I don’t think Mike had any desire to die, I think he just read Blaine like an open book and saw how that mask made him feel free to go full blown mass murderer, and so Mike jumped on what he thought was the only opportunity to nip the situation in the bud before everything extremely escalated.
That isn’t the issue Amber’s worries about having with going to the cops.
But even if it was, cops are not that great at helping with intergenerational abuse. Amber would be more likely to get a dose of “but heeee’s your daaaaaaaad” or “it’s not like he hit you!” ToeDad’s biggest mistake was how public we went with things. If he hadn’t escalated so hard, he’d have probably gotten away with his objectives.
There’s precedent from Shortpacked, but the exact circumstances seem unlikely to have replicated: That Amber said he only hit her the once (‘I was lucky’), when he found her in bed with a boy as a teenager. In general Walkyverse to Dumbiverse is often a coin toss whether Willis uses elements of backstory or not, but I bring it up because Blaine has had like, 90% or so of his Shortpacked characterization adapted. The biggest difference is that he married Yuri so he knows Faz exists, the rest is mostly timeline tweaks.
(Needless to say, even when Blaine hasn’t physically abused Amber, he has done so emotionally frequently. Also needless to say, he and Amber have beaten the shit out of each other as superhero antics, but that’s kind of different.)
Having lived in several cities with infamously corrupt police, I can definitely assure you, police in several parts of the states are the *last* thing you want to be relying on, outside of things like filing noise complaints. Anything beyond that- rather, anything where you have to interact with police directly- can, and in those regions usually will- backfire on you.
And my regions were all centralized+disorganized corruption. That is to say, corruption due to the police structure [this is a direct quote: “I’m police, so I can do anything I want.”], accompanied by the police being on the take *by everyone*.
In a region like the one in the comic, where there’s an organized criminal influence affecting the police, they may end up being less bullying than the police I’m used to, but they’re likely that much more effective in being a danger to others.
1) Muzak was a company that did “elevator music” installations in public areas of buildings, especially in stores and shopping malls.
2) and then I hacked them. Hehhehheh.
And if you’re the victim of a terribly unjust crime,
And yer friend’s a vigilante with vengeance on her mind,
Don’t be nervous, don’t be bashful, don’t be scared,….
Be prepared!
I Definitely can’t think of any simpler way to get out of paying child support. You should see what I did to avoid my school loans, I didn’t realize things had gotten out of hand until after I had already stolen the moon.
In Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, an actor named Timothy Lawrence had his face and voice surgically altered so that he could be a body double for a sociopathic nutcase, and wound up battling armies and aliens on a rapidly disintegrating moon. And all to pay off his student loans.
As someone who was still paying off his school debt when that game came out, it sounded like a deal to me.
Yeah. There’s no way the mob is going to make any money out of this, and it doesn’t seem likely that they would be so fond of Blaine as to spend any resources on this shitty scheme of his out of a generous impulse.
“I’ll spend tens of thousands of dollars (???) on bail money to avoid having to pay tens of thousands of dollars in college fees!” (Yes you get 90% of the money back when they show up in court, true.) But you’re onto something here.
This isn’t about the college fees though. That might’ve been his original goal, but at this point it’s far beyond that. This is about Blaine’s pride. Amber and the other kids defied him. AG beat him. This is unacceptable to him, so now he wants to make them pay dearly for that.
In all honesty, a part of me really wants AG to spontaneously have hyenas at her beck and call.
AG: “We don’t need police. Remember: Amazi-girl is always Prepared.”
**pack of hyenas fades in from the background – “Be Prepared” theme plays**
That would not have worked. “oh, a teenager with pyjamas for a cape and a raggedy mask says something drastic has happened and we actually need to take action?” they would doubt the shit put of that.
Given the fact Amber/Amazi-girl just took out like 4 of them, unarmed, would you really say the feds are a reliable resource? especially in the short timeframe they have.
The Secret Service protects the president of the United States, the vice president of the United States, the president’s and vice president’s immediate families, former presidents, their spouses, and their minor children under the age of 16, major presidential and vice-presidential candidates and their spouses, and visiting foreign heads of state. The Secret Service also provides physical security for the White House Complex, the neighboring Treasury Department building, the vice president’s residence, and all foreign diplomatic missions in Washington, D.C.
The campaign staff of members of Congress are not on the list.
A friend of mine was a reporter in DC working the Treasury beat during the Bush administration, and she got to know some of the Secret Service agents providing security there. I happened to visit when the White House gardens were being re-opened to the public for the first time after 9-11, and I went with my friend with a Secret Service contact of hers (off-duty) as a sort of impromptu tour guide. His perspective was pretty interesting!
Some of it’s probably principle, but also I think going to court would bring his finances under higher scrutiny, and that’s REALLY not want a dude who cooks the books for the mob would want.
He can pay, he could afford to pay dozens of times over. It’s entirely about pride for him, being forced to pay for Amber, who he sees as weak and useless, not deserving any money.
I doubt that he can pay a few times over, but Amber is his scapegoat for his own problems. In his head, she’s the reason he’s not rich yet. That’s what he tells himself and Faz’s mother. He probably has some trouble with money of his own but in his own mind he could afford the gambling or alcohol or whatever, if only Amber didn’t bleed his finances.
If Blaine is actually a major money launderer for the Mob, which everything we’ve heard about him makes it sound like, then he’s got a ton of money. I don’t think we’ve heard anything that makes it sound like he’s not got enough.
He’s pretty clearly not living a high end lifestyle – not poor, but also not living in mansions. He’s a lower scale money launderer, I suspect.
That said, it’s not the money that’s driving him here, whatever he said to Yuri and Faz.
Plus it’s always possible that he makes plenty of money and he’s broke. We know he has absolutely terribly judgment, so he might have a bad gambling habit or just really terrible money management skills. I’ve read about plenty of real life criminals with similar situations.
Blaine could absolutely pay for amber many times over without any worry. he’s doing this out of spite and ‘principle’ – why should he have too pay for her, is the reason
Pretty sure it’s been suggested that Blaine doesn’t have as much power/prestige as he likes to present. Mob likely doesn’t give two fucks about his personal finances. Note that it wasn’t the mob helping him with the abductions, but rather local shitheads, at least one of whom had a bone to pick with AmaziGirl.
Aside from Yuri’s comments to Faz about not being able to afford sending him somewhere, I would be inclined to think he cooked this whole scheme up merely for the sake of pride–it’s definitely a major contributing factor, at least.
I GUARANTEE you – like, 110% sure, if I am wrong I will eat my hat certain – that Yuri does not have a full sense of Blaine’s finances and what he actually pays for Amber, because he wouldn’t give her that access. If Faz can go away to college, he has ways to get out from under Blaine’s thumb. He has resources to potentially realize how fucked up his situation is. Blaine is not letting that happen.
He’s so absolutely the kind of abusive shitbag to financially abuse people. I mean, we know he uses his contributions as a weapon against Amber. He’s not giving Yuri the full sense of finances. (Personally, I hope she finds out at the end of this storyline and fucking murders him.) The only doubt in my mind is the possibility Yuri’s in on this and they’re both keeping Faz dependent on them, but even then I can’t see Blaine letting his tools in any more than he absolutely has to
YUP. Even if she’s a mobster’s daughter like I like to head canon, I doubt she knows how much he, personally, is paid (and I think it’s possible Blaine’s skimming off the top for his personal funds) or knows that he’s not making enough, even with his ‘extra job’ to pay for two college tuitions out of pocket.
So yeah, I like to imagine Blaine’s gonna end up dead if/when she finds out all of this.
Agreed on all levels, especially ‘Yuri’s a mobster’s daughter’ and ‘Blaine may well be embezzling.’
Two college tuitions is admittedly a lot, but if she had any real say in family finances whatsoever Blaine would NOT be spending all this money on his batshit vengeance scheme. Like, we all know there’s no universe where this is cost-effective! Also, he’s gonna attract way too much attention that could be traced back in the BEST-CASE scenarios! (If Yuri knows enough to know this plan she has to know he’s a mob stooge) This is not a plan where any logic ever intruded.
I think Yuri always knew he was a mob stooge. When Amber said Yuri and Blaine met at his construction business (Patreon strip) she said ‘Sure, that sounds fine’ which makes me think the way they met was related to the mob.
Whether r not she knows all the details of his batshit evil plan on the other hand…
I don’t disagree in the slightest. She clearly enables Blaine, and Faz is obviously being used (though he could still be just as bad…his offhand comments to Amber and others could go either way: an accurate representation of how he feels versus an attempt to gather sympathy and sow doubt, though I really want to assume the former).
