Powergirl’s weakness is all non-processed materials. Any material at all, that’s all natural, is her weakness.
They never explain how she isn’t always incapacitated by the air/ground.
They were kind of a bumper in the pinball game of her life.
Terrible analogy, but they changed her heading and added velocity.
I’m just curious who, if anybody, calms her down. Maybe she just climbs back into her shell.
After all, the only other person who probably knows the story is Mike.
I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if Blaine stopped the robbery. Not because he has any goodness, but because he isn’t putting up with another little girl delaying him. Smack around Sal, swear, leave.
Eh. Dude’s a megalomaniac and an asshole, not a coward. He’s overconfident and doesn’t respect ladies. I’d guess that he’d assume he could take a little girl, knife or no knife.
He might be right. He fights like an idiot, but Sal doesn’t seem to know what she’s doing either, and while she’s got a knife, Blaine’s got probably at least a foot and a hundred pounds on Sal here, and is likely way more comfortable with hitting little girls than Sal is with what she’s doing.
Yeah, but… the girl with the knife might lose, but the guy without the knife is likely to REALLY wish he didn’t get into a fight with a girl with a knife.
I once disarmed a kid (I was a kid at the time) my size who had a baseball bat. Didn’t get touched.
Third time did make me rethink leaving him unscathed though.
Blaine is overconfident. Sal is scared. That can easily result in Sal losing. Remember, this is about her mommy issues, not being badass.
A baseball bat is only dangerous if your foe can manage a swing, and even then you might not really get hurt. A knife is dangerous if you touch it wrong, even if it’s just sitting there and not being wielded by an enemy.
Yeah, it violates the First Rule of Knife-Fighting, which is: Do not get in a fucking knife fight! They tend not to have winners, just degrees of loser.
Considering all the ways you can bleed out within seconds from tiny little gashes, this advice is perfect. It doesn’t take a trained killer to prick you in an artery they didn’t know existed and leave you with a few precious minutes to live.
Don’t get in fucking knife fights.
That’s what I was figuring. If there was a fight, it means suspension at best, expulsion at worst along with an arrest.
I’m expecting a catatonic, fetal rocking position soon though.
Or maybe Blaine is still outside and she just totally unloads. Seems to be a common enough fantasy here.
I seriously think they’d rather send her to therapy. Any stranger could see she’s having a breakdown. We know why, but picture a crying woman running in, staring at someone for actual seconds, then screaming and either running away, or towards them in a rage.
No matter what, you’re going to think, something might be wrong.
For fighting the therapy would include suspension.
Realistically, if and when people break down like that taking a full semester of classes isn’t so viable.
There are on campus services, but make contact on another person and it will still be a police matter.
Unless it is campus rape, especially by a “student” athlete. Then it will get buried.
I fully expect him to think that seeing him with Sal was too much for her. It’s actually a sort of sensible conclusion, guessing that she had a past history with Sal that was some form of one sided trauma is very out there by comparison.
What will he do about it though? Is he going to pay her a visit?
Didn’t I just say he doesn’t know what to do with his perceptions? Also, he initially didn’t trust Sal’s appearance but Billie straight up told him that she rooms with Amazi-Girl and implied that she had seen Amazi-Girl leave in costume. Just means Danny’s gullible and more likely to trust someone else’s observations than his own? I’d guess he’s likely to second guess his own because he never makes a good conclusion from them thus he’s always wrong.
I don’t know if “stupider” is a correct conclusion. Billie believes what she wants to believe, and shoehorns data in to support it. Basically, she reaches a conclusion then looks for evidence.
Well, Billie’s operating on a lot less information than Danny. She’s reached a conclusion that’s pretty logical, except for being completely wrong, and the brain tends to edit memory to fit expectations (this is part of how it builds a coherent world model out of not really enough data to do it). And, yeah, okay, maybe she’s not all that bright. (“Stupidly overconfident” would probably be more accurate.)
But I’d be a lot less harsh in my judgment of Danny if he’d spent as little time around Amber/Amazi-Girl as Billie has. Or had any reason at all to believe she’s not just trolling him with the “Sal is Amazi-Girl” thing.
I think the problem here is that Willis is using the “Clark Kent glasses” trope a bit with Danny, which is a suspension of disbelief that doesn’t necessarily match up with the otherwise realistic tone of his comic. He has done comedic things that wouldn’t actually work in real life elsewhere in DoA, but it’s hard to remember because they’re pretty sporadic.
Danny not figuring out Amazi-Girl is Amber is like Mike blatantly punching Joe in the face in a restaurant without any consequences, with Joyce joining in. That couldn’t actually happen in real life.
“She’s reached a conclusion that’s pretty logical, except for being completely wrong…”
Except that she’s discarded information that proves her conclusion wrong, due to it being inconvenient. Namely that Sal and Amazi-Girl look and sound completely different.
Not only that, but she dismissed those facts when Joyce and Danny pointed them out to her.
Yeah, like you don’t see the world from a position directly behind your own eyes.
Or at least, that’s what people keep telling me happens to other people. From my experience the entire world exists centered around my own position, with things being harder to perceive the more distant they are from me. (And even harder when there are walls in the way.)
Personally, I see my life from an isometric view. It did make learning to walk a little more challenging, but the storytelling more than makes up for it.
You kids and your first-person perspective lives. It’s not all about the graphics, you know.
My life, personally, takes place from a 2D Sidescrolling view. I’ve been walking in a straight line my whole life. I don’t know what’s to my right. Send help.
It’s because Walky was the favorite, damn it!
Yeah, Sal really isn’t at the point where she would think of the effect on others. To be fair she is only 18 and superhero vigilante isn’t the most obvious place to go.
Haha, ok. But really, I can’t buy into the “Walky was the favorite” argument. True or not, I somehow doubt that he was the one who forced Sal to commit the crime. Yes, he might have been insensitive to her feelings, but that doesn’t make him responsible for her actions. She made her own decision.
Sal forced Sal to rob because she felt Walky was getting all the attention.
Walky wasn’t an active part in this, nor has anybody implied that.
Sal was acting on her feelings. Walky was insensitive only in the sense that he didn’t notice. He hasn’t been conscienciously getting close to mom, too him life was what it was. As we see, on his own he only wants to do his stuff and leaves everything else alone.
“This is a man who knew he was dying and decided to make his own eulogy by levitating 2 meters off the ground and firing lightning into Jean-Claude Van Damme, just so that his kids could watch. He was such a brilliant beacon of intensity that he made a wish for children when he was the one who was dying, and the result still brightens the world today.”
I’ve read that article before. It’s true, beyond the money that he would have made to leave behind. The only reason for an actor of that caliber to be in such a movie without a career destroying scandal was for his kids.
I’m not sure Sal ever stopped to realize how her actions that day might have affected the strangers in the store. I doubt she even remembers what any of them look like.
Exactly. It doesn’t really look like she even bothered with them. She went for the atm and the shelves, as far as we’re yet aware. Why was this so traumatising for her, other than being spooked? It doesn’t look like anyone was ACTUALLY hurt and no one specifically came after her or Ethan (yet) and as far as we’re yet aware, the clerk is also unharmed. It was just a stick-up, and as far as can yet be seen, it ended either in her being apprehended or escaping (with nachitos?), so why is this such a huge personal deal to Amber? Is it just that she was so anxious that she couldn’t handle it? It’s really not much of a backstory.
For a normal person, being involved involved in a violent confrontation, even at the fringes, can be a traumatizing experience. For somebody like Amber, who already had a U-Haul load of emotional baggage…?
Yes, but for the superhero Sal really tries to be, it further shows how ridiculous the whole machination of her alter-ego it. It’s just a mess of a kid running around self-righteously and dealing badly with her emotions, for everyone else to bear the brunt of. The idea that she’s helping, virtuous, benevolent, strong or helpful (consider her role in what happened to Joyce, or lack thereof) is a joke. If this is all that it took to tip her over like this, then a crybaby muggle is kidding herself.
That’s sort of the point though, isn’t it? Poor baby girl. I hope she goes for help.
“for the superhero Sal really tries to be” uuh, do you mean Amber?
Also, kinda screw you for saying she’s a crybaby. She lives with an abusive father who abuses her mom, constantly belittles her emotionally and she’s developed a lot of social issues. If you can’t put all the pieces of someone’s puzzle together and fully understand the position they’re coming from, you should maybe not talk about how they are weak for losing their shit over one particular incident.
I think it’s on of those fear-turns-to-anger deals. She seemed to always have trouble controlling her fears and anxieties and then this whole robbery bit happens and she couldn’t even move. From her perspective, someone COULD have gotten hurt and she wouldn’t have been able o do anything about it, just like at home when Blaine is abusive to her mom. This would thereby explain her compulsive vigilante coping mechanism as a method of taking control so that no one gets hurt, if she can help it, ever again.
Two stores. On one hand, it’s not unimaginable she’d remember. On the other, she seems more self-absorbed than self-aware, so it wouldn’t be surprising if she’s never given a thought to anyone else who was there that day.
