the obvious connection. goes to recruit asher for mutual revengening( aain not sure thats a word either but i really feel it should be.)
If it’s because Asher’s (former?) gang is part of the Korean mob Blaine’s tied to and Blaine has no idea of Asher’s connection to Amber through Sal, then is it still so dumb? He’s just looking for someone on campus to do his leg work.
(Hey, thejeff! Haven’t been on Paizo much lately.)
Yeah, I think it’s still so dumb, if only because a) it’s obviously still a huge absurd coincidence, like, come on, jeez on a cracker, and b) it’s being paired with the “Blaine bails Toedad out of jail” twist, which is even more absurd.
To expand on A, yes, stories can survive pretty big coincidences, BUT the story was grounded enough that many characters have acknowledged it’s kind of a slight coincidence that Amber, Ethan and Sal all ended up at the same university. Slightly more of a coincidence, Asher made it here, too.
So if the story is grounded enough to acknowledge “four kids from similar area but from different backgrounds and 1-2 who got cycled into the CJ system made it to the same college”, the story doesn’t get a free pass on a coincidence that’s a hundred times stupider.
And let’s just quickly acknowledge that Blaine is just absurdly evil. Not just in his general meanness, but in the effort he’s going to, the incredibly circuitous lengths he’s willing to take. He doesn’t just stalk his daughter, he sends his son to steal her phone. He doesn’t just talk to her friends, he bails out a school shooter who attacked friends of his daughter (I’m assuming for some very rational reason like “he witnessed Amazigirl in action, and I can’t just read the school paper about her or have Faz/my wife ask around about her”).
I don’t want to say he’s unrealistically evil, he’s not. He’s unrealistically elaborate in his evilness. Dumbing of Age has an uncomfortable relationship with its realism and its silly antics, and Blaine is just, not acting how human beings act.
I’m hoping Willis can justify all of this and make it feel genuine, but if Blaine goes within a fucking MILE of Scarface’s hospital bed, I’m going to blow a gasket. We don’t need to connect every storyline. That’s not how college works.
Kinda, yeah. But that was before we had Blaine Nic Furying every storyline. Now instead of it being a legitimately effective moment, it’ll just feel like the “oooh what a twist” capper to this weird trilogy.
This definitely does seem like the kind of storyline that… I’m gonna say, might make more sense in six months? Like, right now, this is definitely out of left field and I’m not to the level of gasket blowing but there’s some eyebrows raised expectantly to see how Willis is gonna make this one not too over the top?
This is, terrifyingly, how a lot of harassment and abuse campaigns go, though. Like. This kind of shit is 100% what I’ve seen ACTUALLY HAPPEN to people around me who got targeted by various alt-right-affiliated movements. One person develops a grudge and goes hunting for every person who previously hurt them or someone close to them, or was “wronged” by them in some way, banding them together with promises of revenge and retribution and “justice”. And the worst part is that when you bring all the actual evidence of it to a judge to try to get a restraining order or at least ONE of them arrested, it’s dismissed because of being “too far-fetched”.
Honestly, whether or not it’s textbook harassment Blaine’s petty and controlling as fuck. That’s part of his character as written. I don’t have any problem thinking a petty, controlling asshole is going to try to pull strings to fuck over the daughter who dared to stand up to him. If he has existing connections to Asher, which he might, that would explain that, and he’s going to need a fall guy. Who better than the nutjob who already showed up on campus with a gun once?
Dude, check out r/justnofamily and r/justnomil and you will see. This is entirely within the realm of elaborateness for shitty narcissist parents, ESPECIALLY one with ties to organized crime.
My mother and by extension me has been harassed by her ex boyfriend she had a child with for well over 10 years. Spreading lies about her to her friends and at her workplace, sowing distrust and managing that she would be fired at two workplaces and not rehired at another after maternity leave. He usef his wealth and manipulative skills to do this and went to incredible lengths to hurt her. From my experience Blaine is not comically evil. (He also was a drug dealer and threw his supposed best friend under the bus when discovered, obviously he was also massively abusive in his relationship with my mom)
I don’t think it is necessarily about how humans act in real life. Although this strip is more grounded than Willis’ previous work, it still stretches the limits of reality on numerous occasions (mostly with Amazigirl), and still has a narrative arc. I think I remember seeing comments about how Willis has said that the story probably won’t go past the first semester. I suspect that this is how the story will climax: sometime around Thanksgiving or perhaps finals, all of the previously established separate villains will come together in one grand scheme. Depending on how drawn out the scheme is, it may get introduced sooner or later. that will be the climax of the entire story. then we’ll get some kind of denouement (either finals or christmas break) and the story will end. You know, in another ten years.
The son to steal her phone is a thing abusive parents do.
The bailing out the shooter and now being connected with Asher? Fuck no.
He was actually a really good portrayal of an abusive dad and that’s part of what piasrs me off about these developments. Its taking it into cartoon villain territory.