But I took Yuri’s remarks more to mean they couldn’t send him somewhere ‘prestigious’ for image sake and that if they couldn’t do that, why bother with anything else versus literally being unable to afford sending him somewhere. Especially given things like student aid, which Blaine would obviously balk at given the attention that would place on his finances.
I tend to think, based off the Yikesy Implications we had established during Faz’s last storyline (where Amber strongly suspects Faz is her half-brother and Sarah remarks on how young she is, with Amber going ‘Yeah, I know and I don’t think about it’,) that Yuri’s not just another victim of Blaine’s – a safe bet, dudes like him don’t typically stop the partner abuse once they’ve left the one – but that he also groomed her as a teenager. So I’d hesitate to call her ‘enabling’ him, because the likelihood he’s abusing her and has done so for over a decade is so high.
The comments – ‘can’t afford to send you anywhere’ and ‘sucking this family dry’ in particular – don’t make it super clear, but the second one does seem more suggestive of her actually being worried about their finances to me. Or appearing as such to Faz.
Basically, I think he’s calling in every favor he’s ever been owed and ending up owing a whole bunch of other people in the mob in order to pull this off.
I’m pretty sure the only other mob person involved is Ash, and that’s because of blackmail. The goons seem to be chuckle fucks with an amazi bone to pick
He is not an important, nor even a significant, figure in the mob. I don’t think he is even a full member. He has been described as a “stooge” (i.e. someone who knowingly allows the mob to take advantage of him), and Asher says that his Gramps owns Blaine.
Amber didn’t know, and maybe still doesn’t know this part (she’s not tagged) … remember that she and amazi-girl haven’t been sharing memories for a while, and they arn’t fulling integrated again yet.
Better idea… No.
Becky was under protection with Federal agents… people outside of the network of crime contacts. She should have just told them what was happening. Let the FBI handle it.
I mean, if it gets to the mob’s contact in the police, that adds the possibility it might escalate. Pretty sure the boss hasn’t okayed all these resources being used.
But yeah, that also makes sense as a reason not to go to the police.
Clarify how Mike knows about the mafia again?
He’s smart but he seems to have found out as a high schooler and even though I considered myself an astute high schooler tax returns seem to be out of most high schooler’s grasps, and out of the skillset of Mike when he started being more assholeish.
Add in whatever he DID see on those business receipts and tax returns (probably not a lot, but enough to see ‘shady’ and we know he brought up the Korean barbecue one that Blaine immediately recognized as a threat – I think his scene in those flashbacks also implied what he saw then was maybe also evidence of Blaine’s cheating?) to the later knowledge – and Joe’s dad knew as well, so it’s clear Stacy found out – and I could see Mike doing some process of elimination stuff as to what mob he was tied to. Doesn’t take a lot to put together a common theme in the receipts that don’t have anything to do with his supposed business, and that not all of them are dates.
One question. Is Blaine really this valuable?! Police officers on the take. Is the mob he works for really going to divert all these resources so one guy can get away with revenging on a college student and stop paying his daughter’s tuition?
he’s the guy moving and hiding their money. even if he himself doesn’t have much pull, him getting taken in and squealing would be very, very bad for the mob as he will have both names and proof
and lets be fair, blaine would squeel without a seconds thought
See, I could understand that a few weeks ago when this was just Mike but now this has escalated to a point where Blaine’s become way more of a liability than an asset. It’s like six people now the mob has to get rid of, all with loved ones. But I guess there’s the real possibility the mob doesn’t actually know about any of this.
I’d love it if Mike came in all big damned heroes with the mob in tow. He gets handed a nickel (he was offered a large sum of money as thanks, but all he wanted was a nickel), then Asher’s family goes up to Blaine and drags him off to “have a talk” while the enforcers just glare at the kidnapping victims and go, “You saw nothing, you heard nothing, you know nothing. Your school is aware you were kidnapped and the kidnapper tragically died fleeing from police”
The corrupt police then take them back to the campus
At this point it is far, far easier and cheaper, and better for discipline, to kill Blaine than all the people who might identify him. There’s Ross, both bozo brothers, Mike, Amber, Dorothy, Ethan, Joyce, Sarah, and Walky who might any of them get Blaine into so much trouble that his only way of ever being free would be a witness protection program. And besides the trouble and expense, there is also the issue that you want to send a message to your stooges that they have to keep their heads down, not a signal that if they go on an orgy of ill-motivated violence you’ll commission a mass murder to keep them out of trouble.
It’s possible Blaine has told some convincing lies to his bosses. Perhaps he’s portrayed Amazi-girl as some sort of threat to their activities. If so this will probably all blow up in his face.
I see very few ways this plot ends that DON’T involve Blaine killed by his bosses for gross misuse of assets and judgment. And of those remaining options, several ALSO involve Blaine dead, either from his injuries (probably exacerbated by a Kickass Fight Scene where reality finally reasserts himself, for added AmbG angst,) or Yuri fucking killing him when she finds out.
Basically, I will be shocked if Blaine exits this arc alive.
I don’t think he can have told his bosses in the mob anything about this at all. If he had their backing in any way he wouldn’t be blackmailing Asher or hiring the bozo brothers. The first that Asher’s gramps is going to about this absurd enterprise will be later today.
Agreed. I can kiiind of see the possibility where he’s been talking up AG as a personal threat for months, but even then I doubt anyone would sign off on kidnapping seven people, working with Ross (who cannot be trusted to keep his mouth shut and is pretty high-profile,) and letting Blaine be a supervillain. (While still requiring him to, yeah, blackmail Asher – if anyone actually mob believed AG was actually a threat, they’d be involved themselves.)
And then, gross misuse of assets and judgment will apply. Seriously with how this escalated the ONLY other options for Blaine are like ‘coma, then dies offscreen once Gramps finds out’ or ‘dies in jail, plausible deniability that he was killed by the mob’. He’s not gonna stop unless something makes him stop, and once it does I can’t imagine it ending well for him.
The only string we’ve seen Blaine pull having to do with the mob is blackmailing Asher, the grandson of the boss. He didn’t get Ross through mob contacts, and his muscle for this operation seem to be two campus bullies with grudges against Amazi-Girl.
If the mob has people inside the department, Mike might just be worried about Blaine getting a tipoff from them, rather than any drastic use of mob resources.
My wildass, certainly not going to happen, prediction is that Mike’s mom finds out about this and goes the Executioner on these guys, despite previously being shown as disturbingly nice.
Not all of them; in fact, I’d say the greater majority of them aren’t. But it’s as Mike says, *some of them* are corrupt/on the take, so you don’t want to take the chance of one of the dirty ones finding out.
Finding out they called the police despite the explicit warning/orders not to. And then (presumably) informing their mob buddies who’d then kill the kids and/or Mike in retaliation. (As is the traditional threat in these situations).
Same general danger with the ambulance. Mob stooge listens in, notes which bed Mike is moved to, has buddy ready to sabotage life support.
Not necessarily Blaine’s side. Just the mobs. Blaine’s construction business launders money for them. If they arrest him, odds are they’ll investigate his business and/or house to see if there was any evidence there. At which point there will be a LOT of evidence of money laundering which will lead them to investigate where the cash came from….
Yeah, the mob’s not gonna want him caught. He might be a stooge but he’s a stooge that can lead cops to dirty money. Mobsters REALLY LIKE to keep their money.
Do the cops know? I don’t think they do. I think the implication is that Blaine knows Mike’s aware of the mob connections and if anyone goes to the cops he’d rat them out to the corrupt ones. The real question is why hasn’t he done that already. My guess is to save face. It takes a real incompetent stooge to get found out by a middle school kid and be blackmailed by that kid for years! Which maybe does add some credibility to the Mike death threat but then that just opens up more questions so this is kind of a rabbit hole here.
So Mike is afraid of going to hospital because he thinks that Blaine would blackmail corrupt police into killing him if he were there. But he’s not afraid of Blaine blackmailing corrupt cops into shooting him dead on the street?
Ten minutes ago Mike was contemptuously baiting Blaine and treating him as a joke. Now Mike thinks Blaine is an insidious mastermind who can have the cops kill whomever he nominates?
Why would Mike going to hospital give the corrupt police an ability to keep Blaine’s ass out of jail that they would not have otherwise?