Well, how would she remember the face of one girl who was in the background of a store she robbed years ago, let alone know what she’d look like 5 years later?
Out of curiosity, is it okay to like violence/fighting/action with women protagonists if you’re not into it for the supposed sexiness? (I’m aware that ‘catfight’ could be interpreted as desiring sexiness, but I don’t really read the word that way myself. The impression I get is that most real ‘catfights’ are frighteningly brutal. It’s as if women don’t have an unwritten ‘below the belt’ rule or something.)
If you can sub in a guy into the situation and you would still like the action sequence and/or it isn’t sexual for you, I’d say it’s fine to enjoy it. However, the discussion of whether we have an unhealthy obsession with violence is still waiting on the other side of the door. :p
I’d almost wager women are more brutal because they have less experience fighting, so they don’t know *how* to control themselves. I am clearly just guessing and have no actual idea.
Taekwondo girl has no idea how girls fight? that’s odd.
+1 for asserting your opinion
-1 for telling ppl what they can/should and should not enjoy.
I for one find cat fights sexy. I also know some females who find male vs male fighting sexy. It’s just a personal preference. For me it’s an athleticism/ dominance / I don’t have to jump in and save you seeing as you can clearly handle your business, damn girl do your thing.
Those of you who don’t know girls are vicious have clearly never taken a trip around WorldStar or similar site.
…I don’t know how traditional “cat fights” actually work, as I’ve never participated in them. My assumption is that people who have not trained or done much fighting have less control over their actions, and my experience lines up with that.
And liking cat fights aren’t just sexy, it’s about objectifying women. Just because some women like men fighting doesn’t mean it’s on the same scale, and I would still argue that women liking men fighting is creepy. It’s turning the entire argument, the feelings felt on both sides and the violence into being about pleasing you. Don’t you find that dehumanizing, at least a little?
Objectifying ladies or men is fine by me so long as you know when to shut that off. If that mindset’s overruling everything else all the time, you got a problem. It’s also good to know when that’s not appropriate, like, say, when a girl is having a serious freakout, AHEM. But finding your desired sex or gender super-hot is just being friggin’ healthy. The idea of sexual attraction being dehumanizing seems not healthy.
Fair points. I must not have communicated myself properly. I was meaning that finding two people fighting each other sexy, and I will amend my point to agree that up to a certain threshold it’s normal. The particular, current scenario was coloring what I was posting.
…I just like seeing women who can kick ass and take names and don’t need some man to do their fighting for them. One of them is good, two of them is better. -2 if they’re dressing or otherwise acting like objectified idiots. (Which hampers my ability to appreciate most female superheros or street fighter characters.)
As for the ‘serious freakout’ point, I’m still okay with thinking that Sal would be being awesome if she managed to defend herself from an unexpected attack by a crazed Amazi-girl. (I am currently operating on the assumption that Sal’s catholic school did not include fighting training or martian DNA injections, so she should be only about ten times as good in a fight as me, which ain’t saying much. And Amber has watched violence, practiced violence, and possibly trained with martial arts masters around the world, so yeah.) Amber in such a fight, on the other hand, would just be scary or sad/depressing, or most likely both.
Right, to me normal fight means “pounding on each other above the belt until one drops, then posing above his panting form”. “Catfight” means “slugging, clawing, wrestling, biting, hair pulling, stabbing, and whatever else until the other one stops moving”.
The internet was so obsessed with “Fus Ro Dah” for so long, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that people don’t recognize that Amber is obviously using “Wuld Nah Kest.”
i’ve been hating on Ethan lately but that panel where he’s grabbing Amber to pull her to safety(unless she’s a human shield? haha) made me “AWWWWWW” so hard I think I broke something. Thanks for the sudden feels Willis.
And to think that all Amber wanted to do was chillax in her room and kill spiders. If she had just stuck to that plan, I wonder if this would have happened?
Did not go the way I thought it would either. I was sure Amber would have reached the end of her rope at sight of Sal, and the realization of who she was in relation to the store robbery. I’m sure never noticed anything but the cash, look at the tremor in her voice, she was scared to death too.
Willis strikes again: Amber does nothing. She did not mop the floor with Sal, not did she just sit down and curl up into a ball and refuse to come out.
She has had it I guess, but again, she is running.
As noted, Amazi-girl comes out at night. So, interested in seeing what the night brings tonight.
I thought of Ruth before too.
Ruth also comes from an abusive background and struggles with it.
She certainly doesn’t like Blaine and is already on Amber’s side on that issue.
She clearly has a protective side and this also gives her somebody to focus that on. Important as she’s trying to stop drinking. She needs enough to occupy her and something to care for, but not enough to stress her to the point of drinking.
She’s also dysfunctional beyond her alcoholism. But sometimes the right dysfunctions match. That sometimes gives you the Hillside Strangler, but it can also be two people trying to find the strength to get beyond their past.
Just to tack on … Ruth is kind of soft inside with armor plating on the outside. But she she seems pretty aware underneath it. I think she’d be as protective of Amber as she is of Howard.
Most gas stations, you’re dealing with a couple feet of countertop and that’s pretty much it. It’s what’s often behind the counter that she should’ve taken into account (bats, machetes, guns, etc… which may also give a clue as to where this is going).
Oops. Just saw the plexiglass. Good catch. And not a bright move on Sal’s part (though it’s also possible she could threaten people on her side of the glass as a way of getting what she wants).
If the stores are anything like they are in Oz, for legal and insurance, the policy for been robbed is to comply with the thief’s demands unless you can reasonaly believe that people’s lives would be at stake.
I like to imagine this scene going like when Dr. Evil tells the UN he’s holding the world hostage for $1,000,000. And like 10 employees behind the security screen are just sitting there laughing hysterically.
…COULD be, Sal is just doing like what the one dude with no insurance did–“held up” a bank for $1 with a note that explained how he was holding up the bank for $1.
So he could get prison insurance.
We never found out if Sal’s hold-ups were violent or resulted in anything other than incarceration. Not to say this wouldn’t still be super-traumatic for already teetering-on-the-brink Amber, ’cause at that point in her life, THIS WAS THE FRIGHTENINGEST THING SHE’D EVER EXPERIENCED.
Yeah, chainsaw aside, I lay even odds that Amazi-girl will be stalking a specific target tonight. Though I hope not, because I’m not seeing how a surprise attack with the Amazi-lead-pipe could go well for Sal.
this does have potential Danny is going to most likely assume this freak out is about them and thus hopefully rush to Ambers aid. Come on Willis give us a x-mas miracle and dont make danny dan this up! PLEASE WILLIS PLEASE DONT DAN IT UP
She totally focused on the wrong thing when watching Ghostbusters when deciding that a really big Twinkie is frightening in and of itself instead of just a metaphor.
Giving head to strangers in a back alleyway for a nickle would also be better than being Amazi-Girl. But I’m not sure whether Amber can get over her obsession.
I guess the reason Sal isn’t using a gun is because the glass is probably bullet proof. Maybe during Sal’s flashback we’ll eventually see how much luck she had threatening the store clerk behind the glass barrier (which we can see in the first panel).
He is trespassing, with clear nefarious intent towards her. I think of all the people Amber could unleash her stress upon, Blaine is the one most likely to result in a sympathetic jury.
We need Danny to make it about him, or his character arc will never be able to advance. Maybe, at the end of this, his delusions about a manic pixie dream girl will be shattered just as it was with Q at the end of Paper Towns, and he’ll finally see Amber as herself, and not as how he wants her to be (a.k.a. Amazi-Girl).
Nope. Danny’s about being passive. His dream, either as Lois Lane or being carried through life by Dorothy, is about being passive.
Plus I think a woman with esteem should be better than Danny. Pretty much in the definition.
And that dream is about to be shattered, I can assure you. And once it’s shattered, he’s not gonna be passive for long. He just hasn’t had any motivation, narrative or otherwise, to actually start anything. He’s in the process of ending the dream of being passive throughout life, and I think this crisis with Amber is the key to that.
No… I’m still confused. She witnessed Sal robbing the gas station and… she fell over? Someone help me out here. Why is that fifth panel showing, exactly, that is so traumatic?
I understand that Ethan is pulling her, but panel 1 has Sal’s back to Amber. ethan is pulling Amber back, presumably away from Sal. But then the 5th panel, the shelf is falling or rocking, and Sal’s hair is in the top left? I’m enjoying the comic, but I don’t understand how Sal’s hair can be there, with the rest of the action going on.
The camera seems to be sitting on or behind the counter looking past Sal at the distant shelf and Amber, with extremely deep focus that includes both. Just because you’re seeing Sal’s hair doesn’t mean she’s looking in their direction.
I think Amber was on the verge of a panic attack from her social anxiety and Sal just kicked it over into full-blown terror. The kind that creates a positive-feedback memory loop that causes PTSD. Hence the flashbacks.