Abusive parents are real and aren’t cartoon villains and this just sucks.
Thanks, that’s exactly where I’m at. I was fine with some of this, but not ALL of it. Toedad is really where I drew the line, Asher is just the continuation.
(And yeah, it’s a cartoon. It’s also a cartoon with a clearly established “over-the-top, but carefully grounded” tone, where Robin is held accountable for her antics and Amber is called out repeatedly for her balderdash stunts. It’s a hard line to straddle, but it still matters that we have the line.)
I don’t feel it is dumb because I believe Willis will reveal how they know each other and it will likely make sense even though right now I am confused as to how he fits into this puzzle specifically.
Honestly yes. My first thought was “nope” not like”omg plot twist” but “Jesus Christ if this guy is the chess master connecting all the characters then this is stupidly bad writing you’re better than that Willis”
Personally I’m wondering if he’s going to tell Blaine to take his sh-t elsewhere, he did seem pretty over and clearly done with all the stuff in the past and is looking to just move on with his life.
Yeah, I’ve got my fingers crossed for that. Dude’s chill enough to accept a punch for his past misdeeds and just wanted Walky to walk away after.
Hey, what if this is how Amber gets a heads up about the situation? Asher wants to move on with a law-abiding life and some asshat comes up proposing an idea that’s not just illegal but a dick move, so he rejects Blaine and warns the mentioned target.
I’ve been to Evansville, Bloomington, La Porte, Mishawaka,
Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Carmel,
New Albany, Merrilville, Michigan City,
I’ve been everywhere, man,
I’ve been everywhere.”
My guess is Asher’s family is connected to the mob Blaine works with. Considering Asher’s look here tho he may not want to be associated with that life anymore himself.
On the other hand, he described himself as having gone into “legitimate business”, which is a notorious euphemism for racketeering.
The protection racket is not a big thing on campuses, and there’s no money in distributing pornography since the Internet. Kidnap for ransom is not a big trade in the USA. Could be prostitution or drugs. But what about grades and papers? Asher’s family is probably dealing admissions, but an undergrad wouldn’t be involved in that.
Or he’s not actually working a racket in college, but is legitimately going to school to get the skills to help run the more legitimate sides of the family business.
Set out running but I’ll take my time
A Friend of the Devil is a friend of mine
If I get home before daylight
I just might get some sleep tonight–The Grateful Dead
Didn’t World’s Worst Dad also show up at Becky & Joyce’s church to help them bail out Toedad? Da fuck, Blaine, you really are building an asshole initiative, and I don’t like it.
Not only that, but the assholes are unconnected. Asher is from Sal’s past, Ross is from Joyce’s. So this must have been “friends” he found out about from the flash drive. Who else is available for recruit? Amber isn’t really close with Ruth but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Clint.
My hope is a “Enemy of my Enemy” sitch with Clint siding with the forces of ‘good’ for the express purpose of destroying Toedad and Blaine in memory of his perfect angel daughter.
My fear is the above, but he also takes every opportunity to belittle Ruth while he’s in Indiana.
Asher has probably had *some* connection to Blaine, since Amber would have been part of the incident that Asher reported? I’m guessing that’s why Blaine says “It’s been awhile”. Because he was already being a dickwad with Asher.
I mean lessee here…. so far collateral damage for this evil plan is Sal (and so Walky) and Becky (and so Joyce and Dina). That’s only… 5 people screwed over. A better question is what could possibly be achieved with this coalition of jerks, since they don’t exactly have overlapping skills
There’s really no way this DOESN’T end up hurting Sal before this is all over. Even if he was just going to him about Amber, Amber and Sal are tighter now and Sal would probably want to help her with whatever hellstorm Blaine’s brewing here.
Plot twist: It’s Dargon Chesterfield. I don’t know why a British captain of industry would have interest in helping some assholes in Indiana, but we’ve got to round out the evil dad group somehow.
My guess is Asher got his ass handed to him and might be on probation or something. He never stated a reason he stopped doing all the armed robbery. And seeing the lack of remorse for Sal’s pain and anguish that he took advantage of and exacerbated… It probably wasn’t a reason of conscience.
So I guess all that’s left if for Ryan to heal his wounds and join and then the league of DOA supervillains is complete? Unless they can rope Leland in somehow…
Don’t think security personell is around before he goes into a building. Having checkpoints at all entrances to the campus would be rather expensive and time consuming for everyone.
Yeah, it’s not really possible and he’s not that high a priority. He might get in trouble if he happens to be caught.
Most campuses are pretty wide open. This one is in the middle of a city, you can just walk in.
I suspect he could walk into most buildings on campus too. Asma might recognize him if he went to Read, but that’s about it.
At 43,000 students, IU Bloomington is bigger than most cities in Indiana. If it were its own city, it would be the 22nd biggest city in Indiana.
For comparison, La Porte is about half that size at 21,000.