If Mike was so intent on having Blaine’s ass sent to jail that he is willing to refuse medical treatment for serious injuries to achieve it, why the nonsense with the scooters? Why not write down what he knows about Blaine and send it to the DA a week and a half ago? (With copies to the press, the state attorney-general, and the FBI.)
The scooters thing puts Blaine and Ross in a place they’re legally not supposed to be (credit cards, location-tracked rent-a-rides), and adds many, many witnesses. It’s enough to get them out of the way for a while (Ross especially), but not so big the mob feels the need to step in.
…and now that you mention it, some parts of the story make more sense if Mike has already talked to the feds. Blaine being in jail on local charges might get in the way of a federal case.
1) Mike going to the hospital isn’t the issue. Dirty cops burying everything so Blaine doesn’t go to jail and can still kidnap Becky is the issue.
2) Mike didn’t actually know Blaine and Ross were sniffing around until like 48 hours ago. Why on Earth should he have thought to make and send that info?
I think it’s more or less just the police not knowing. I assume if Mike’s alive and in a coma like Blaine claimed then the hospital staff assumes it was an accident with no witnesses to testify otherwise.
If Blaine goes to the corrupt cops or the mob and reveals that a college student know about their illegal activity that makes Mike a target but it would probably also blow back on Blaine creating a sort of stalemate between them.
That’s my best guestimation about what’s going on here.
I don’t know. I’ve only called 911 once in my life and it was for a medical emergency but the police still came so maybe that’s why? Although you’d think they could just lie about what happened, but he did just fall off a flight of stairs and definitely has a concussion at the very least so he probably wasn’t thinking too clearly.
You can tell police that you fell as easily as you can tell paramedics that you fell.
So unless Mike is so well-known to corrupt police in Bloomington that they will do bad things on recognising him (that they haven’t done already and wouldn’t do anyway) I don’t see what Mike’s motive is. What difference does it make that corrupt police know that Mike is hurt?
Is Mike trying to keep out of hospital. What difference does his being in hospital make?
Is Mike trying to conceal his injuries from corrupt police? What difference does it make if corrupt police know he’s injured?
I don’t think Mike’s refusing to go to the hospital, just refusing 911 which would just provide the ambulance. Right now I’m betting on amazi stealing ross’ car and driving him there
I don’t get it. If Blaine was such a big mobster, he could have manipulated the divorce settlement or have had Amber killed ages ago. And how does Mike know anything about the Bloomington police force? Did he sleep with all their wives (for a nickel)?
Blaine’s not a big mobster is the problem. He’s a stooge. He probably knows a few guys here and there (a few of the dirty cops – money launderers need to know them, maybe the guy in the hospital to kill Mike if that’s a mobster). The people he had with Joyce and co were Ross (not mob) and a couple of Ryan’s buddies (not mob).
I’ve got no idea how Mike would know which cops were on the take.
He could simply be afraid that since some are, that if he’s hospitalized Blaine will find out where he is and be able to get at him. They won’t need to recognize him, since the hospital would have his id and know who he was.
It’s still a little sketchy, but not as bad as you’re painting it.
We also don’t know what happened after this scene.
He doesn’t say he knows who is corrupt, just that he knows some of them are (who does not know that?). He also knows that Blaine’s on the mob payroll. Mike’s not Elliot Ness’ pal and he’s just giving a general warning.
I took it to be misleading, but now that you made me think about Mike as infiltrated teenager in a mob organisation, making friends with Amber (and eventually falling -literally- for her) to get to her dad’s bosses, I want it to be right.
How powerful is Blaine in the Korean mob? Do the crooked cops even care about some psycho with a mask. On of the few valuable lessons from Kickass (both the movies and the comics) is that mobsters aren’t going to risk their necks for some lunatic playing to be a super villain just to spite a masked vigilante.
Can we finally call the Phantom Thieves? If they aren’t avilable, then this whole situation seems too grim and I don’t want to side with Sarah. I don’t like siding with pessimists. It makes me feel like there’s no hope.
He may not have that much power. However, he may be very good at using the implication of his employers’ sanction to get assistance from corrupt officials and low-level capos. If I’m right, when he ends up back in the big house, there are going to be several very expensive and powerful criminals who will want to extract debts from his hide.
I’m hoping he’s alive, but this only confirms that he didn’t immediately die after falling off the fire escape. I’m not gonna assume Mike’s dead though until we see it confirmed in a later strip.
He definitely loses consciousness at the end of that panel.
Whether his neck is broken or if that blood’s from a head injury is yet to be seen. From that angle it looks like he landed flat on his back, but he could also have rolled over while AG was rushing down.
Mazie, you might as well tell water to run uphill but it’s good of you to make the effort.
Not into traditional comic book stories? Well, now the characters are living in one. Right down to the omnipresent mob influence and the complete failure of the state to guarantee law and order.
Okay, Becky’s the first sensible character in this storyline so far…
As for Amber’s proposal… well, at least she’s not trying to get Becky to Ross. Still, if the police cannot be trusted, then… how about the plan B that has been suggested here in the comments and contacting *Robin*?
Even IF the police are on the take and can’t be trusted, calling an ambulance because you saw someone fall will have medical aid come by. If the police are also called in, there’s a 50/50 chance they get there after the ambu takes you to safety. AG should have called them and hide
I don’t think the concern is that the cops will show up and shoot Mike in cold blood because a mob stooge wants them too, but that they’ll pass word along to Blaine once he’s in the system.
I am surprised only one person so far has mentioned Robin, who for all her goofiness does seem savvy about things like this. Telling her that Toedad, cheapo mobster Blaine and Co. are kidnapping college kids to try to get her campaign manager is enough to get her truly pissed. And in spite of the evidence here and IRL, a member of Congress actually can get a fair bit done in a situation like this.
It could make for some hilarious results.
Robin: Oh, you want to escalate to get at my Campaign Manager? Fine!
An hour later a NAVY Seals Team kicks in the door to where the kids are being held.
I mentioned that in the context of it being extremely unlikely the police will shoot hostages when a member of Congress called them in to rescue them, but had no takers.
Well, I appreciate more attempts to try and cross the canyon of Willing Suspension of Disbelief of why we can’t just call the cops, even if I’m not there yet mentally.
Now we’re basically Kung Fury Miami 1985. The reason we can’t trust the cops is: the city is a total lawless wasteland, where the few good cops not under Mafia rule trying to enforce order get their cars flipped into the air by skateboards and exploded with Uzis. And only an Amazi-girl, who was struck by lightning and bitten by a cobra, can punch and kick her way to victory while sick 80s synth music plays! PS she’s also Hackerman. I feel like Kung Fury even has a similar gritty voice, although his speech bubble feels red instead of blue.
I still read the comic every day, I’m learning to suspend disbelief further.
PS: Kung Fury is super energetic for any not yet familiar and hilarious. The cop skateboard thing happens in the first 15 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS5P_LAqiVg
One thing to also note is that all of this is definitely coloured by Mike and Amber’s cynical world-views. ‘Cops are useless’ is a mentality that people have, regardless of whether it’s true or not, and people will search for evidence to confirm that.
There could literally be only two cops that Blaine has ‘some’ leverage over, and that could be leverage that these two cops would be willing to disregard the second it comes to rescuing kidnapped teenagers/not letting someone kill a kid in a hospital bed. Unfortunately for Amber, Mike’s painted a picture for her of ‘Trust no one’ where the majority of police could probably be trusted.
We’ve seen police in this series generally portrayed in a positive light (the police after Toedad’s first attack for example). I think this is more Amazi-Girl’s perception of them than anything else.
The counterpoint to that is, this is a setting where a costumed vigilante has been running around beating people up for months – with relatively little official response. How useful are the cops going to be seen as in this setting when A) a vigilante has had to fill in the gaps, and B) she has been continuing to act without any apparent official action?
(Cynicism aside, Mike and Amazi-Amber have been friends long enough to know when to trust each other, and he’s using precious consciousness to tell her something when they both know he could be dying. Why question that?)
It all depends on the point of view. Who you trust in a crisis depends on who you are, what are your past experiences, and when you are very young on what was your environment at home. Some characters’ (Becky, even AG) first reaction is to call the cops, others (Sarah, Mike) are less inclined to that.
This, tbh. It depends on the character’s backstories. Joyce and Becky were raised to trust authority figures and AG is a superhero working on superhero cliches so they immediately go for cops. Sal, who has a lot of history of abusive authority figures, and Sarah, who is cynical and aware of crime rates – including crimes committed by police and whom they disproportionately affect, are more cynical.