Before Danny can comfort Amber, he needs to eliminate the possibility of Sal being Amazi-Girl. Now would be that perfect opportunity, as there is a girl who currently needs saving. In his mind, the “real Amazi-Girl” wouldn’t hesitate to go after someone who’s quite obviously in need, so I should think these next few strips would be of him confronting Sal about Amber’s trouble, trying to egg her on in an attempt to “reveal” the superheroine who is his girlfriend.
I’m not sure Amber’s kind of need is an Amazi-girl kind of need, though. I’ve heard that punching someone is an inferior method of administering counseling to them.
Flashback (narrative): in literature and dramatic media, an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point.
Flashback (psychology): a sudden, powerful, re-experiencing of a past experience. The term is used particularly when the memory is recalled involuntarily, and/or when it is so intense that the person “relives” the experience, unable to fully recognize it as memory and not something that is happening in “real time”.
I don’t know bout you people, but I really want to hear Sal’s side of that. Was she pressured into it? Was she super poor and needed to? Drugs? Go-kart rides? What?
It is not about the money, it is about sending a message.
The message is “I exist”. A child who isn’t getting the attention he or she needs from her parents will begin to behave in whatever manner necessary in order to get any crumb of attention.
I just keep thinking about how when Danny asked Amazi-Girl for her backstory, all she said was something like, “There was this robbery– No, I can’t talk about it.”
If Danny finds out Sal robbed a convenience store or two, that will only confirm the mistaken identity in his mind. He’ll think she became Amazi-Girl as penance, and the web will become more tangled.
Let me get this straight.
Amber’s gay ex is dating a girl again, but is actually happy this time.
Said ex reminded her she’s still got anger issues to work out.
Amber just got rejected in favor of the alter-ego she created as an unhealthy way to let off steam.
The guy who rejected her is now hanging out with the convenience store robber because he thinks she’s the alter-ego (really, why? They have two completely different body types), and he’s enjoying himself.
That’s a quintuple whammy of social failure.
Yeah, I never got for a moment how he could confuse them….they look nothing alike. Even with wig to change hair, boots for height difference, dark so can’t tell skin difference, voice disguised…they still aren’t…..comparable.
People who are saying that Amber’s overreacting because Sal didn’t directly menace her with the knife or anything… let me reframe a little.
Amber was a thirteen-year-old kid growing up in an abusive home with no sense of security. Maybe other thirteen-year-olds have a feeling of invincibility or whatever, but this is a little girl who knows through direct experience that bad things happen ALL THE TIME, in her world, for real, not just on TV. She walks into a store, starts to feel shitty about herself for liking Twinkies, and suddenly someone is waving a knife around like two feet from her and shouting that it’s a robbery.
How the fuck would this NOT be a terrifying experience for a child? You don’t have to be stabbed to be traumatised, for fuck’s sake.
This, this, this. I’ve got a friend with some severe social anxieties (she acts pretty much like Amber with the whole twinkie “they’ll know!” thing). Someone that socially fragile has to spend a lot of time convincing themselves that the world is much safer than they think; that things will be okay; that the dire consequences WILL NOT HAPPEN. And then in Amber’s case, they did happen.
Imagine being let down by the world like that. Even the most emotionally stable person would be rattled by the experience – the socially fragile person will have most of their coping mechanisms shattered.
She’s gonna, with thirteen years old strength and one knife, rob a store with a thick security barrier? Sal really really didn’t think this through. Flashback isn’t over, something hasn’t gone wrong yet.
So Danny liked but rejected Amber, got with Amber’s alter ego, had a falling out with Amber, and is now accidentally cheating on Amber’s alter ego with another girl who had a random run-in with Amber years ago and thus helped created the alter ego.
Congratulations. I officially declare this the most convoluted, weird love dodecahedron ever. *golf clap*
You have the beginning order wrong.
Saved by Amazi-Girl, develops crush.
Meets Amber in class, talks.
Talks with both, goes for one half of his fantasy.
Over reacts to Amber from Freshman Family Weekend – when she was running from Blaine.
Then the bit about Sal.
And you didn’t even mention the part where Amber’s ex-boyfriend dumped her after coming out as gay, but is dating another girl, who may possibly have a bisexual girl-crush on Danny’s ex-girlfriend, whose new boyfriend is Amber’s nemesis’s twin brother, and meanwhile Amber’s ex is flirting with his new girlfriend’s trans-sister…
Danny: Look, it’s a bunch of thieves.
Sal: Mm-hmm.
Danny: …Aren’t you gonna do anything to stop them?
Sal: It’s not mah problem.
Danny: But if you don’t do something, they’re gonna get away!
Amber (AG): *outside* I’m really not in the mood for this. Stop now and nobody gets hurt.
Danny: …What?
Thief #1: Yeah? What are you gonna do about it?
Amber (AG): *proceeds to kick the thieves’ butt*
Danny: …So, you’re not Amazi-Girl?
Sal: YOU THOUGHT AH WAS THAT GEEK???
Ah, might make a fanfic of this. Possibility= ~24% on a good day
The thing that jarred me with this scenario (other than the idea that Willis would ever actually clear matters up with such a low level of drama) was, I realised after some reflection, that Sal would call AG a geek in a pejorative manner. She’s never really gone round insulting people. Sal’s pretty laid-back. I think it’s what makes her the super-cool to Billie’s sort-of-pathetic. Sal doesn’t give a shit what anyone else does (minus her family), she just does her thing.
Man, now the hoping for a confrontation between these two where Sal actually knows what happened back then with Amber has between out Billie and Ruth getting together as my most anticipated story to see.
Though, lesbians are great….
…lesbians, truth, lesbians, truth…..
Hmmmmm….
Ok, well, I’m gonna go with the Sal/Amber story as it just seems more likely to happen.
I commented on that yesterday. If you go back, the first time we see her she is lighting her cigarette with her left hand; and she generally holds things like her cigarette or her jacket in her right hand — which (if she were left-handed) would allow her to keep her dominant hand free.
Ugh, my heart aches for Amber right now. Few things are worse than to be freaking out emotionally, for legitimate reasons, and for people to think you’re “weird” or “weak” or something because of it.
Wow, i have to say.
Ethan is quick to respond in bad/reallybad situations.
Good for him. That’s a +1 for him for sure.
Good friend.
Shitty closet lover thought :P.
So, did Sal do something traumatic and frightening while she was robbing the store or was Amber just not equipped to deal with that on account of the rest of her life?
When you are a victim of abuse, the threat of violence is super fucking scary bc you have experience w it leading to real violence. So yeah, someone waving a knife can be super traumatizing, even if you’d assume otherwise. Also she already had generalized anxiety about people in general.
It can be scary even if it doesn’t normally lead to physical violence, speaking from experience. But I think gangler’s question was legit, I mean Amber would very likely be freaking out because of the trigger, but it’s also possible that Sal actually did something else too.
Odd thought: Sal wasn’t ignored by her parents because of her color but because of the much-much worse fact of Walky being far smarter than her. Which would be like an extra kick in the gut.
I am torn. At first I was all about shipping Amber and Danny but now after having read all of shortpacked to date and starting out on Roomies I fear that amber trying to date him violates the rules of the walkyverse… CURSE YOU DRAMA TAG!
I keep reading the comments on this storyline and wondering how many people have actually read the chapter title. I have some very strong suspicions about how this will all resolve out, especially as I strongly doubt Danny/Sal has any better chance here than in the Walkyverse for very similar reasons…
After reading your comment, I finally get the title of the chapter. Danny is the dope and he’s the only one for Amber. Damn, I thought it something to do with drugs.
Dun-dun-duh! You mean…Amber is Amazi-Girl? AND, Sal was the Burglar to her Spider-Man? The lump of clay to Hippolyta’s hands? The…exploding planet…to her Superman…esque…ness?! Nay–nay–the shrapnel to her little heart?!
I was thinking of Sal as Amazi-Girl’s Joe Chill, personally. And she just walked in on her Vicki Vale/Talia/Lois Lane/Rachel/God-Batman-has-a-lot-of-love-interests-over-his-various-incarnations doing things doing things with the villain that she thought he would only do with her.
Yes, I’m saying that in Amber’s geek-mind, Mario Kart is a sex-level betrayal.
Does that mean Gollaso’s wife’s cancer is caused indirectly by the martian invasion which is why she is alive in this universe since martians aren’t part of the story?
So if the universes are not linked that does that mean that we shouldn’t expect the couples to remain the same? Will the great Faz will finally marry Amber and Robin in the name of the greatness that is Faz?
Well, I do like that Faz actually knows his father in this universe, but other than that….um…Faz….*scratches head*….needs to have a ‘break the haughty’ and learn manners. Not likely.
So…..not a lot of comments about how Danny will perceive this. I can only imagine that he will jump to the conclusion that she is upset to see him with Sal, when I don’t think she even noticed him.