Blaine’s name and photo are probably hanging up on a wall in the IUPD, along with the other hundred or so people who aren’t allowed on campus. But it’s not like the campus has a security perimeter.
Too much work. But will take the chance to belittle Amber afterwards instead of comforting her, if the opportunity is just going to fall right on his lap.
He probably learned shabby tactics like that from his own upbringing, not that excuses anything.
An interesting rule of thumb for actors and writers is “every character sees themselves as right”. Doesn’t mean they ARE, but they will have put justifications in place to see it that way.
One of my original internal criticisms of DoA was what felt one dimensional about Blane, maybe Mike and Joyce’s would be rapist felt a little bit like cardboard cutout villains. But I have seen a lot depth to Mike and Blane too. Blane seems to see himself as a hard working family man wronged by some know-nothing liberal judge, and Amber as some sort of evil parasite corrupted into bleeding him out free college. Seems like he found a woman willing to lean into this worldview. I still think it’s evil, but evil is more fun when there is a worry that there is something a little bit true and right in it, that we could be tricked into believing ourselves.
In the comic book world, there is a whole tranche of villain characters who are very vocally and obviously only in it for the money and hold those who have some kind of wacky ’cause’ in contempt (and sometimes also fear).
At some point, I’m expecting either Ethan or Danny to make a remark about this turning into an end-of-phase team-up movie like the Avengers instalment that ended every phase of the MCU.
Still, this is actually a very old literary convention that we see in writings going back millennia. The set up is complete – Now the time has come for all the characters on both sides to gather to the same battlefield to wrap up the story. On the one side, the heroes, on the other, the villains. At the end, there will be no question of going back.
I’m almost wondering if Blaine asked Asher to set up the whole thing at the convenience store as part of an ill-conceived strategy to ‘toughen up’ Amber.
Not that ill-conceived. It worked. Now she’s tough enough to stomp him into the ground.
Doesn’t really make sense I think. The timing is too tight and requires Sal getting manipulated even more obviously than we see. She has to take the right amount of time lurking in the store getting up her nerve, for example.
Suggestion: Asher coming out and pulling out a smoke was a signal to Blaine to approach. That’s why he wanted Walky and Amber out of his hair – He had a pre-arranged clandestine rendezvous with a former employer to carry out.
*sigh*… Overslept, have to go to work early, and now THIS. On the flip side, I suppose it shouldn’t be too surprising that Blaise knows a petty criminal. Doesn’t NECESSARILY mean that Asher is the same sort of human garbage that Blaise is. Maybe Blaise has something on Asher? We’ll see I guess.
Everybody keeps pointing out how this is an unrealistic plotline but tbh as someone who has been in an abusive relationship this sort of control is… Not as surprising as you would think? If he got it in his head that he had to track down everybody involved in the robbery, yeah, the obsessive behavior would kick in and he would probably do that. For me, the writing isn’t what’s scary here, but how realistic the dad is in the context of… For lack of a better term, people like that. Does it seem unrealistic? Yeah. Would I be afraid of something like that happening to me? Six months ago, yeah.
He might not even know. If he’s looking for Asher as the on-campus kid from the mob he’s hooked up with, that could be a coincidence.
Or he could have learned the connection back then through his mob ties.
Things were just looking up for the cast, so I guess it’s not surprising that something was due for a disaster… still… DAMN YOU WILLIS (getting it out preemptively, since it’s probably going to need many repeats soon)
I predict now that Toedad and Blaine’s conspiracy will result in someone trying to kill or abduct Becky on camera–which Robin heroically saves. Thus Robin gets re-elected by a landslide.
Can we kill off Blaine already? Actual murder. Not an accident. Just… have it happen and then they all have to cover up for the person. Like… Make it Joyce.
Loading ...
He’s here to talk to you about the Asshole Initiative.
Captain O’Malley: The Worst Avenger
Blaine: “I am inevi-.”
Sydney: *Punches him* “No, I am inevitable! You are just an ant that I can squash with my foot!”
Ruth: “And I am Ironman! Weeeeee!!!!!”
The only after-credits scene I want to see is Blaine’s forgotten tombstone is a potter’s field.
Nah, a rancher’s field. Then he’ll be covered in cow shit.
“You think you’re the only asshole out there? There’s a whole universe of assholes. You just don’t know them yet. Big assholes. Small assholes. Wide assholes. Ti-I’m sorry this is this is turning into a Slipshine comic let me start over.”
Asher: “I knew it, I’m surrounded by assholes.”
This is legit starting to, like, feel dumb, though. Am I the only one who feels like this is dumb? I swear I hope Willis has some good reason for this and it’s not gonna be as dumb as it feels, I don’t wanna be a negative nellie, it just feels really dumb right now.
Dumbing of Age tries to be marginally more grounded than its sibling comics and, this, this whole “Asshole Initiative” thing, it felt dumb with Toedad and it feels dumber here. Everybody can’t know each other. Blaine can’t just be uniting an Axis of Awful to get revenge on Amber. It just feels dumb.