Sure, tell the homeless kid that finally found some modicum of stability in her life to abandon everything and run away (with what money), leaving her best friend/girlfriend in danger.
I assume this isn’t a run away forever scenario and more a “please eliminate yourself as more potential leverage in this situation so I can report back that I couldn’t find you.” Becky is the only reason Ross is involved in this kidnapping scheme and if she can’t be found that will cause a conflict between Ross and Blaine. Of course they could also just decide to kill the hostages if AG doesn’t bring Becky so I this still probably isn’t the best advice.
I’d have immense respect for Willis if this is all an elaborate way of showing that Amber’s ideas are completely horrible and she needs to ditch her comic book worldview.
I am big fan of superheroes and I believe superheroes can give good inspiration to be good people. With that said, I think Amber is taking inspiration from the wrong kind of comic book characters: anti-heroes, extremist vigilantes like Rorschach, the Punisher, Batman by Frank Miller, and every edgy superhero movie.
Not really. If she was inspired by Rorschach or the Punisher, she’d be actively killing people. Certainly Batman, but not particularly the Frank Miller version.
Amazi-Girl was always a terrible idea. I don’t know if Willis will push things much further, but the whole of Amber’s DOA arc is she trying to escape purgatory through Batman-land and falling to hell.
I have found this webcomic and am sufficiently invested after looking at a bunch of random pages after looking at a bunch of stuff on the wiki. So I guess I am going to go back and read this thing now.
Welcome to a weird universe! I discovered “Shortpacked” first (through a friend in S.F. whose toy website was hosting one-shot SP custom strips on his site). A few weeks after discovering SP, I read that Willis was re-realizing his “Roomies” strip as DOA in Sept 2010. Haven’t missed one since. Enjoy the ride!
Is the walkyverse stuff really necessary to read through? From what I understand this is a totally separate continuity just with shared characters and some extra references here and there. I mean, I might go back and read it eventually, but this seems like a sizable amount of pages to get through on its own anyways.
doesn’t she have Robin’s government security staff? I’m pretty sure one or two of those guys could be pretty good in this situation, and I doubt any of them are in her dad’s pocket.
Do you mean those people hired to protect Becky, that AG managed to take down three of solo because they weren’t paying that much attention or even good at self defense? And that we don’t even know if they were vetted or just some guys with sunglasses that Robin hired off a street corner?
This…is exactly what I suspected. This is the logical explanation for how the mob/cronies could kidnap the kids, after a FIRE ALARM was pulled, in the middle of campus, without IUPD up their asses.
People seem to have weird expectations of cops. I mean, I’m far more surprised that they were able to kidnap 6 kids out of the middle of the crowd without any one else noticing (except Dina) than that cops hadn’t shown up and secured the scene within minutes of the alarm going off.
I am not looking at the collared shirt, I am, however, looking at the fact that flashback mike has a black long sleeve undershirt and the one in your link has bare arms…
I’ve followed Willis’ works for years, this doesn’t seem like an accidental difference, or if it were, he’d correct it as soon as someone mentioned it. He’s very, very detail oriented (part of how I’ve been able to happily follow his work for two decades).
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Is… is mike actually dead
What if Mike was actually lying about the police mob thing and just wanted to die?
Mike’s a lot of things, but didn’t get the impression he was out-and-out suicidal.
Well, he did throw himself off the fire escape.
(With Blane in his arms, mind, but it was still a Taking You With Me-type of moment.)
If he had Blane to land on, everything would be fine. I’m just disappointed that the car in the flashback doesn’t have a big dent in the roof.
However, Amber’s speech bubble covers most of the roof. Until shown otherwise, I’m going to assume that it does.
The windshield isn’t shattered or even cracked, nor is there deformation in the frame. No way did he land on the car.
I don’t think Mike had any desire to die, I think he just read Blaine like an open book and saw how that mask made him feel free to go full blown mass murderer, and so Mike jumped on what he thought was the only opportunity to nip the situation in the bud before everything extremely escalated.
Doubt it.
Maybe he’s hidden somewhere safe. Leslie?
That would be a good twist, but I can’t imagine she wouldn’t tell Becky about it.
Or call the cops.
He’s at the Amazi-Cave where Amazi-Girl’s maid, Elfreda, is caring for him.
She only serves as a maid part time though. The rest of the time she’s taking care of the hyena’s.
Looking at the flashback scenes again… this got dark.
I mean, Willis did put a blanket warning fro this arc for now until June 23 so just…OOF is this gonna be a SIT
Shelter…
In…
Terror?
Well, they *were* taking place at night.
I’m starting to believe he is.
I’m sure some police people are aware of shitty dads and/or had shitty dads themselves and so could emphasize.
That isn’t the issue Amber’s worries about having with going to the cops.
But even if it was, cops are not that great at helping with intergenerational abuse. Amber would be more likely to get a dose of “but heeee’s your daaaaaaaad” or “it’s not like he hit you!” ToeDad’s biggest mistake was how public we went with things. If he hadn’t escalated so hard, he’d have probably gotten away with his objectives.
He beat his wife; not sure if he ever hit Amber but I wouldn’t put it past him
There’s precedent from Shortpacked, but the exact circumstances seem unlikely to have replicated: That Amber said he only hit her the once (‘I was lucky’), when he found her in bed with a boy as a teenager. In general Walkyverse to Dumbiverse is often a coin toss whether Willis uses elements of backstory or not, but I bring it up because Blaine has had like, 90% or so of his Shortpacked characterization adapted. The biggest difference is that he married Yuri so he knows Faz exists, the rest is mostly timeline tweaks.
(Needless to say, even when Blaine hasn’t physically abused Amber, he has done so emotionally frequently. Also needless to say, he and Amber have beaten the shit out of each other as superhero antics, but that’s kind of different.)
From what Mike says, it sounds like some of them are corrupt or in with Zane mob.
Blaine’s mob, not Zane’s mob.
The Zane mob couldn’t possibly belong to Blaine on account of he’s not Korean.
Having lived in several cities with infamously corrupt police, I can definitely assure you, police in several parts of the states are the *last* thing you want to be relying on, outside of things like filing noise complaints. Anything beyond that- rather, anything where you have to interact with police directly- can, and in those regions usually will- backfire on you.
And my regions were all centralized+disorganized corruption. That is to say, corruption due to the police structure [this is a direct quote: “I’m police, so I can do anything I want.”], accompanied by the police being on the take *by everyone*.
In a region like the one in the comic, where there’s an organized criminal influence affecting the police, they may end up being less bullying than the police I’m used to, but they’re likely that much more effective in being a danger to others.
*To be clear, when I say “infamously corrupt”, I mean “one of the regions even had to pay millions in fines because of it”.
*plays MJ’s “Beat It” on the hacked Muzak*
ok, I’m sorry, but I have to ask
what is this hacked Muzak everyone keeps referencing
1) Muzak was a company that did “elevator music” installations in public areas of buildings, especially in stores and shopping malls.
2) and then I hacked them. Hehhehheh.
ha, thanks
I always thought that was slang from the 30’s particularly used by 60’s sci-fi authors like Moorcock….
The Condition of Muzak?
Nah, that was a reference to the same elevator music thing.
**plays “Be Prepared” on the hacked Muzak**
Sorry, the only “Be Prepared” I know is the Tom Lehrer one … and I don’t really think that’s the one you’re referring to.
It probably is, check out the alt-text.
Rose is referring to “Be Prepared” from Lion King based on the alt-text. Although, I’m a bigger fan of Tom Lehrer myself.
And if you’re the victim of a terribly unjust crime,
And yer friend’s a vigilante with vengeance on her mind,
Don’t be nervous, don’t be bashful, don’t be scared,….
Be prepared!
Trying the link again … Be Prepared
Vigilantes don’t call number, they have YOUR number.
Hovertext: Amazi-Girl is the villain confirmed!
What does it say that I thought the hover text was a reference to Harley Quinn?
That you’re more of a comic book fan than a Disney fan, probably.
Call the media. All of them.
Then call the po-po.
Too sensible.
All of them?
… Fox News might not be a good pick, here, given the hate groups they draw pundits from.
Yeah, but De Santo is a GOP Representative.
Not sure they’re on speaking terms anymore, considering her current Becky-driven campaign approach. 😛
Blaine’s scheme sure is elaborate for what his goals are.
I Definitely can’t think of any simpler way to get out of paying child support. You should see what I did to avoid my school loans, I didn’t realize things had gotten out of hand until after I had already stolen the moon.
In Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, an actor named Timothy Lawrence had his face and voice surgically altered so that he could be a body double for a sociopathic nutcase, and wound up battling armies and aliens on a rapidly disintegrating moon. And all to pay off his student loans.
As someone who was still paying off his school debt when that game came out, it sounded like a deal to me.
Why stop at stealing it? Pull a Facepuncher and sock it one instead!
The moon isn’t for stealing. It’s for pissing on.
I thought it was for smashing into small towns.
Controlling and terrorizing his daughter seems like an end unto itself for Blaine…
The real question is what is in it for his mob friends.
Yeah. There’s no way the mob is going to make any money out of this, and it doesn’t seem likely that they would be so fond of Blaine as to spend any resources on this shitty scheme of his out of a generous impulse.
“I’ll spend tens of thousands of dollars (???) on bail money to avoid having to pay tens of thousands of dollars in college fees!” (Yes you get 90% of the money back when they show up in court, true.) But you’re onto something here.
To steal a quote Heath Ledger, it’s not about the money. It’s about sending a message.
I don’t think you get the money back when they show up to court because they’ve been arrested again for new crimes.
This isn’t about the college fees though. That might’ve been his original goal, but at this point it’s far beyond that. This is about Blaine’s pride. Amber and the other kids defied him. AG beat him. This is unacceptable to him, so now he wants to make them pay dearly for that.
Long live the king.
Damn, someone beat me to the punch…
I tip my hat to you…
In all honesty, a part of me really wants AG to spontaneously have hyenas at her beck and call.
AG: “We don’t need police. Remember: Amazi-girl is always Prepared.”
**pack of hyenas fades in from the background – “Be Prepared” theme plays**
Never assume a hero does not have hyenas at her disposal.
I need this now.
No king, no king, lalala la la la!
This is a terrible idea, Amber.
Gotta fight terrible with terrible
The biggest problem is I don’t really know where Becky would be able to go, even if she did leave.
Jocelyn, maybe? That’s the only safe place outside of the college-adjacent area I could see her going, even, but I doubt Becky listens.
Also, she had guards. Now she doesn’t.
Yeah. Unless those guards were hired from Gramps’ mob it seems rather counterproductive to take them out rather than, say, tip them off.
That would not have worked. “oh, a teenager with pyjamas for a cape and a raggedy mask says something drastic has happened and we actually need to take action?” they would doubt the shit put of that.
OTOH, someone who just beat them all senseless in thirty seconds might be someone worth listening to
If she tipped them off, they’d call the police, which she’s trying to avoid
I think this story is going to some fairly elaborate lengths to avoid calling the police.
After all, this is a masked vigilante story, not a cop story.
Look, im just gonna come out and say it… PLEASE DON’T KILL MIKE!
Nah, the hyenas would recognize he’s one of them.
YOU GIRLS
THERE ARE THREE OR FOUR GOD DANG SECRET SERVICE AGENTS RIGHT THERE
CALL THE FEDS
Given the fact Amber/Amazi-girl just took out like 4 of them, unarmed, would you really say the feds are a reliable resource? especially in the short timeframe they have.
More likely they’re rentacops.
I think they’re just hired security red shirts rather than feds…
The Secret Service protects the president of the United States, the vice president of the United States, the president’s and vice president’s immediate families, former presidents, their spouses, and their minor children under the age of 16, major presidential and vice-presidential candidates and their spouses, and visiting foreign heads of state. The Secret Service also provides physical security for the White House Complex, the neighboring Treasury Department building, the vice president’s residence, and all foreign diplomatic missions in Washington, D.C.
The campaign staff of members of Congress are not on the list.
A friend of mine was a reporter in DC working the Treasury beat during the Bush administration, and she got to know some of the Secret Service agents providing security there. I happened to visit when the White House gardens were being re-opened to the public for the first time after 9-11, and I went with my friend with a Secret Service contact of hers (off-duty) as a sort of impromptu tour guide. His perspective was pretty interesting!
His mob is this strong but he can’t pay for his kids in state college or like, to buck the payment and get off in court?
Some of it’s probably principle, but also I think going to court would bring his finances under higher scrutiny, and that’s REALLY not want a dude who cooks the books for the mob would want.
He can pay, he could afford to pay dozens of times over. It’s entirely about pride for him, being forced to pay for Amber, who he sees as weak and useless, not deserving any money.
I doubt that he can pay a few times over, but Amber is his scapegoat for his own problems. In his head, she’s the reason he’s not rich yet. That’s what he tells himself and Faz’s mother. He probably has some trouble with money of his own but in his own mind he could afford the gambling or alcohol or whatever, if only Amber didn’t bleed his finances.
If Blaine is actually a major money launderer for the Mob, which everything we’ve heard about him makes it sound like, then he’s got a ton of money. I don’t think we’ve heard anything that makes it sound like he’s not got enough.
He’s pretty clearly not living a high end lifestyle – not poor, but also not living in mansions. He’s a lower scale money launderer, I suspect.
That said, it’s not the money that’s driving him here, whatever he said to Yuri and Faz.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Blaine is just that much of a dick.
Then again, Blaine is clearly insane in the Batman sense.
Plus it’s always possible that he makes plenty of money and he’s broke. We know he has absolutely terribly judgment, so he might have a bad gambling habit or just really terrible money management skills. I’ve read about plenty of real life criminals with similar situations.
Blaine could absolutely pay for amber many times over without any worry. he’s doing this out of spite and ‘principle’ – why should he have too pay for her, is the reason
also he’s crazy, and now a cartoon character
Pretty sure it’s been suggested that Blaine doesn’t have as much power/prestige as he likes to present. Mob likely doesn’t give two fucks about his personal finances. Note that it wasn’t the mob helping him with the abductions, but rather local shitheads, at least one of whom had a bone to pick with AmaziGirl.
Aside from Yuri’s comments to Faz about not being able to afford sending him somewhere, I would be inclined to think he cooked this whole scheme up merely for the sake of pride–it’s definitely a major contributing factor, at least.
I GUARANTEE you – like, 110% sure, if I am wrong I will eat my hat certain – that Yuri does not have a full sense of Blaine’s finances and what he actually pays for Amber, because he wouldn’t give her that access. If Faz can go away to college, he has ways to get out from under Blaine’s thumb. He has resources to potentially realize how fucked up his situation is. Blaine is not letting that happen.
He’s so absolutely the kind of abusive shitbag to financially abuse people. I mean, we know he uses his contributions as a weapon against Amber. He’s not giving Yuri the full sense of finances. (Personally, I hope she finds out at the end of this storyline and fucking murders him.) The only doubt in my mind is the possibility Yuri’s in on this and they’re both keeping Faz dependent on them, but even then I can’t see Blaine letting his tools in any more than he absolutely has to
YUP. Even if she’s a mobster’s daughter like I like to head canon, I doubt she knows how much he, personally, is paid (and I think it’s possible Blaine’s skimming off the top for his personal funds) or knows that he’s not making enough, even with his ‘extra job’ to pay for two college tuitions out of pocket.
So yeah, I like to imagine Blaine’s gonna end up dead if/when she finds out all of this.
Agreed on all levels, especially ‘Yuri’s a mobster’s daughter’ and ‘Blaine may well be embezzling.’
Two college tuitions is admittedly a lot, but if she had any real say in family finances whatsoever Blaine would NOT be spending all this money on his batshit vengeance scheme. Like, we all know there’s no universe where this is cost-effective! Also, he’s gonna attract way too much attention that could be traced back in the BEST-CASE scenarios! (If Yuri knows enough to know this plan she has to know he’s a mob stooge) This is not a plan where any logic ever intruded.
I think Yuri always knew he was a mob stooge. When Amber said Yuri and Blaine met at his construction business (Patreon strip) she said ‘Sure, that sounds fine’ which makes me think the way they met was related to the mob.
Whether r not she knows all the details of his batshit evil plan on the other hand…
I don’t disagree in the slightest. She clearly enables Blaine, and Faz is obviously being used (though he could still be just as bad…his offhand comments to Amber and others could go either way: an accurate representation of how he feels versus an attempt to gather sympathy and sow doubt, though I really want to assume the former).
But I took Yuri’s remarks more to mean they couldn’t send him somewhere ‘prestigious’ for image sake and that if they couldn’t do that, why bother with anything else versus literally being unable to afford sending him somewhere. Especially given things like student aid, which Blaine would obviously balk at given the attention that would place on his finances.