Okay, okay, I keep getting confused. How does Amber know Walky and Sal? Did they have any backstory? I know that Billie and Walky were friends in their childhood, but.. Oh god getting confused.
Oh, alright, so that was quite literally the entire depth of their relationship prior to going to university. Got you. I thought that was the case, but then I realized that many of the characters had more backstory and were friends prior to going to university together, so I thought I had missed something or was swapping backstories with other characters in the series in my memory.
Amber does not know Walky or Sal. At age 13 she happened to be in a convenience store when Sal robbed it.
Sal and Amber were assigned to the same dormitory building on campus. They each moved in a couple of weeks ago.
A few days ago she saw Sal for the second time in her life as Sal walked past in the dorm with Billie. Amber looked shocked.
Today Amber saw Sal again, for the third time in her life, with Danny. This prompted a PTSD flashback of the time five years ago when she witnessed Sal’s robbery.
Yes! That does make sense. Thanks! This was my first interpretation so I did have a decent understanding in the first place, but then I thought that there was some backstory that I had missed or sped over. I always doubt that I have things right.
From Danny’s face in the last panel, I suspect (hope) he will go after Amber and end up doing the right thing, albeit for the wrong reasons. Doing good by accident, that would fit the Danny way.
Loading ...
But is she able to buy Twinkies now?
She just remembered she never got them and is going NOW!
And some Zebra Cakes, too, for good measure!
The trauma has probably made her unable to enjoy the blissful awesomeness that is Hostess ever since. 🙁
Those seven months where they were off the market were the best of her life
You can get them deep fried now. As long as she’s past the judgment of others.
Mmmmmm twinkies.*Gurgle*
Maybe Twinkies are Amazi-Girl’s kryptonite. Whenever she sees one she has flashbacks and freaks out.
I’m not sure whether that qualifies for “lamest weakness ever” or not. There are probably lamer ones.
Bolt’s ‘weakness’ was styrofoam packing peanuts. So…yea.
Powergirl’s weakness is all non-processed materials. Any material at all, that’s all natural, is her weakness.
They never explain how she isn’t always incapacitated by the air/ground.
The commercials imply that only works on villains.
She needs to be tied up, or she’ll tilt her head, am REMEMBER.
That… did not go quite how I expected…
She was already in run away mode. This just accelerated it.
They were kind of a bumper in the pinball game of her life.
Terrible analogy, but they changed her heading and added velocity.
I’m just curious who, if anybody, calms her down. Maybe she just climbs back into her shell.
After all, the only other person who probably knows the story is Mike.
I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if Blaine stopped the robbery. Not because he has any goodness, but because he isn’t putting up with another little girl delaying him. Smack around Sal, swear, leave.
Sal has a knife and badassness. Blaine would see her and hit the bricks as fast as possible.
Eh. Dude’s a megalomaniac and an asshole, not a coward. He’s overconfident and doesn’t respect ladies. I’d guess that he’d assume he could take a little girl, knife or no knife.
He might be right. He fights like an idiot, but Sal doesn’t seem to know what she’s doing either, and while she’s got a knife, Blaine’s got probably at least a foot and a hundred pounds on Sal here, and is likely way more comfortable with hitting little girls than Sal is with what she’s doing.
Yeah, but… the girl with the knife might lose, but the guy without the knife is likely to REALLY wish he didn’t get into a fight with a girl with a knife.
I once disarmed a kid (I was a kid at the time) my size who had a baseball bat. Didn’t get touched.
Third time did make me rethink leaving him unscathed though.
Blaine is overconfident. Sal is scared. That can easily result in Sal losing. Remember, this is about her mommy issues, not being badass.
A baseball bat is only dangerous if your foe can manage a swing, and even then you might not really get hurt. A knife is dangerous if you touch it wrong, even if it’s just sitting there and not being wielded by an enemy.
@Pat,
He did swing.
A lot of things deflect knives, cheap ones aren’t sharp and need some velocity on them just like bats.
Yeah, it violates the First Rule of Knife-Fighting, which is: Do not get in a fucking knife fight! They tend not to have winners, just degrees of loser.
Considering all the ways you can bleed out within seconds from tiny little gashes, this advice is perfect. It doesn’t take a trained killer to prick you in an artery they didn’t know existed and leave you with a few precious minutes to live.
Don’t get in fucking knife fights.
Call me crazy, but I think Ruth would be a good person for Amber right now.
Is she gonna be okay?
Why do you care, you thug!?
She’ll be okay after Amazi-Girl finishes putting someone in a coma tonight. Ya know, sorta.
She’ll be getting a workout tonight.
That comment made with that avatar cracks me up.
Yeah, and one of the parties involved is going to be sore in the morning.
That is two for two …. Nice.
No fight scene? Probably for the best.
Yeah, I wanted to see Amber beat the snot out of Sal.
And then she’d get expelled and never show up again.
She can go to jail. Where she’ll make friends with Malaya.
That’s what I was figuring. If there was a fight, it means suspension at best, expulsion at worst along with an arrest.
I’m expecting a catatonic, fetal rocking position soon though.
Or maybe Blaine is still outside and she just totally unloads. Seems to be a common enough fantasy here.
I seriously think they’d rather send her to therapy. Any stranger could see she’s having a breakdown. We know why, but picture a crying woman running in, staring at someone for actual seconds, then screaming and either running away, or towards them in a rage.
No matter what, you’re going to think, something might be wrong.
For fighting the therapy would include suspension.
Realistically, if and when people break down like that taking a full semester of classes isn’t so viable.
There are on campus services, but make contact on another person and it will still be a police matter.
Unless it is campus rape, especially by a “student” athlete. Then it will get buried.
Are you so sure she’d win?
Not that I’m biased by my gravatar or anything.
BOOBGRAB
That’s why Amber thought Ethan was straight!
“QUICK AMBER, WE NEED TO HIDE! THAT CLOSET LOOKS NICE.”
Amber: I thought that was literal at first.
So nice that, when he leaves, he wants to go back!
Aww, she can’t admit her huge lust for Sal.
Sal/Amber love story incoming?
Yup. I really hope that Sal and Amber become a superhero love duo. I wonder what Sal’s costume will look like.
I dunno, but more than one person will be upset if THAT one doesn’t have a chest window.
that actually went better than expected
Anyways, so now Danny thinks Amber’s jealous?
Yeah, who wouldn’t be jealous of someone who’s dating Sal? See what I did there?
To be fair, one’s mind wouldn’t automatically jump to “Amber ran away from me and this girl… perhaps this girl has in the past traumatized her!”
I don’t know, that looks like legitimate concern to me.
She just ran in front of him in tears, stared and ran away. He can see she was upset even before she saw them.
Danny is known for being very perceptive, after all.
He is, actually. He just doesn’t know what to do with the information he takes in.
He thinks Sal is Amazi-Girl because she uses Wiggler in Mario Kart he is literally the least perceptive human being in this comic or any other.
Nice kid otherwise though.
I fully expect him to think that seeing him with Sal was too much for her. It’s actually a sort of sensible conclusion, guessing that she had a past history with Sal that was some form of one sided trauma is very out there by comparison.
What will he do about it though? Is he going to pay her a visit?
That’s what I was figuring.
He thinks this is about his blow-up after parent’s weekend and seeing him with Amazi-Sal.
Didn’t I just say he doesn’t know what to do with his perceptions? Also, he initially didn’t trust Sal’s appearance but Billie straight up told him that she rooms with Amazi-Girl and implied that she had seen Amazi-Girl leave in costume. Just means Danny’s gullible and more likely to trust someone else’s observations than his own? I’d guess he’s likely to second guess his own because he never makes a good conclusion from them thus he’s always wrong.
So the lesson here is Billie is stupider than Danny.
I don’t know if “stupider” is a correct conclusion. Billie believes what she wants to believe, and shoehorns data in to support it. Basically, she reaches a conclusion then looks for evidence.
…Okay, maybe a bit stupid.
Well, Billie’s operating on a lot less information than Danny. She’s reached a conclusion that’s pretty logical, except for being completely wrong, and the brain tends to edit memory to fit expectations (this is part of how it builds a coherent world model out of not really enough data to do it). And, yeah, okay, maybe she’s not all that bright. (“Stupidly overconfident” would probably be more accurate.)
But I’d be a lot less harsh in my judgment of Danny if he’d spent as little time around Amber/Amazi-Girl as Billie has. Or had any reason at all to believe she’s not just trolling him with the “Sal is Amazi-Girl” thing.
I think the problem here is that Willis is using the “Clark Kent glasses” trope a bit with Danny, which is a suspension of disbelief that doesn’t necessarily match up with the otherwise realistic tone of his comic. He has done comedic things that wouldn’t actually work in real life elsewhere in DoA, but it’s hard to remember because they’re pretty sporadic.
Danny not figuring out Amazi-Girl is Amber is like Mike blatantly punching Joe in the face in a restaurant without any consequences, with Joyce joining in. That couldn’t actually happen in real life.