Turns out Blaine is ALSO a huge nerd and really want his own Legion of Doom. Also, we only see his initial approach, it’s possible he’s just failed at everything so far.
Yeah, Amber didn’t know Asher. How did her dad?
Given Blaine’s record? I’m guessing Asher is another child he’s spawned then discarded along the way.
Hmmm Maybe Blaine knows Asher because Asher was there when Sal robbed the convenience store? Trying to look like the good kid and calling the police?
For crying out loud. Asher’s gang probably had mob connections. Blaine can’t operate freely on campus so he attempts to recruite an old acquaintance who can. Nothing dumb about it. If you think it’s too much of a coincidence that this is the same gang that started to use Sal to be realistic, then I have to remind you that this is a story. It has no obligation to be realistic. It has an obligation to be interesting. Tell me this development isn’t interesting.
And he’s already established as an Asian kid in a criminal gang, while Blaine is established as linked to the mob – with at least hints (Yuri) that it’s an Asian mob. (I can’t remember if it’s been explicitly called out as Korean or if I’m just remembering SP!.)
orthe really obvious which every one seems to be missing. Blain was stalking Amber and witnessed the punchening ( is that a word? i feel like that should be a word.) he saw Walky hit asher. saw Amber was with walky . made the obvious connection. goes to recruit asher for mutual revengening( aain not sure thats a word either but i really feel it should be.)
your wordeation is very shouldular
That doesn’t explain why Asher seems to know Blaine.
I’m not sure where I come down on this, except to say that it’s fun to see the comment section respectfully offering different points of view.
If it’s because Asher’s (former?) gang is part of the Korean mob Blaine’s tied to and Blaine has no idea of Asher’s connection to Amber through Sal, then is it still so dumb? He’s just looking for someone on campus to do his leg work.
(Hey, thejeff! Haven’t been on Paizo much lately.)
Yeah, I think it’s still so dumb, if only because a) it’s obviously still a huge absurd coincidence, like, come on, jeez on a cracker, and b) it’s being paired with the “Blaine bails Toedad out of jail” twist, which is even more absurd.
To expand on A, yes, stories can survive pretty big coincidences, BUT the story was grounded enough that many characters have acknowledged it’s kind of a slight coincidence that Amber, Ethan and Sal all ended up at the same university. Slightly more of a coincidence, Asher made it here, too.
So if the story is grounded enough to acknowledge “four kids from similar area but from different backgrounds and 1-2 who got cycled into the CJ system made it to the same college”, the story doesn’t get a free pass on a coincidence that’s a hundred times stupider.
And let’s just quickly acknowledge that Blaine is just absurdly evil. Not just in his general meanness, but in the effort he’s going to, the incredibly circuitous lengths he’s willing to take. He doesn’t just stalk his daughter, he sends his son to steal her phone. He doesn’t just talk to her friends, he bails out a school shooter who attacked friends of his daughter (I’m assuming for some very rational reason like “he witnessed Amazigirl in action, and I can’t just read the school paper about her or have Faz/my wife ask around about her”).
I don’t want to say he’s unrealistically evil, he’s not. He’s unrealistically elaborate in his evilness. Dumbing of Age has an uncomfortable relationship with its realism and its silly antics, and Blaine is just, not acting how human beings act.
I’m hoping Willis can justify all of this and make it feel genuine, but if Blaine goes within a fucking MILE of Scarface’s hospital bed, I’m going to blow a gasket. We don’t need to connect every storyline. That’s not how college works.
Scarface is the one it’d actually make sense for him to connect with, though.
Kinda, yeah. But that was before we had Blaine Nic Furying every storyline. Now instead of it being a legitimately effective moment, it’ll just feel like the “oooh what a twist” capper to this weird trilogy.
This definitely does seem like the kind of storyline that… I’m gonna say, might make more sense in six months? Like, right now, this is definitely out of left field and I’m not to the level of gasket blowing but there’s some eyebrows raised expectantly to see how Willis is gonna make this one not too over the top?
This is, terrifyingly, how a lot of harassment and abuse campaigns go, though. Like. This kind of shit is 100% what I’ve seen ACTUALLY HAPPEN to people around me who got targeted by various alt-right-affiliated movements. One person develops a grudge and goes hunting for every person who previously hurt them or someone close to them, or was “wronged” by them in some way, banding them together with promises of revenge and retribution and “justice”. And the worst part is that when you bring all the actual evidence of it to a judge to try to get a restraining order or at least ONE of them arrested, it’s dismissed because of being “too far-fetched”.
Honestly, whether or not it’s textbook harassment Blaine’s petty and controlling as fuck. That’s part of his character as written. I don’t have any problem thinking a petty, controlling asshole is going to try to pull strings to fuck over the daughter who dared to stand up to him. If he has existing connections to Asher, which he might, that would explain that, and he’s going to need a fall guy. Who better than the nutjob who already showed up on campus with a gun once?