I tend to think, based off the Yikesy Implications we had established during Faz’s last storyline (where Amber strongly suspects Faz is her half-brother and Sarah remarks on how young she is, with Amber going ‘Yeah, I know and I don’t think about it’,) that Yuri’s not just another victim of Blaine’s – a safe bet, dudes like him don’t typically stop the partner abuse once they’ve left the one – but that he also groomed her as a teenager. So I’d hesitate to call her ‘enabling’ him, because the likelihood he’s abusing her and has done so for over a decade is so high.
The comments – ‘can’t afford to send you anywhere’ and ‘sucking this family dry’ in particular – don’t make it super clear, but the second one does seem more suggestive of her actually being worried about their finances to me. Or appearing as such to Faz.
Being an abuse victim and being an enabler are not mutually exclusive.
Basically, I think he’s calling in every favor he’s ever been owed and ending up owing a whole bunch of other people in the mob in order to pull this off.
I’m pretty sure the only other mob person involved is Ash, and that’s because of blackmail. The goons seem to be chuckle fucks with an amazi bone to pick
He is not an important, nor even a significant, figure in the mob. I don’t think he is even a full member. He has been described as a “stooge” (i.e. someone who knowingly allows the mob to take advantage of him), and Asher says that his Gramps owns Blaine.
oh my god oh my god so amber/AG actually remembers seeing mike really fucked up… oh man
But Amber did not seem to remember the next day while dry humping Walky, so I am confused.
Amber didn’t know, and maybe still doesn’t know this part (she’s not tagged) … remember that she and amazi-girl haven’t been sharing memories for a while, and they arn’t fulling integrated again yet.
Not exactly sure how DID works, but is it possible that AG somehow released that memory to Amber?
She might know now, since they’re communicating, but we can’t tell. We know she didn’t before.
P sure there was no switch, ag just dropped the voice
Better idea… No.
Becky was under protection with Federal agents… people outside of the network of crime contacts. She should have just told them what was happening. Let the FBI handle it.
I don’t think those were federal agents, I think they were private security goons. And not great ones.
Aside the point that those aren’t feds, that would still end up with “a bunch of militarized trigger happy dudes” walzing in
I mean, if it gets to the mob’s contact in the police, that adds the possibility it might escalate. Pretty sure the boss hasn’t okayed all these resources being used.
But yeah, that also makes sense as a reason not to go to the police.
Clarify how Mike knows about the mafia again?
He’s smart but he seems to have found out as a high schooler and even though I considered myself an astute high schooler tax returns seem to be out of most high schooler’s grasps, and out of the skillset of Mike when he started being more assholeish.
because it became public, at least for why amber’s parents broke up, that blaine is a mob stooge. hence why amber also knows
it was never proven, I’d assume, as blaine isn’t in prison or murderized by his higher ups, but those formerly close to him where aware
Add in whatever he DID see on those business receipts and tax returns (probably not a lot, but enough to see ‘shady’ and we know he brought up the Korean barbecue one that Blaine immediately recognized as a threat – I think his scene in those flashbacks also implied what he saw then was maybe also evidence of Blaine’s cheating?) to the later knowledge – and Joe’s dad knew as well, so it’s clear Stacy found out – and I could see Mike doing some process of elimination stuff as to what mob he was tied to. Doesn’t take a lot to put together a common theme in the receipts that don’t have anything to do with his supposed business, and that not all of them are dates.
Because we must have a reason to distrust the police for this plot to actually work.
It’s ultimately this, but I’m slowly appreciating each additional bolt attempting to bolt that requirement onto the core plot.
I have a theory. Did we ever see what the Warners do for a living?
They, most likely, do peoples moms for a nickel.
Sure, a nickel’s not much, but they make it up on volume.
My guess is Blaine makes sure everyone knows. He really wants everyone to treat him with fear and respect, and he’s not worried about consequences.
Real-life mobsters often do the same thing! They play up their involvement, rather than hiding it; everyone knows who they are.
That alt text gave me such a giggle.
I know, right?
One question. Is Blaine really this valuable?! Police officers on the take. Is the mob he works for really going to divert all these resources so one guy can get away with revenging on a college student and stop paying his daughter’s tuition?
he’s the guy moving and hiding their money. even if he himself doesn’t have much pull, him getting taken in and squealing would be very, very bad for the mob as he will have both names and proof
and lets be fair, blaine would squeel without a seconds thought
See, I could understand that a few weeks ago when this was just Mike but now this has escalated to a point where Blaine’s become way more of a liability than an asset. It’s like six people now the mob has to get rid of, all with loved ones. But I guess there’s the real possibility the mob doesn’t actually know about any of this.
I’d love it if Mike came in all big damned heroes with the mob in tow. He gets handed a nickel (he was offered a large sum of money as thanks, but all he wanted was a nickel), then Asher’s family goes up to Blaine and drags him off to “have a talk” while the enforcers just glare at the kidnapping victims and go, “You saw nothing, you heard nothing, you know nothing. Your school is aware you were kidnapped and the kidnapper tragically died fleeing from police”
The corrupt police then take them back to the campus
Sure, but Willis wouldn’t be able to use Blaine as a villain anymore.
Comic book style resurrection is a thing in other Willis comics.
At this point it is far, far easier and cheaper, and better for discipline, to kill Blaine than all the people who might identify him. There’s Ross, both bozo brothers, Mike, Amber, Dorothy, Ethan, Joyce, Sarah, and Walky who might any of them get Blaine into so much trouble that his only way of ever being free would be a witness protection program. And besides the trouble and expense, there is also the issue that you want to send a message to your stooges that they have to keep their heads down, not a signal that if they go on an orgy of ill-motivated violence you’ll commission a mass murder to keep them out of trouble.
It’s possible Blaine has told some convincing lies to his bosses. Perhaps he’s portrayed Amazi-girl as some sort of threat to their activities. If so this will probably all blow up in his face.
I see very few ways this plot ends that DON’T involve Blaine killed by his bosses for gross misuse of assets and judgment. And of those remaining options, several ALSO involve Blaine dead, either from his injuries (probably exacerbated by a Kickass Fight Scene where reality finally reasserts himself, for added AmbG angst,) or Yuri fucking killing him when she finds out.
Basically, I will be shocked if Blaine exits this arc alive.
I don’t think he can have told his bosses in the mob anything about this at all. If he had their backing in any way he wouldn’t be blackmailing Asher or hiring the bozo brothers. The first that Asher’s gramps is going to about this absurd enterprise will be later today.
Agreed. I can kiiind of see the possibility where he’s been talking up AG as a personal threat for months, but even then I doubt anyone would sign off on kidnapping seven people, working with Ross (who cannot be trusted to keep his mouth shut and is pretty high-profile,) and letting Blaine be a supervillain. (While still requiring him to, yeah, blackmail Asher – if anyone actually mob believed AG was actually a threat, they’d be involved themselves.)
And then, gross misuse of assets and judgment will apply. Seriously with how this escalated the ONLY other options for Blaine are like ‘coma, then dies offscreen once Gramps finds out’ or ‘dies in jail, plausible deniability that he was killed by the mob’. He’s not gonna stop unless something makes him stop, and once it does I can’t imagine it ending well for him.
Aaher’s grandfather may disagree but Blaine thinks he is and evidently has the contact details necessary to pull strings…
The only string we’ve seen Blaine pull having to do with the mob is blackmailing Asher, the grandson of the boss. He didn’t get Ross through mob contacts, and his muscle for this operation seem to be two campus bullies with grudges against Amazi-Girl.
I was thinking more the corrupt police apparently in his pocket?
If the mob has people inside the department, Mike might just be worried about Blaine getting a tipoff from them, rather than any drastic use of mob resources.
My wildass, certainly not going to happen, prediction is that Mike’s mom finds out about this and goes the Executioner on these guys, despite previously being shown as disturbingly nice.
You never want to piss off the nice ones
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: “Not my daughter, you bongo!”
Moral: Never piss off the Mama Bear.
Nu-huh. It’s Becky’s turn to save Joyce, and she is not missing out on that.
So the police are on Blaine’s side, too? Bastards.
Becky should call Robin instead, if that’s a possibility.
Not all of them; in fact, I’d say the greater majority of them aren’t. But it’s as Mike says, *some of them* are corrupt/on the take, so you don’t want to take the chance of one of the dirty ones finding out.
Finding out what?
And what difference does Mike being taken to hospital by an ambulance make?
Finding out they called the police despite the explicit warning/orders not to. And then (presumably) informing their mob buddies who’d then kill the kids and/or Mike in retaliation. (As is the traditional threat in these situations).