“She’s reached a conclusion that’s pretty logical, except for being completely wrong…”
Except that she’s discarded information that proves her conclusion wrong, due to it being inconvenient. Namely that Sal and Amazi-Girl look and sound completely different.
Not only that, but she dismissed those facts when Joyce and Danny pointed them out to her.
Yeah, because the world revolves around him, doesn’t it…..
Yeah, like you don’t see the world from a position directly behind your own eyes.
Or at least, that’s what people keep telling me happens to other people. From my experience the entire world exists centered around my own position, with things being harder to perceive the more distant they are from me. (And even harder when there are walls in the way.)
Personally, I see my life from an isometric view. It did make learning to walk a little more challenging, but the storytelling more than makes up for it.
You kids and your first-person perspective lives. It’s not all about the graphics, you know.
My life, personally, takes place from a 2D Sidescrolling view. I’ve been walking in a straight line my whole life. I don’t know what’s to my right. Send help.
Top-down shooting, motherfuckers! *has unlimited ammo*
My life is an RTS. this person “Carlos” is simply one of the many Nerd units I produced from my Computer lab structure.
They actually did upset each other. He knows this.
Now she looks at him and then runs away.
“This has to do with me” is a perfectly reasonable conclusion.
Brain…can’t…handle…must…must escape…reality…. must find…hap…happpy place…..
Need booze… lots of booze.
CALM Azula!?
See, even Azula knows how to chill out. 😀
I’m torn on there not being a smack down.
I was actually hoping for one in this case. Sal may not have considered that her past actions have left a mark on someone else’s life.
It’s because Walky was the favorite, damn it!
Yeah, Sal really isn’t at the point where she would think of the effect on others. To be fair she is only 18 and superhero vigilante isn’t the most obvious place to go.
Haha, ok. But really, I can’t buy into the “Walky was the favorite” argument. True or not, I somehow doubt that he was the one who forced Sal to commit the crime. Yes, he might have been insensitive to her feelings, but that doesn’t make him responsible for her actions. She made her own decision.
You don’t have to buy into someone else’s excuse to acknowledge it as a motivator of their actions.
Something like this was a cry for attention – from her parents. Walky was just the distraction, I guess. If deliberately insensitive.
Sal forced Sal to rob because she felt Walky was getting all the attention.
Walky wasn’t an active part in this, nor has anybody implied that.
Sal was acting on her feelings. Walky was insensitive only in the sense that he didn’t notice. He hasn’t been conscienciously getting close to mom, too him life was what it was. As we see, on his own he only wants to do his stuff and leaves everything else alone.
I just wanna know who’d win.
The audience.
Particularly if robin shows up with a pudding vat.
…what? It’s not without vaguely irrelevant precedent.
Give it a few days/months.
ElectaBuzz Lightyear?
For Amber, the day Sal robbed that convenience store is the one of the darkest day for her. For Sal, it’s only Tuesday.
OF COURSE.
I’m thinking it was one of Sal’s darkest days, too. She just didn’t realize that Amber was there for it.
Thank you, John. I mean, why does Amber get to be the only one here with a backstory? Sal was not born to rob.
When she came out of the womb, she took the nurse’s wallet.
It was a Street Fighter joke, you know.
From the only person who could act in the movie.
Of course. That doesn’t mean I can’t dispute its applicability.
“This is a man who knew he was dying and decided to make his own eulogy by levitating 2 meters off the ground and firing lightning into Jean-Claude Van Damme, just so that his kids could watch. He was such a brilliant beacon of intensity that he made a wish for children when he was the one who was dying, and the result still brightens the world today.”
(taken from Luke McKinney http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-4-best-moments-in-worst-movies-ever-made_p2/#ixzz2oHFUj0RQ)
That article was the most beautiful thing (by a freaking mile) to come out of that movie.
I’ve read that article before. It’s true, beyond the money that he would have made to leave behind. The only reason for an actor of that caliber to be in such a movie without a career destroying scandal was for his kids.
Sure, Sal has her dark days…just not that particular day.
That fifth panel… I now know all….
I’m just happy she didn’t attack Sal in a fit of pure fury and rage the likes of which the world has never seen.
Wait until nighttime. Amazi-Girl mostly comes out at night. Mostly.
Exactly. Amber would never be able to get to Sal once Sal is in her Amazi-Girl persona.
Sal…you really don’t remember, do you?
I’m not sure Sal ever stopped to realize how her actions that day might have affected the strangers in the store. I doubt she even remembers what any of them look like.
I don’t know if she even saw Ethan and Amber to begin with.
Exactly. It doesn’t really look like she even bothered with them. She went for the atm and the shelves, as far as we’re yet aware. Why was this so traumatising for her, other than being spooked? It doesn’t look like anyone was ACTUALLY hurt and no one specifically came after her or Ethan (yet) and as far as we’re yet aware, the clerk is also unharmed. It was just a stick-up, and as far as can yet be seen, it ended either in her being apprehended or escaping (with nachitos?), so why is this such a huge personal deal to Amber? Is it just that she was so anxious that she couldn’t handle it? It’s really not much of a backstory.
For a normal person, being involved involved in a violent confrontation, even at the fringes, can be a traumatizing experience. For somebody like Amber, who already had a U-Haul load of emotional baggage…?
Yes, but for the superhero Sal really tries to be, it further shows how ridiculous the whole machination of her alter-ego it. It’s just a mess of a kid running around self-righteously and dealing badly with her emotions, for everyone else to bear the brunt of. The idea that she’s helping, virtuous, benevolent, strong or helpful (consider her role in what happened to Joyce, or lack thereof) is a joke. If this is all that it took to tip her over like this, then a crybaby muggle is kidding herself.
That’s sort of the point though, isn’t it? Poor baby girl. I hope she goes for help.
“for the superhero Sal really tries to be” uuh, do you mean Amber?
Also, kinda screw you for saying she’s a crybaby. She lives with an abusive father who abuses her mom, constantly belittles her emotionally and she’s developed a lot of social issues. If you can’t put all the pieces of someone’s puzzle together and fully understand the position they’re coming from, you should maybe not talk about how they are weak for losing their shit over one particular incident.
don’t have children ess
or friends
@David:
or life
I think it’s on of those fear-turns-to-anger deals. She seemed to always have trouble controlling her fears and anxieties and then this whole robbery bit happens and she couldn’t even move. From her perspective, someone COULD have gotten hurt and she wouldn’t have been able o do anything about it, just like at home when Blaine is abusive to her mom. This would thereby explain her compulsive vigilante coping mechanism as a method of taking control so that no one gets hurt, if she can help it, ever again.
For Sal, it’s just Tuesday.
What an amazing reference. Sal= Bison ? Awesome.
Do you expect Sal to remember every place the held up? Let alone one specific girl who she may have traumatized?
Did she hold up more than one store?
Two is the number that’s been mentioned.
I think Walky made reference to “hold up a few convenience stores” in an early comic. [gets out Book 1]
2, was it? I’m pretty sure Walky said more than one (like, he said an actual number) at the beginning.
Two stores. On one hand, it’s not unimaginable she’d remember. On the other, she seems more self-absorbed than self-aware, so it wouldn’t be surprising if she’s never given a thought to anyone else who was there that day.
Well, how would she remember the face of one girl who was in the background of a store she robbed years ago, let alone know what she’d look like 5 years later?
You didn’t get in a catfight, Amber. Daughter, I am Disappoint.
Can you maybe not be creepy and act like violence is sexy when it’s two women please? That’d be great.
Sorry.
Thank you.
Taekwondogirl, every post you make makes me respect you more. Just wanted to say that.
Thank you. 🙂
LIKE +1
Out of curiosity, is it okay to like violence/fighting/action with women protagonists if you’re not into it for the supposed sexiness? (I’m aware that ‘catfight’ could be interpreted as desiring sexiness, but I don’t really read the word that way myself. The impression I get is that most real ‘catfights’ are frighteningly brutal. It’s as if women don’t have an unwritten ‘below the belt’ rule or something.)
If you can sub in a guy into the situation and you would still like the action sequence and/or it isn’t sexual for you, I’d say it’s fine to enjoy it. However, the discussion of whether we have an unhealthy obsession with violence is still waiting on the other side of the door. :p
I’d almost wager women are more brutal because they have less experience fighting, so they don’t know *how* to control themselves. I am clearly just guessing and have no actual idea.
Taekwondo girl has no idea how girls fight? that’s odd.
+1 for asserting your opinion
-1 for telling ppl what they can/should and should not enjoy.
I for one find cat fights sexy. I also know some females who find male vs male fighting sexy. It’s just a personal preference. For me it’s an athleticism/ dominance / I don’t have to jump in and save you seeing as you can clearly handle your business, damn girl do your thing.
Those of you who don’t know girls are vicious have clearly never taken a trip around WorldStar or similar site.
…I don’t know how traditional “cat fights” actually work, as I’ve never participated in them. My assumption is that people who have not trained or done much fighting have less control over their actions, and my experience lines up with that.