Dude, check out r/justnofamily and r/justnomil and you will see. This is entirely within the realm of elaborateness for shitty narcissist parents, ESPECIALLY one with ties to organized crime.
Yeah, I have zero problem believing Blaine’s “realism”, but then again my dad was a monster so it’s not much of a stretch for my imagination.
My mother and by extension me has been harassed by her ex boyfriend she had a child with for well over 10 years. Spreading lies about her to her friends and at her workplace, sowing distrust and managing that she would be fired at two workplaces and not rehired at another after maternity leave. He usef his wealth and manipulative skills to do this and went to incredible lengths to hurt her. From my experience Blaine is not comically evil. (He also was a drug dealer and threw his supposed best friend under the bus when discovered, obviously he was also massively abusive in his relationship with my mom)
I don’t think it is necessarily about how humans act in real life. Although this strip is more grounded than Willis’ previous work, it still stretches the limits of reality on numerous occasions (mostly with Amazigirl), and still has a narrative arc. I think I remember seeing comments about how Willis has said that the story probably won’t go past the first semester. I suspect that this is how the story will climax: sometime around Thanksgiving or perhaps finals, all of the previously established separate villains will come together in one grand scheme. Depending on how drawn out the scheme is, it may get introduced sooner or later. that will be the climax of the entire story. then we’ll get some kind of denouement (either finals or christmas break) and the story will end. You know, in another ten years.
The son to steal her phone is a thing abusive parents do.
The bailing out the shooter and now being connected with Asher? Fuck no.
He was actually a really good portrayal of an abusive dad and that’s part of what piasrs me off about these developments. Its taking it into cartoon villain territory.
Abusive parents are real and aren’t cartoon villains and this just sucks.
He has also always been an actual criminal. A “mob stooge”.
This is a cartoon. And we have already had Amazi-Girl (and Sal) doing some pretty over-the-top stuff.
Cartoonish villainy ought not to be so surprising in this context.
Thanks, that’s exactly where I’m at. I was fine with some of this, but not ALL of it. Toedad is really where I drew the line, Asher is just the continuation.
(And yeah, it’s a cartoon. It’s also a cartoon with a clearly established “over-the-top, but carefully grounded” tone, where Robin is held accountable for her antics and Amber is called out repeatedly for her balderdash stunts. It’s a hard line to straddle, but it still matters that we have the line.)
I don’t feel it is dumb because I believe Willis will reveal how they know each other and it will likely make sense even though right now I am confused as to how he fits into this puzzle specifically.
Honestly yes. My first thought was “nope” not like”omg plot twist” but “Jesus Christ if this guy is the chess master connecting all the characters then this is stupidly bad writing you’re better than that Willis”
Personally I’m wondering if he’s going to tell Blaine to take his sh-t elsewhere, he did seem pretty over and clearly done with all the stuff in the past and is looking to just move on with his life.
Yeah, I’ve got my fingers crossed for that. Dude’s chill enough to accept a punch for his past misdeeds and just wanted Walky to walk away after.
Hey, what if this is how Amber gets a heads up about the situation? Asher wants to move on with a law-abiding life and some asshat comes up proposing an idea that’s not just illegal but a dick move, so he rejects Blaine and warns the mentioned target.
Speaking of assholes… Asher has butthole lips….
shitholes of a feather shit together
BIG MOOD (final panel Walky)
Cloacas unite!
Yup, I was right. Needed that pre-emptive damn you willis yesterday.
Fuck off, Blaine.
Theory time – Asher’s family is in the Korean mob that Blaine’s a stooge for and that’s how this asshole knows him.
Boy oh boy, you nailed that one all right.
Thaaaaaat makes sense, hmm.
I suggested that on June 30th.
@Eve suggested it even earlier.
what the fuck dot tumblr dot com
r/damnyouwillis
Wait. Is there?
Yeah, that’s not good.
That they even know each other is scary.
That’s worse than I thought it was going to be and I expect a lot from this comic
This asshole is everywhere!
Blaine is the new Lex Luthor, and he is recruiting more villains than the Lex Luthor Facebook guy.
Blaine, too, has probably stolen 50 cakes. That’s as many as five tens. And that’s terrible.
“I’ve been everywhere, man,
I’ve been everywhere.
I’ve been to Evansville, Bloomington, La Porte, Mishawaka,
Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Carmel,
New Albany, Merrilville, Michigan City,
I’ve been everywhere, man,
I’ve been everywhere.”
WHAT
and I cannot stress this enough
THE FUCK
OH GOD, WHAT
NO
GOD
WHAT
OH NO
Uh oh, and Asher might actually have a reason to help Blaine. God damn it hindsight, why must you be 20/20?
What reason would that be?
[Irrational screaming]
🎵
Been away, haven’t seen you in a while,
How’ve you been? Have you changed your style?