Same general danger with the ambulance. Mob stooge listens in, notes which bed Mike is moved to, has buddy ready to sabotage life support.
Not necessarily Blaine’s side. Just the mobs. Blaine’s construction business launders money for them. If they arrest him, odds are they’ll investigate his business and/or house to see if there was any evidence there. At which point there will be a LOT of evidence of money laundering which will lead them to investigate where the cash came from….
Yeah, the mob’s not gonna want him caught. He might be a stooge but he’s a stooge that can lead cops to dirty money. Mobsters REALLY LIKE to keep their money.
Which is one thing the mobbed up police are for. Not helping out the stooge, making sure the stooge doesn’t lead the other cops back to the boss.
Yup. Their way of helping the mob might very well be a bullet in Blaine’s head.
Some—
Body once told me.
I know which ones — will roll me.
My mama done tol’ me
When I was in knee pants
My mama done tol’ me
Son
Well I was right about the mob connections, but I hope it means mike is still somehow alive.
Then that was a terrible plan Amazigirl
Wait now. Let me get this straight.
• Mike knows which police are on the take — in Bloomington.
• They know that he knows.
• If Ambi-Girl calls an ambulance, those crooked cops will recognise Mike and do bad things.
• But they haven’t been doing anything about Mike up until now.
Do the cops know? I don’t think they do. I think the implication is that Blaine knows Mike’s aware of the mob connections and if anyone goes to the cops he’d rat them out to the corrupt ones. The real question is why hasn’t he done that already. My guess is to save face. It takes a real incompetent stooge to get found out by a middle school kid and be blackmailed by that kid for years! Which maybe does add some credibility to the Mike death threat but then that just opens up more questions so this is kind of a rabbit hole here.
So Mike is afraid of going to hospital because he thinks that Blaine would blackmail corrupt police into killing him if he were there. But he’s not afraid of Blaine blackmailing corrupt cops into shooting him dead on the street?
Ten minutes ago Mike was contemptuously baiting Blaine and treating him as a joke. Now Mike thinks Blaine is an insidious mastermind who can have the cops kill whomever he nominates?
Kill him? Not necessarily. Keep Blaine’s ass out of jail? Probably.
Why would Mike going to hospital give the corrupt police an ability to keep Blaine’s ass out of jail that they would not have otherwise?
If Mike was so intent on having Blaine’s ass sent to jail that he is willing to refuse medical treatment for serious injuries to achieve it, why the nonsense with the scooters? Why not write down what he knows about Blaine and send it to the DA a week and a half ago? (With copies to the press, the state attorney-general, and the FBI.)
The scooters thing puts Blaine and Ross in a place they’re legally not supposed to be (credit cards, location-tracked rent-a-rides), and adds many, many witnesses. It’s enough to get them out of the way for a while (Ross especially), but not so big the mob feels the need to step in.
…and now that you mention it, some parts of the story make more sense if Mike has already talked to the feds. Blaine being in jail on local charges might get in the way of a federal case.
1) Mike going to the hospital isn’t the issue. Dirty cops burying everything so Blaine doesn’t go to jail and can still kidnap Becky is the issue.
2) Mike didn’t actually know Blaine and Ross were sniffing around until like 48 hours ago. Why on Earth should he have thought to make and send that info?
I think it’s more or less just the police not knowing. I assume if Mike’s alive and in a coma like Blaine claimed then the hospital staff assumes it was an accident with no witnesses to testify otherwise.
If Blaine goes to the corrupt cops or the mob and reveals that a college student know about their illegal activity that makes Mike a target but it would probably also blow back on Blaine creating a sort of stalemate between them.
That’s my best guestimation about what’s going on here.
So why is Mike refusing to go to hospital? Why not call 911 and say he fell off the stairs?
I don’t know. I’ve only called 911 once in my life and it was for a medical emergency but the police still came so maybe that’s why? Although you’d think they could just lie about what happened, but he did just fall off a flight of stairs and definitely has a concussion at the very least so he probably wasn’t thinking too clearly.
You can tell police that you fell as easily as you can tell paramedics that you fell.
So unless Mike is so well-known to corrupt police in Bloomington that they will do bad things on recognising him (that they haven’t done already and wouldn’t do anyway) I don’t see what Mike’s motive is. What difference does it make that corrupt police know that Mike is hurt?
Is Mike trying to keep out of hospital. What difference does his being in hospital make?
Is Mike trying to conceal his injuries from corrupt police? What difference does it make if corrupt police know he’s injured?
I don’t think Mike’s refusing to go to the hospital, just refusing 911 which would just provide the ambulance. Right now I’m betting on amazi stealing ross’ car and driving him there
I don’t get it. If Blaine was such a big mobster, he could have manipulated the divorce settlement or have had Amber killed ages ago. And how does Mike know anything about the Bloomington police force? Did he sleep with all their wives (for a nickel)?
Blaine’s not a big mobster is the problem. He’s a stooge. He probably knows a few guys here and there (a few of the dirty cops – money launderers need to know them, maybe the guy in the hospital to kill Mike if that’s a mobster). The people he had with Joyce and co were Ross (not mob) and a couple of Ryan’s buddies (not mob).
I’ve got no idea how Mike would know which cops were on the take.
He could simply be afraid that since some are, that if he’s hospitalized Blaine will find out where he is and be able to get at him. They won’t need to recognize him, since the hospital would have his id and know who he was.
It’s still a little sketchy, but not as bad as you’re painting it.
We also don’t know what happened after this scene.
He doesn’t say he knows who is corrupt, just that he knows some of them are (who does not know that?). He also knows that Blaine’s on the mob payroll. Mike’s not Elliot Ness’ pal and he’s just giving a general warning.
“Some…I know which…some police are on the take”
Sounds to me like he’s saying he knows which ones, but he’s not exactly coherent, so it could be misleading.
I took it to be misleading, but now that you made me think about Mike as infiltrated teenager in a mob organisation, making friends with Amber (and eventually falling -literally- for her) to get to her dad’s bosses, I want it to be right.
So… Amber came out and offered to call 911 for Mike. Why didn’t she remember?
AG only dropped the voice. Amber isnt in the tags
They still have the same voice, ag is just dramatic
AG only puts on the voice because Amber made it part of her ‘character’ and dropped it in that moment. She didn’t switch back to Amber.
RSS broke again
I wonder whether Amber studied any advanced first aid along with her parkour.
The result is the same either way, here.
How powerful is Blaine in the Korean mob? Do the crooked cops even care about some psycho with a mask. On of the few valuable lessons from Kickass (both the movies and the comics) is that mobsters aren’t going to risk their necks for some lunatic playing to be a super villain just to spite a masked vigilante.
Can we finally call the Phantom Thieves? If they aren’t avilable, then this whole situation seems too grim and I don’t want to side with Sarah. I don’t like siding with pessimists. It makes me feel like there’s no hope.
There’s no need to reiterate the nationality or race of the mob.
It’s traditional. How else would you distinguish between them and the Italian mob, the Russian mob, the Chinese mob, and the Sweedish mob?
He may not have that much power. However, he may be very good at using the implication of his employers’ sanction to get assistance from corrupt officials and low-level capos. If I’m right, when he ends up back in the big house, there are going to be several very expensive and powerful criminals who will want to extract debts from his hide.
Mike: It’s all a…dream
Amber/AG: Yeah… just a dream
Yay!!! Mike is alive. MIKE IS ALIVE. M I K E I S A L I V E !!!!!!
Or at least he was at that point.
Yeah, if Mike didn’t get medical attention we might want to rethink that whole “alive” business.
It’s not that hopeful if he’s in such a state and doesn’t get medical help.
Take him to the veterinary school.
I’m hoping he’s alive, but this only confirms that he didn’t immediately die after falling off the fire escape. I’m not gonna assume Mike’s dead though until we see it confirmed in a later strip.
He definitely loses consciousness at the end of that panel.
Whether his neck is broken or if that blood’s from a head injury is yet to be seen. From that angle it looks like he landed flat on his back, but he could also have rolled over while AG was rushing down.
Mazie, you might as well tell water to run uphill but it’s good of you to make the effort.
Not into traditional comic book stories? Well, now the characters are living in one. Right down to the omnipresent mob influence and the complete failure of the state to guarantee law and order.
You’re right. I should probably stop complaining about a show I don’t watch.
Okay, Becky’s the first sensible character in this storyline so far…
As for Amber’s proposal… well, at least she’s not trying to get Becky to Ross. Still, if the police cannot be trusted, then… how about the plan B that has been suggested here in the comments and contacting *Robin*?