And liking cat fights aren’t just sexy, it’s about objectifying women. Just because some women like men fighting doesn’t mean it’s on the same scale, and I would still argue that women liking men fighting is creepy. It’s turning the entire argument, the feelings felt on both sides and the violence into being about pleasing you. Don’t you find that dehumanizing, at least a little?
Objectifying ladies or men is fine by me so long as you know when to shut that off. If that mindset’s overruling everything else all the time, you got a problem. It’s also good to know when that’s not appropriate, like, say, when a girl is having a serious freakout, AHEM. But finding your desired sex or gender super-hot is just being friggin’ healthy. The idea of sexual attraction being dehumanizing seems not healthy.
Fair points. I must not have communicated myself properly. I was meaning that finding two people fighting each other sexy, and I will amend my point to agree that up to a certain threshold it’s normal. The particular, current scenario was coloring what I was posting.
…I just like seeing women who can kick ass and take names and don’t need some man to do their fighting for them. One of them is good, two of them is better. -2 if they’re dressing or otherwise acting like objectified idiots. (Which hampers my ability to appreciate most female superheros or street fighter characters.)
As for the ‘serious freakout’ point, I’m still okay with thinking that Sal would be being awesome if she managed to defend herself from an unexpected attack by a crazed Amazi-girl. (I am currently operating on the assumption that Sal’s catholic school did not include fighting training or martian DNA injections, so she should be only about ten times as good in a fight as me, which ain’t saying much. And Amber has watched violence, practiced violence, and possibly trained with martial arts masters around the world, so yeah.) Amber in such a fight, on the other hand, would just be scary or sad/depressing, or most likely both.
Exactly, it’s cultural training.
When men fight, it’s about dominance.
When women fight, it’s about sending someone to the hospital/morgue.
Referring to combat between multiple women as a “catfight” is not a particularly good sign.
It shows, right there, that it isn’t considered the same as a “normal” fight.
Right, to me normal fight means “pounding on each other above the belt until one drops, then posing above his panting form”. “Catfight” means “slugging, clawing, wrestling, biting, hair pulling, stabbing, and whatever else until the other one stops moving”.
All your shitty, sexist comments here explain a lot about your posts on Dorothy.
It looks like 2nd panel Amber’s chest was about to burst open.
It looks like she was about to use her super breath
It looks like she was doing a very emotional rendition of Thriller.
Lungs of Steel.
Bo…You know what? Forget it.
The internet was so obsessed with “Fus Ro Dah” for so long, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that people don’t recognize that Amber is obviously using “Wuld Nah Kest.”
I had to google search to find out what you were talking about, I have never come across that meme before.
“THAT’S THE GIRL WHO KEPT ME FROM THOSE TWINKIES, YEARS AGO!”
MY
PARENTS ARE DEAAADTWINKIES ARE GOOOONE!This is shaping up to be some superhero backstory, let me tell you.
i’ve been hating on Ethan lately but that panel where he’s grabbing Amber to pull her to safety(unless she’s a human shield? haha) made me “AWWWWWW” so hard I think I broke something. Thanks for the sudden feels Willis.
If only college freshman Ethan had the character of high school freshman Ethan.
He still has it, but it has been broken. All levels sucked out by undead and so on. Not playable any more.
I wanted a fight, redemption and blood.
so much blood…
The heedlessness of her flight is terrible to watch. Poor thing.
Yer a dang poet.
Just wait, next she’ll randomly run into Blaine.
And to think that all Amber wanted to do was chillax in her room and kill spiders. If she had just stuck to that plan, I wonder if this would have happened?
There would have been many dead spiders. The carnage would have been horrible.
Well, at least we know the hand on Amber’s jacket belongs to Ethan who was pulling her to safety.
Did not go the way I thought it would either. I was sure Amber would have reached the end of her rope at sight of Sal, and the realization of who she was in relation to the store robbery. I’m sure never noticed anything but the cash, look at the tremor in her voice, she was scared to death too.
Willis strikes again: Amber does nothing. She did not mop the floor with Sal, not did she just sit down and curl up into a ball and refuse to come out.
She has had it I guess, but again, she is running.
As noted, Amazi-girl comes out at night. So, interested in seeing what the night brings tonight.
The question is, where’s Amber going?
To make out with Dina to distract herself, of course!
I hope she goes to Ruth.
Reasoning?
I thought of Ruth before too.
Ruth also comes from an abusive background and struggles with it.
She certainly doesn’t like Blaine and is already on Amber’s side on that issue.
She clearly has a protective side and this also gives her somebody to focus that on. Important as she’s trying to stop drinking. She needs enough to occupy her and something to care for, but not enough to stress her to the point of drinking.
She’s also dysfunctional beyond her alcoholism. But sometimes the right dysfunctions match. That sometimes gives you the Hillside Strangler, but it can also be two people trying to find the strength to get beyond their past.
Pretty much what I was thinking.
Just to tack on … Ruth is kind of soft inside with armor plating on the outside. But she she seems pretty aware underneath it. I think she’d be as protective of Amber as she is of Howard.
Perhaps Mike?
Unless he has a softer side, no.
Now I kinda want to see Amber kick Sal’s ass. Am I wrong for thinking that?
Yes.
aggg edit…read ” I’m sure Sal never noticed..”
Wait, Sal tried to use a knife to hold up somebody behind a security barrier?
Most gas stations, you’re dealing with a couple feet of countertop and that’s pretty much it. It’s what’s often behind the counter that she should’ve taken into account (bats, machetes, guns, etc… which may also give a clue as to where this is going).
Oops. Just saw the plexiglass. Good catch. And not a bright move on Sal’s part (though it’s also possible she could threaten people on her side of the glass as a way of getting what she wants).
If the stores are anything like they are in Oz, for legal and insurance, the policy for been robbed is to comply with the thief’s demands unless you can reasonaly believe that people’s lives would be at stake.
I like to imagine this scene going like when Dr. Evil tells the UN he’s holding the world hostage for $1,000,000. And like 10 employees behind the security screen are just sitting there laughing hysterically.
Yeah. Sal seems one of those people that learn everything the long hard way, if they learn it at all.
…COULD be, Sal is just doing like what the one dude with no insurance did–“held up” a bank for $1 with a note that explained how he was holding up the bank for $1.
So he could get prison insurance.
We never found out if Sal’s hold-ups were violent or resulted in anything other than incarceration. Not to say this wouldn’t still be super-traumatic for already teetering-on-the-brink Amber, ’cause at that point in her life, THIS WAS THE FRIGHTENINGEST THING SHE’D EVER EXPERIENCED.
B-But our showdown!
Later that night, Amber pulls out the chainsaw and that’s when the real fun begins. >:D
Yeah, chainsaw aside, I lay even odds that Amazi-girl will be stalking a specific target tonight. Though I hope not, because I’m not seeing how a surprise attack with the Amazi-lead-pipe could go well for Sal.
She’ll lose her memories, and then become a sweet school girl again.
this does have potential Danny is going to most likely assume this freak out is about them and thus hopefully rush to Ambers aid. Come on Willis give us a x-mas miracle and dont make danny dan this up! PLEASE WILLIS PLEASE DONT DAN IT UP
Nope Psycho, I don’t think you’re wrong at all.
But, Sal didn’t set out to hurt Amber, never noticed anything in the store but the cash and getting out. Looked like she was pretty scared.
I’d like to see her kick the crap out of Danny.
Amber, Amber, Amber. Can your backstory be any more tragic?
“Is that a challenge.” -David “Punchlaser” Willis
Don’t tempt it… we haven’t seen the aftermath. For all we know her dad could have called her out for panicking and not defending herself…
or Ethan could be crying along with her….
Here’s my theory. Blaine started of as a nice guy. He came to defend Amber, but was kicked so hard by Sal that he changed personalities.
The link below kinda disproves your theory.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/gasstation/
Problem with that theory is that Blaine was already an asshole when we saw him in the car a few strips ago.
He’s just annoyed, not abusive.
The comments Blaine made when he pulled into the station showed us he was already a contender for crummiest father status.
Memo to self: refresh page before commenting.
Yes, father, I shall become a twinkie. And now we know why Amazi-Girl proudly dresses in bright yellow.
I am become Twinkie, destroyer of worlds.
also the decayer of teeth.
Criminals are a superstitious, sugar-craving lot… they fear yet covet the Hostess, for it is their greatest desire and weakness in one.
She totally focused on the wrong thing when watching Ghostbusters when deciding that a really big Twinkie is frightening in and of itself instead of just a metaphor.
Amber is getting WAY more than her fair share. Perhaps counseling and meds would be in order more than going back to Amazigirl.
Joining the circus and shaving William Shatner’s face into her hair would be a better move than going back to Amazi-Girl.
Shaving her hair and wearing Shatner’ s toupee?
Giving head to strangers in a back alleyway for a nickle would also be better than being Amazi-Girl. But I’m not sure whether Amber can get over her obsession.