*emits noise*
*Inhales deeply* DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SERIOUSLY, HOW THE FUCK ASSHOLE DAD AND DOUCHEBAG FUCKBOY KNOW EACH OTHER?!
My guess is Asher’s family is connected to the mob Blaine works with. Considering Asher’s look here tho he may not want to be associated with that life anymore himself.
On the other hand, he described himself as having gone into “legitimate business”, which is a notorious euphemism for racketeering.
The protection racket is not a big thing on campuses, and there’s no money in distributing pornography since the Internet. Kidnap for ransom is not a big trade in the USA. Could be prostitution or drugs. But what about grades and papers? Asher’s family is probably dealing admissions, but an undergrad wouldn’t be involved in that.
Or he’s not actually working a racket in college, but is legitimately going to school to get the skills to help run the more legitimate sides of the family business.
Set out running but I’ll take my time
A Friend of the Devil is a friend of mine
If I get home before daylight
I just might get some sleep tonight–The Grateful Dead
You can borrow from the devil
You can borrow from a friend
But the devil will give you twenty
When your friend got only ten
Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name.
But what’s puzzling you is the nature of my game
WHAT THE HELL
Didn’t World’s Worst Dad also show up at Becky & Joyce’s church to help them bail out Toedad? Da fuck, Blaine, you really are building an asshole initiative, and I don’t like it.
Not only that, but the assholes are unconnected. Asher is from Sal’s past, Ross is from Joyce’s. So this must have been “friends” he found out about from the flash drive. Who else is available for recruit? Amber isn’t really close with Ruth but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Clint.
Maybe Ryan?
My hope is a “Enemy of my Enemy” sitch with Clint siding with the forces of ‘good’ for the express purpose of destroying Toedad and Blaine in memory of his perfect angel daughter.
My fear is the above, but he also takes every opportunity to belittle Ruth while he’s in Indiana.
Asher has probably had *some* connection to Blaine, since Amber would have been part of the incident that Asher reported? I’m guessing that’s why Blaine says “It’s been awhile”. Because he was already being a dickwad with Asher.
oh fuck this’ll be bad.
DAMN YOU, WILLIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSS
DAAAAAAAMN YOU WIIIIIILLIS!!!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!
I really hope this doesn’t end up hurting Sal… Amber may be in trouble though… 🙁
I mean lessee here…. so far collateral damage for this evil plan is Sal (and so Walky) and Becky (and so Joyce and Dina). That’s only… 5 people screwed over. A better question is what could possibly be achieved with this coalition of jerks, since they don’t exactly have overlapping skills
He doesn’t want skills, he wants to hurt Amber … and hurting her Friends is the worst and an INCREDIBLE evil way to do it.
There’s really no way this DOESN’T end up hurting Sal before this is all over. Even if he was just going to him about Amber, Amber and Sal are tighter now and Sal would probably want to help her with whatever hellstorm Blaine’s brewing here.
This is like the formation of the Avengers except they’re all mundane people of questionable character
“questionable”
….GOD DAMN IT I GUESSED THIS AS A JOKE http://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/04-vote-for-robin/resteasy/#comment-1409597
… a punch in the face?
Soon we’ll learn that Blaine’s real last name is Luthor. And that his cousin on his mother’s side of the family is Norman Osbourne.
The Jerkass Goblin and the otehr members of the Scumbag Six: Joyce’s mom, Asher, Toe Dad, Blaine’s current wife and scar face mac rapist.
I bet instead of Blaine’s wife it will be Walky’s mom.
Plot twist: It’s Dargon Chesterfield. I don’t know why a British captain of industry would have interest in helping some assholes in Indiana, but we’ve got to round out the evil dad group somehow.
Motherfucker. How does Asher know this asshole?
Willis, whyyyyyy?
AHHHHH LIPS
Oh what the actual hop scotching fuck
… Go on.
…..
WHAT????!
Maybe their previous meeting was in the context of Sal’s hearing.
WHAT IS HAPPENING (SCREAMING
I am kind of hoping that Asher has absolutely no interest in participating in Blaine’s cartoonish villainy club.
Asher doesn’t exactly look happy to see him, which makes me wonder if Blaine is going to end up blackmailing Asher into helping him.
My guess is Asher got his ass handed to him and might be on probation or something. He never stated a reason he stopped doing all the armed robbery. And seeing the lack of remorse for Sal’s pain and anguish that he took advantage of and exacerbated… It probably wasn’t a reason of conscience.
So I guess all that’s left if for Ryan to heal his wounds and join and then the league of DOA supervillains is complete? Unless they can rope Leland in somehow…
Oh shit, there goes another of my Damn You Willises.
OH COME ON
it must be an open sewer, cause shit just keeps floating in.
Next on the list, Blaine goes to ring up Black Manta and Scarecrow.
Ew, this fuckin’ guy.
And there’s the League of Evil sighting.