Even IF the police are on the take and can’t be trusted, calling an ambulance because you saw someone fall will have medical aid come by. If the police are also called in, there’s a 50/50 chance they get there after the ambu takes you to safety. AG should have called them and hide
But what if the crooked police recognise Mike as the kid who knows who they are, and do Bad Things™?
Not to Mike. To Amber.
I don’t think the concern is that the cops will show up and shoot Mike in cold blood because a mob stooge wants them too, but that they’ll pass word along to Blaine once he’s in the system.
I am surprised only one person so far has mentioned Robin, who for all her goofiness does seem savvy about things like this. Telling her that Toedad, cheapo mobster Blaine and Co. are kidnapping college kids to try to get her campaign manager is enough to get her truly pissed. And in spite of the evidence here and IRL, a member of Congress actually can get a fair bit done in a situation like this.
Couldn’t Robin evacuate Becky to DC via private jet?
It could make for some hilarious results.
Robin: Oh, you want to escalate to get at my Campaign Manager? Fine!
An hour later a NAVY Seals Team kicks in the door to where the kids are being held.
I mentioned that in the context of it being extremely unlikely the police will shoot hostages when a member of Congress called them in to rescue them, but had no takers.
Amazi-Girl is Scar? That can’t be right.
That might be the worst advice given so far.
Well, I appreciate more attempts to try and cross the canyon of Willing Suspension of Disbelief of why we can’t just call the cops, even if I’m not there yet mentally.
Now we’re basically Kung Fury Miami 1985. The reason we can’t trust the cops is: the city is a total lawless wasteland, where the few good cops not under Mafia rule trying to enforce order get their cars flipped into the air by skateboards and exploded with Uzis. And only an Amazi-girl, who was struck by lightning and bitten by a cobra, can punch and kick her way to victory while sick 80s synth music plays! PS she’s also Hackerman. I feel like Kung Fury even has a similar gritty voice, although his speech bubble feels red instead of blue.
I still read the comic every day, I’m learning to suspend disbelief further.
PS: Kung Fury is super energetic for any not yet familiar and hilarious. The cop skateboard thing happens in the first 15 seconds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS5P_LAqiVg
My theory is that it’s building up to a state or federal case. Things have gotten so big so fast that I can’t really see any other resolution.
One thing to also note is that all of this is definitely coloured by Mike and Amber’s cynical world-views. ‘Cops are useless’ is a mentality that people have, regardless of whether it’s true or not, and people will search for evidence to confirm that.
There could literally be only two cops that Blaine has ‘some’ leverage over, and that could be leverage that these two cops would be willing to disregard the second it comes to rescuing kidnapped teenagers/not letting someone kill a kid in a hospital bed. Unfortunately for Amber, Mike’s painted a picture for her of ‘Trust no one’ where the majority of police could probably be trusted.
We’ve seen police in this series generally portrayed in a positive light (the police after Toedad’s first attack for example). I think this is more Amazi-Girl’s perception of them than anything else.
The counterpoint to that is, this is a setting where a costumed vigilante has been running around beating people up for months – with relatively little official response. How useful are the cops going to be seen as in this setting when A) a vigilante has had to fill in the gaps, and B) she has been continuing to act without any apparent official action?
(Cynicism aside, Mike and Amazi-Amber have been friends long enough to know when to trust each other, and he’s using precious consciousness to tell her something when they both know he could be dying. Why question that?)
It all depends on the point of view. Who you trust in a crisis depends on who you are, what are your past experiences, and when you are very young on what was your environment at home. Some characters’ (Becky, even AG) first reaction is to call the cops, others (Sarah, Mike) are less inclined to that.
This, tbh. It depends on the character’s backstories. Joyce and Becky were raised to trust authority figures and AG is a superhero working on superhero cliches so they immediately go for cops. Sal, who has a lot of history of abusive authority figures, and Sarah, who is cynical and aware of crime rates – including crimes committed by police and whom they disproportionately affect, are more cynical.
Sure, tell the homeless kid that finally found some modicum of stability in her life to abandon everything and run away (with what money), leaving her best friend/girlfriend in danger.
…With her paycheck money?
Putting that aside, I think you’re right, and that Amazi-girl is actively trying to manipulate Becky to not do exactly that.
I assume this isn’t a run away forever scenario and more a “please eliminate yourself as more potential leverage in this situation so I can report back that I couldn’t find you.” Becky is the only reason Ross is involved in this kidnapping scheme and if she can’t be found that will cause a conflict between Ross and Blaine. Of course they could also just decide to kill the hostages if AG doesn’t bring Becky so I this still probably isn’t the best advice.
I’d have immense respect for Willis if this is all an elaborate way of showing that Amber’s ideas are completely horrible and she needs to ditch her comic book worldview.
I am big fan of superheroes and I believe superheroes can give good inspiration to be good people. With that said, I think Amber is taking inspiration from the wrong kind of comic book characters: anti-heroes, extremist vigilantes like Rorschach, the Punisher, Batman by Frank Miller, and every edgy superhero movie.
Not really. If she was inspired by Rorschach or the Punisher, she’d be actively killing people. Certainly Batman, but not particularly the Frank Miller version.
Amazi-Girl was always a terrible idea. I don’t know if Willis will push things much further, but the whole of Amber’s DOA arc is she trying to escape purgatory through Batman-land and falling to hell.
Ah. Mike’s trying to keep Amber safe. His being in the hospital gives Blaine leverage.
Interestingly.
The flashbacks are not red… that’s good… I guess?
Ooh! Hopefully!
I have found this webcomic and am sufficiently invested after looking at a bunch of random pages after looking at a bunch of stuff on the wiki. So I guess I am going to go back and read this thing now.
Good luck and beware the multiverses!
Welcome to a weird universe! I discovered “Shortpacked” first (through a friend in S.F. whose toy website was hosting one-shot SP custom strips on his site). A few weeks after discovering SP, I read that Willis was re-realizing his “Roomies” strip as DOA in Sept 2010. Haven’t missed one since. Enjoy the ride!
Don’t just start at this one, go back further and read the comic strips that preceeded this one.
Is the walkyverse stuff really necessary to read through? From what I understand this is a totally separate continuity just with shared characters and some extra references here and there. I mean, I might go back and read it eventually, but this seems like a sizable amount of pages to get through on its own anyways.
Approximately 3400 of. Give or take a dozen.
Why did you need to choke out multiple bodyguards for that.
Can we just take a moment to talk about how weird Mike’s hair looks from that angle?
His Shortpacked! figurine was even more awkward. It like a fistful of uncooked spaghetti sticking straight out the front of his noggin.
Mike’s hair exists outside normal three-dimensional space. It’s like a drawing of a hypercube.
“Some of the cops are on the take. The rest are, y’know, cops.”
Oh dear, Mike. But how does it know about the mob cops? Has he been gathering intel and the Korean mafia?
Becky’s gonna have a hard time starting a new life without her best friend or her girlfriend.
(Flailing and screaming)
doesn’t she have Robin’s government security staff? I’m pretty sure one or two of those guys could be pretty good in this situation, and I doubt any of them are in her dad’s pocket.
Do you mean those people hired to protect Becky, that AG managed to take down three of solo because they weren’t paying that much attention or even good at self defense? And that we don’t even know if they were vetted or just some guys with sunglasses that Robin hired off a street corner?
This…is exactly what I suspected. This is the logical explanation for how the mob/cronies could kidnap the kids, after a FIRE ALARM was pulled, in the middle of campus, without IUPD up their asses.
People seem to have weird expectations of cops. I mean, I’m far more surprised that they were able to kidnap 6 kids out of the middle of the crowd without any one else noticing (except Dina) than that cops hadn’t shown up and secured the scene within minutes of the alarm going off.
Agreed.
Kinda surprised the alt-text didn’t involve a pillar of salt.
Am I the only one who noticed that the outfit of Flashback!Mike isn’t the same one he was wearing in the strip he took the fall in? He was wearing a dark collared shirt when he took his fall — https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/02-to-remind-you-of-my-love/dead/
I am not looking at the collared shirt, I am, however, looking at the fact that flashback mike has a black long sleeve undershirt and the one in your link has bare arms…
I suspect it’s an artifact of the funky flashback lighting.
I’ve followed Willis’ works for years, this doesn’t seem like an accidental difference, or if it were, he’d correct it as soon as someone mentioned it. He’s very, very detail oriented (part of how I’ve been able to happily follow his work for two decades).