I always like when I forget to check an update until 10:59 then I get 2 back to back
Why do I get the sinking feeling this is going to end with self-harm?
Well, if Amazi-Girl punching people counts as self harm, then yes.
all I can say is that I’m really glad that D(Y)W has said that no one is going to die.
I think she’d have a history of it already.
I guess the reason Sal isn’t using a gun is because the glass is probably bullet proof. Maybe during Sal’s flashback we’ll eventually see how much luck she had threatening the store clerk behind the glass barrier (which we can see in the first panel).
In spite of how it may look, getting a gun isn’t the easiest thing for a random kid.
Hopefully doesn’t ruin Danny’s chances with Sal.
you can’t ruin something nonexistent.
So how do you think Amber will respond when Danny tells her that Sal is secretly Amazi-Girl?
“How can you be so dumb? It’s obviously Faz”
Spoiler: Sal was Faz the whole time.
That…what?
Shocking, I know. But you’ll come to accept it.
Even during the time when Sal was with Walky and the Walkerton parents, while Faz was with Dina and *her* parents?
(and then presumbly when Sal was getting her hair done while Faz was being tied up)
>_>
And then Amber runs away from Campus and finds Blaine waiting for her.
Where she unleashes hell on him
And gets sent to prison for assault.
He is trespassing, with clear nefarious intent towards her. I think of all the people Amber could unleash her stress upon, Blaine is the one most likely to result in a sympathetic jury.
Or her mom!
Or your mom.
Or Mike’s mom.
For a nickle.
Sal just standing there like” ok that just happend.”
FUN!
Well, since Danny will inevitably make it about him (guy is searching for a manic pixie dream girl, I swear), Ethan BETTER go after her.
We need Danny to make it about him, or his character arc will never be able to advance. Maybe, at the end of this, his delusions about a manic pixie dream girl will be shattered just as it was with Q at the end of Paper Towns, and he’ll finally see Amber as herself, and not as how he wants her to be (a.k.a. Amazi-Girl).
Nope. Danny’s about being passive. His dream, either as Lois Lane or being carried through life by Dorothy, is about being passive.
Plus I think a woman with esteem should be better than Danny. Pretty much in the definition.
And that dream is about to be shattered, I can assure you. And once it’s shattered, he’s not gonna be passive for long. He just hasn’t had any motivation, narrative or otherwise, to actually start anything. He’s in the process of ending the dream of being passive throughout life, and I think this crisis with Amber is the key to that.
No… I’m still confused. She witnessed Sal robbing the gas station and… she fell over? Someone help me out here. Why is that fifth panel showing, exactly, that is so traumatic?
I’m with Jake. I don’t fully understand the fifth panel either.
Ethan is pulling her out of the way
I understand that Ethan is pulling her, but panel 1 has Sal’s back to Amber. ethan is pulling Amber back, presumably away from Sal. But then the 5th panel, the shelf is falling or rocking, and Sal’s hair is in the top left? I’m enjoying the comic, but I don’t understand how Sal’s hair can be there, with the rest of the action going on.
The camera seems to be sitting on or behind the counter looking past Sal at the distant shelf and Amber, with extremely deep focus that includes both. Just because you’re seeing Sal’s hair doesn’t mean she’s looking in their direction.
It’s Ethan grabbing Amber and dragging her behind the shelves.
I think Amber was on the verge of a panic attack from her social anxiety and Sal just kicked it over into full-blown terror. The kind that creates a positive-feedback memory loop that causes PTSD. Hence the flashbacks.
I’ll forgive Danny if he tries to comfort Amber. I’d like it better if he succeeds. Seriously, Danny needs to succeed at one thing.
Ya at this point its just…my god
I’m not sure that is physically possible.
Before Danny can comfort Amber, he needs to eliminate the possibility of Sal being Amazi-Girl. Now would be that perfect opportunity, as there is a girl who currently needs saving. In his mind, the “real Amazi-Girl” wouldn’t hesitate to go after someone who’s quite obviously in need, so I should think these next few strips would be of him confronting Sal about Amber’s trouble, trying to egg her on in an attempt to “reveal” the superheroine who is his girlfriend.
I’m not sure Amber’s kind of need is an Amazi-girl kind of need, though. I’ve heard that punching someone is an inferior method of administering counseling to them.
I don’t think it’ll work that way. As far as Danny is concerned, Amber saw him with Sal and freaked out. I don’t think he’ll think past that point.
Apropos of flashback week…
Flashback (narrative): in literature and dramatic media, an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point.
Flashback (psychology): a sudden, powerful, re-experiencing of a past experience. The term is used particularly when the memory is recalled involuntarily, and/or when it is so intense that the person “relives” the experience, unable to fully recognize it as memory and not something that is happening in “real time”.
I haz a sad.
Aha! And now this gives Danny the opportunity to hint at Sal that she should become Amazi-Girl and go after her!
I think… I can see the ending.
I don’t know bout you people, but I really want to hear Sal’s side of that. Was she pressured into it? Was she super poor and needed to? Drugs? Go-kart rides? What?
It is not about the money, it is about sending a message.
The message is “I exist”. A child who isn’t getting the attention he or she needs from her parents will begin to behave in whatever manner necessary in order to get any crumb of attention.
Yeah that’s what I assume but you never know with this comic. Could be another plot twist. Maybe Amber’s dad pressured her to :O
This.
Give it another five years, and we’ll get it.
Actually, the Dark Knight was released just a bit over five years ago. Man, time flies when you are having fun.
This is all Danny’s fault. Stupid Danny. Someone should kill him.
Yes, obviously. I think that Danny was even responsible for the convenience store robbery. Somehow.
Didn’t you know? Danny was the evil genius behind Blaine’s abuse on his family too. And he caused Ethan to be gay. All his evil evil fault. Somehow.
Yeah, I think I prefer the nice blue flashbacks to these red trauma memories
Oh I got it now.
Amazi-Girl’s gonna bring Sal to justice.
But…Sal’s already been brought to justice.
Not for emotional crimes.
I just keep thinking about how when Danny asked Amazi-Girl for her backstory, all she said was something like, “There was this robbery– No, I can’t talk about it.”
If Danny finds out Sal robbed a convenience store or two, that will only confirm the mistaken identity in his mind. He’ll think she became Amazi-Girl as penance, and the web will become more tangled.
Because Danny is Danny and always has to Dan everything up, Danny-style.
Well, and also because the god of this universe just keeps setting him up. The evil, evil, damnation-worthy god.
Let me get this straight.
Amber’s gay ex is dating a girl again, but is actually happy this time.
Said ex reminded her she’s still got anger issues to work out.
Amber just got rejected in favor of the alter-ego she created as an unhealthy way to let off steam.
The guy who rejected her is now hanging out with the convenience store robber because he thinks she’s the alter-ego (really, why? They have two completely different body types), and he’s enjoying himself.
That’s a quintuple whammy of social failure.
And she slips on a twinkie, just to drive the point home.
Yeah, I never got for a moment how he could confuse them….they look nothing alike. Even with wig to change hair, boots for height difference, dark so can’t tell skin difference, voice disguised…they still aren’t…..comparable.
I just see Amber being alone for a bit, making sense of all of this and then Amazing Girl making justice on Sal
People who are saying that Amber’s overreacting because Sal didn’t directly menace her with the knife or anything… let me reframe a little.
Amber was a thirteen-year-old kid growing up in an abusive home with no sense of security. Maybe other thirteen-year-olds have a feeling of invincibility or whatever, but this is a little girl who knows through direct experience that bad things happen ALL THE TIME, in her world, for real, not just on TV. She walks into a store, starts to feel shitty about herself for liking Twinkies, and suddenly someone is waving a knife around like two feet from her and shouting that it’s a robbery.
How the fuck would this NOT be a terrifying experience for a child? You don’t have to be stabbed to be traumatised, for fuck’s sake.
This, this, this. I’ve got a friend with some severe social anxieties (she acts pretty much like Amber with the whole twinkie “they’ll know!” thing). Someone that socially fragile has to spend a lot of time convincing themselves that the world is much safer than they think; that things will be okay; that the dire consequences WILL NOT HAPPEN. And then in Amber’s case, they did happen.
Imagine being let down by the world like that. Even the most emotionally stable person would be rattled by the experience – the socially fragile person will have most of their coping mechanisms shattered.
Tl;dr: Poor Amber. I just wanna give her a hug.
DAMMIT WILLIS!
Seriously, that was the first strip that legitimately made me post that.
She’s gonna, with thirteen years old strength and one knife, rob a store with a thick security barrier? Sal really really didn’t think this through. Flashback isn’t over, something hasn’t gone wrong yet.
She could take someone hostage, and refuse to let go until the cashier gives some money. Or Nachitos .
SAL IS A SUPERVILLAIN!!!
A HOT supervillain, too!
So Danny liked but rejected Amber, got with Amber’s alter ego, had a falling out with Amber, and is now accidentally cheating on Amber’s alter ego with another girl who had a random run-in with Amber years ago and thus helped created the alter ego.