Blaine must have uncovered Asher as a potential accomplice from Amber’s flash drive. Gods, I hope the kid is on the straight and narrow.
Amber just learned about Asher this arc, he couldn’t have been on her flash drive.
Good point. Just wildly theorizing myself.
Also, the dialogue in this strip indicates that they have known each other before.
Thanks I hate it (but I admit to it being funny seeing everyone in the comments go feral every time this bongo shows up)
Not sure I would use the word feral, but yeah.
This cocksucker’s going around and forming his own Injustice Gang.
After the wordless Friends, I thought we had another wordless strip with optimism ending a chapter, just like Fun.
Little did I know.
Join my emo band
… wasn’t Blaine banned from school grounds?
The Legion of Doom out to get recruits!
HE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE
Is any on The Blacklist for the campus police?
Yes, but this isn’t Secret Service, it’s low wage hourly workers and temps probably. Budgets are always stretched thin.
And a lot of the force is tied up trying to solve a string of campus punchings by an unidentified masked vigilante.
i thought blaine would not be able to get close to campus because of his previous… assholery
“allowed“ no, “able“ is a way different thing. apparently school security isn’t the best.
Don’t think security personell is around before he goes into a building. Having checkpoints at all entrances to the campus would be rather expensive and time consuming for everyone.
Yeah, it’s not really possible and he’s not that high a priority. He might get in trouble if he happens to be caught.
Most campuses are pretty wide open. This one is in the middle of a city, you can just walk in.
I suspect he could walk into most buildings on campus too. Asma might recognize him if he went to Read, but that’s about it.
At 43,000 students, IU Bloomington is bigger than most cities in Indiana. If it were its own city, it would be the 22nd biggest city in Indiana.
For comparison, La Porte is about half that size at 21,000.
Blaine’s name and photo are probably hanging up on a wall in the IUPD, along with the other hundred or so people who aren’t allowed on campus. But it’s not like the campus has a security perimeter.
And now Asher isn’t the biggest asshole by default.
I like him much better already.
Bagge and Asher sitting in a tree…
Throwing rocks at Blaine.
And laughing at him till he goes insane.
Nice rhyming 🙂
Asher come on I was rooting for you please be not shit
Seriously? What’s the probability of this? Sal is going to start complaining to Amber that their lives are like a badly-plotted superhero comic… Oh.
Not all that unlikely really. Former(?) asian gang member knows a dude who’s connected to the local Korean mob. Shocking.
The biggest coincidence is that it happens right after we’re reintroduced to him.
ARGH! Next he’ll be going after the biggest evil of all. Mary.
oh no
Shot in the dark: Blaine took Amber to a place he knew was getting robbed as part of a plan to ‘toughen her up.’
I’d thought about that, but it doesn’t really make sense. No one knew the place was getting robbed until way too late to set that up. Not even Sal.
Well, there was Mike, but I’m not sure that counts.
Too much work. But will take the chance to belittle Amber afterwards instead of comforting her, if the opportunity is just going to fall right on his lap.
He probably learned shabby tactics like that from his own upbringing, not that excuses anything.
he better not be blaine’s nephew or some bullshit
also, incredible twist. what the hell even is this. bravo.
Yuri’s little brother.
Huh that could work actually. I was (jokingly) thinking Blaine’s other other child, in line with him breeding like a rabbit in shortpacked
WHAT A FUDGING PIECE OF STEAMING SHIT
And by contrast, what a fine, upstanding young man standing next to him.
Blaine makes everyone look better by comparison.
An interesting rule of thumb for actors and writers is “every character sees themselves as right”. Doesn’t mean they ARE, but they will have put justifications in place to see it that way.
One of my original internal criticisms of DoA was what felt one dimensional about Blane, maybe Mike and Joyce’s would be rapist felt a little bit like cardboard cutout villains. But I have seen a lot depth to Mike and Blane too. Blane seems to see himself as a hard working family man wronged by some know-nothing liberal judge, and Amber as some sort of evil parasite corrupted into bleeding him out free college. Seems like he found a woman willing to lean into this worldview. I still think it’s evil, but evil is more fun when there is a worry that there is something a little bit true and right in it, that we could be tricked into believing ourselves.
Blaine’s attitude makes perfect sense if you think of Amber as his property.
His flawed, disobedient property that needs to get beaten into shape and proper disicipline.
This is a very common attitude in real life. Just like ToeDad, Blaine is sadly a very realistic kind of evil.
Also, his fudging pride is more important to him than almost anything else, and most certainly more than anyone else.
Also Amber’s mom and Faz’s mom and to a lesser extent Faz.
Just say no, Asher. Even if Blaine offers you $100,000.
In the comic book world, there is a whole tranche of villain characters who are very vocally and obviously only in it for the money and hold those who have some kind of wacky ’cause’ in contempt (and sometimes also fear).
EXCUSE ME WHAT HOLD UP
That reply from Asher is like “Geez a I know I was a bit of a snake when I was younger but I have
standards for fuck sake.”
At some point, I’m expecting either Ethan or Danny to make a remark about this turning into an end-of-phase team-up movie like the Avengers instalment that ended every phase of the MCU.
Still, this is actually a very old literary convention that we see in writings going back millennia. The set up is complete – Now the time has come for all the characters on both sides to gather to the same battlefield to wrap up the story. On the one side, the heroes, on the other, the villains. At the end, there will be no question of going back.
OF COURSE they know each other
I’m almost wondering if Blaine asked Asher to set up the whole thing at the convenience store as part of an ill-conceived strategy to ‘toughen up’ Amber.
Not that ill-conceived. It worked. Now she’s tough enough to stomp him into the ground.
Doesn’t really make sense I think. The timing is too tight and requires Sal getting manipulated even more obviously than we see. She has to take the right amount of time lurking in the store getting up her nerve, for example.
agreed, Blaine may be a manipulative abusive bastard, but he’s not a chess master by any means
Remember that Amber was not at the convenience store that Asher and his gang robbed.
Blane knows Asher on a first-name basis… and Asher isn’t all that surprised to see him. Interesting.
Suggestion: Asher coming out and pulling out a smoke was a signal to Blaine to approach. That’s why he wanted Walky and Amber out of his hair – He had a pre-arranged clandestine rendezvous with a former employer to carry out.
Doesn’t really strike me as such. Asher’s emphasis on the word “you” in the last panel seems to suggest more of a “JFC, not THIS asshole” vibe.
So, Blaine is going to try to hit Amber from all sides, I take it.
*sigh*… Overslept, have to go to work early, and now THIS. On the flip side, I suppose it shouldn’t be too surprising that Blaise knows a petty criminal. Doesn’t NECESSARILY mean that Asher is the same sort of human garbage that Blaise is. Maybe Blaise has something on Asher? We’ll see I guess.
*nopes into the void*
BLAINE: “Can’t I visit the son of an old friend at school?”
ASHER: “You can but you wouldn’t. Save us both time, old man, and tell me what’s the job you need me to do.”
Everybody keeps pointing out how this is an unrealistic plotline but tbh as someone who has been in an abusive relationship this sort of control is… Not as surprising as you would think? If he got it in his head that he had to track down everybody involved in the robbery, yeah, the obsessive behavior would kick in and he would probably do that. For me, the writing isn’t what’s scary here, but how realistic the dad is in the context of… For lack of a better term, people like that. Does it seem unrealistic? Yeah. Would I be afraid of something like that happening to me? Six months ago, yeah.
He might not even know. If he’s looking for Asher as the on-campus kid from the mob he’s hooked up with, that could be a coincidence.
Or he could have learned the connection back then through his mob ties.
Rise of the Axis of Something 2: Something on Infinite Earths
Ah.
Well damn you, Willis, then.
I`m assuming Blaine tracked him down after the robbery.
Asher’s gang had mob connections. Doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that.
Oooh, they were the “something” that the mob protection racket goons kept saying would be a shame if it happened to your convenience store.
NO!!!!!!
Of-Fucking-Course.
Guess we’re finally going to get answers to the questions about nuAsher’s character.
Things were just looking up for the cast, so I guess it’s not surprising that something was due for a disaster… still… DAMN YOU WILLIS (getting it out preemptively, since it’s probably going to need many repeats soon)
“To put it plainly, shouldn’t we have a league of our own?”
I don’t see this as ending well.
NEVERMIND ALL THE RAGE 🤬
Turns out Blaine set the whole robbery up to rid his daughter of her weakness!
That was my thought! But Sal went rogue and that removed mob collateral so all the better!
That makes him sound somewhat loving… So no.
Oh, FUCK OFF Blaine
We keep telling him that, but he never does.
That’s how we got Faz.
Whenever Blaine shows up it starts playing the Goa’uld music from Stargate.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat????
I predict now that Toedad and Blaine’s conspiracy will result in someone trying to kill or abduct Becky on camera–which Robin heroically saves. Thus Robin gets re-elected by a landslide.
This is not an association I want to see. Unless Asher is the good guy I think he’s become and decks Blaine at some point.
GODDAMMIT I KNEW THE FINAL ATTACK WAS COMING
Didn’t we see him with a league of villains like… a few months ago?
Okay but fucking why?
Can we kill off Blaine already? Actual murder. Not an accident. Just… have it happen and then they all have to cover up for the person. Like… Make it Joyce.
Oh come on REALLY?
Asher better tell him to shove it where the sun don’t shine
uuuuuUUUUUGGGGGGHHH!!! Every. TIME. Things look up this walking pond scum in human form appears. Worse yet, Asher knows him. Oy vey
…oh my god he had Asher set up shit against Amber.
Also, seriously – fuck this guy. He’s horrible and makes things depressive af.
Oh. Don’t like that.