Congratulations. I officially declare this the most convoluted, weird love dodecahedron ever. *golf clap*
You have the beginning order wrong.
Saved by Amazi-Girl, develops crush.
Meets Amber in class, talks.
Talks with both, goes for one half of his fantasy.
Over reacts to Amber from Freshman Family Weekend – when she was running from Blaine.
Then the bit about Sal.
And you didn’t even mention the part where Amber’s ex-boyfriend dumped her after coming out as gay, but is dating another girl, who may possibly have a bisexual girl-crush on Danny’s ex-girlfriend, whose new boyfriend is Amber’s nemesis’s twin brother, and meanwhile Amber’s ex is flirting with his new girlfriend’s trans-sister…
Cue Bob Newhart. Oh to be young and in love…..and not them.
….Wow…so…all we need now is for said trans-sister to hit on Amber, and bring this all full circle.
I see wat ur planning Willis… well played my friend well played… unleash the flashbacks and freak outs my good author
Looks like Ethan got some major boob grab
Unlike most 13-year-old boys, he probably did not even notice.
Hey I’m not 13 years old 🙁 I am an ADULT
The next comic should totally be Amazi-Girl swinging in and attacking Sal.
Confusing Danny to no end and making him believe there’s a Earth-3 universe with an EVIL Amazi-Girl.
The day of the Danny murder draws near… prepare yourselves.
Methinks she’ll run into Billie or Ruth next. Hopefully Ruth to comfort the poor girl.
I have an even worse feeling about this(tm)
Calling it now:
Danny: Look, it’s a bunch of thieves.
Sal: Mm-hmm.
Danny: …Aren’t you gonna do anything to stop them?
Sal: It’s not mah problem.
Danny: But if you don’t do something, they’re gonna get away!
Amber (AG): *outside* I’m really not in the mood for this. Stop now and nobody gets hurt.
Danny: …What?
Thief #1: Yeah? What are you gonna do about it?
Amber (AG): *proceeds to kick the thieves’ butt*
Danny: …So, you’re not Amazi-Girl?
Sal: YOU THOUGHT AH WAS THAT GEEK???
Ah, might make a fanfic of this. Possibility= ~24% on a good day
The thing that jarred me with this scenario (other than the idea that Willis would ever actually clear matters up with such a low level of drama) was, I realised after some reflection, that Sal would call AG a geek in a pejorative manner. She’s never really gone round insulting people. Sal’s pretty laid-back. I think it’s what makes her the super-cool to Billie’s sort-of-pathetic. Sal doesn’t give a shit what anyone else does (minus her family), she just does her thing.
And I think that’s why I like her.
In other news, I think Danny’s face in panel six should have an epic zoom-in moment.
Man, now the hoping for a confrontation between these two where Sal actually knows what happened back then with Amber has between out Billie and Ruth getting together as my most anticipated story to see.
Though, lesbians are great….
…lesbians, truth, lesbians, truth…..
Hmmmmm….
Ok, well, I’m gonna go with the Sal/Amber story as it just seems more likely to happen.
Amber realizes that Caramel is better than Twinkies.
I just noticed – is Sal left handed? She seems to be holding the knife in her left hand.
I commented on that yesterday. If you go back, the first time we see her she is lighting her cigarette with her left hand; and she generally holds things like her cigarette or her jacket in her right hand — which (if she were left-handed) would allow her to keep her dominant hand free.
When you have a guy like danny as your boyfriend, you know you are in a world of hurt apart from the world of hurt that you already reside in.
Ugh, my heart aches for Amber right now. Few things are worse than to be freaking out emotionally, for legitimate reasons, and for people to think you’re “weird” or “weak” or something because of it.
Wow, i have to say.
Ethan is quick to respond in bad/reallybad situations.
Good for him. That’s a +1 for him for sure.
Good friend.
Shitty closet lover thought :P.
Hoooooooly shit
So, did Sal do something traumatic and frightening while she was robbing the store or was Amber just not equipped to deal with that on account of the rest of her life?
When you are a victim of abuse, the threat of violence is super fucking scary bc you have experience w it leading to real violence. So yeah, someone waving a knife can be super traumatizing, even if you’d assume otherwise. Also she already had generalized anxiety about people in general.
Makes sense.
It can be scary even if it doesn’t normally lead to physical violence, speaking from experience. But I think gangler’s question was legit, I mean Amber would very likely be freaking out because of the trigger, but it’s also possible that Sal actually did something else too.
Oh snap! Didn’t see that coming, thought the pieces are there for in in retrospect.
Well, that could have gone worse.
ok, at least ONE of you is going after her to help calm her down and comfort her right?
RIGHT?!
But….but….WIGGLER!
I wonder what Ethan will do when he learns of this situation?
“hey, you’re that girl from that one place back then.”
“wutaboutit?”
“nothing.”
Bravo.
Dammit Danny you want to be a hero well nows your chance to be one and go after Amber and act like real friend would
Odd thought: Sal wasn’t ignored by her parents because of her color but because of the much-much worse fact of Walky being far smarter than her. Which would be like an extra kick in the gut.
I think we forget that Walky is actually a genius in a disguise of adolescence.
I am torn. At first I was all about shipping Amber and Danny but now after having read all of shortpacked to date and starting out on Roomies I fear that amber trying to date him violates the rules of the walkyverse… CURSE YOU DRAMA TAG!
my thoughts exactly
I keep reading the comments on this storyline and wondering how many people have actually read the chapter title. I have some very strong suspicions about how this will all resolve out, especially as I strongly doubt Danny/Sal has any better chance here than in the Walkyverse for very similar reasons…
After reading your comment, I finally get the title of the chapter. Danny is the dope and he’s the only one for Amber. Damn, I thought it something to do with drugs.
Dun-dun-duh! You mean…Amber is Amazi-Girl? AND, Sal was the Burglar to her Spider-Man? The lump of clay to Hippolyta’s hands? The…exploding planet…to her Superman…esque…ness?! Nay–nay–the shrapnel to her little heart?!
Damn you Willis. But in the best way evuh.
I was thinking of Sal as Amazi-Girl’s Joe Chill, personally. And she just walked in on her Vicki Vale/Talia/Lois Lane/Rachel/God-Batman-has-a-lot-of-love-interests-over-his-various-incarnations doing things doing things with the villain that she thought he would only do with her.
Yes, I’m saying that in Amber’s geek-mind, Mario Kart is a sex-level betrayal.
Nice. I see what you did there. 🙂
Damn it! Damn it all! Everyone be damned!
Does that mean Gollaso’s wife’s cancer is caused indirectly by the martian invasion which is why she is alive in this universe since martians aren’t part of the story?
There is no link between the two universes other than sharing characters. There’s no cause-and-effect splinter timeline stuff going on.
Aww, you are no fun, you should have made some cryptic comment and egged him on.
So if the universes are not linked that does that mean that we shouldn’t expect the couples to remain the same? Will the great Faz will finally marry Amber and Robin in the name of the greatness that is Faz?
Well, I do like that Faz actually knows his father in this universe, but other than that….um…Faz….*scratches head*….needs to have a ‘break the haughty’ and learn manners. Not likely.
I CAN SE CLEARLY NOW THE RAIN IS GONE!
So…..not a lot of comments about how Danny will perceive this. I can only imagine that he will jump to the conclusion that she is upset to see him with Sal, when I don’t think she even noticed him.
I’m hoping that Danny will see that his friends in trouble and will do the decent thing and see if shes ok.
Okay, okay, I keep getting confused. How does Amber know Walky and Sal? Did they have any backstory? I know that Billie and Walky were friends in their childhood, but.. Oh god getting confused.
If you want to know how Amber knows Sal, just read the comic at the top of the page.
Oh, alright, so that was quite literally the entire depth of their relationship prior to going to university. Got you. I thought that was the case, but then I realized that many of the characters had more backstory and were friends prior to going to university together, so I thought I had missed something or was swapping backstories with other characters in the series in my memory.
Amber does not know Walky or Sal. At age 13 she happened to be in a convenience store when Sal robbed it.
Sal and Amber were assigned to the same dormitory building on campus. They each moved in a couple of weeks ago.
A few days ago she saw Sal for the second time in her life as Sal walked past in the dorm with Billie. Amber looked shocked.
Today Amber saw Sal again, for the third time in her life, with Danny. This prompted a PTSD flashback of the time five years ago when she witnessed Sal’s robbery.
Make sense?
Slight clarification: the times Leah’s referring to here are in comic time, not calendar time.
Yes! That does make sense. Thanks! This was my first interpretation so I did have a decent understanding in the first place, but then I thought that there was some backstory that I had missed or sped over. I always doubt that I have things right.
great page
From Danny’s face in the last panel, I suspect (hope) he will go after Amber and end up doing the right thing, albeit for the wrong reasons. Doing good by accident, that would fit the Danny way.