I don’t know what these folks are complaining about, I have no problem understanding what she’s saying. However I just now figured out she’s using sign language and not some telepathic or electronic link a la Lobot.
Medal. Waving her fingers in the m form where a medal should be. Also, without ASL: Obviously Malaya is disliked. Options are either “back-up Malaya” or “give Amazigirl a medal”. Context indicates humour is in the mass dislike of Malaya. QED, medal.
its closer to a ‘N’ than a ‘M’, but it really looks like neither of those. the pointer and middle finger would have to be hooked over the thumb to be a ‘N’ and the ring finger would have to join those to be a ‘M’. Its like cursive rather than print, two humps for ‘n’, three humps for ‘m’.
Remember not to forget about ‘T’ (pointer hooked over thumb), which i’m assuming your error.
Some signs use the letter they start with (like when Jen mentioned that if you change Marcie’s hand to an L, it means “lazy.” To a C, it means “character.” Some signs use the letter the word starts with in French because of ASL being based in French and French Sign Language.
And a great many signs use a letter handshape. Handshape is important and there’s a name or descriptive word for most of them. A lot of the handshape names reference a fingerspelling letter. Marcie is using an ‘N handshape’ here. The letter ‘n’ has nothing to do with it. The sign is supposed to mimic pinning a medal to one’s chest. But because of the similarity of that handshape to a manual N, that’s what it’s called.
A great many words use handshapes that are described as a letter when that letter has nothing to do with the word. For example both “donkey” and “stubborn” use a b-handshape to represent a donkey’s ear. That shape just happens to match up with the letter B.
The handshapes have names like that because until very, very recently it was difficult to learn a new sign if no one you could physically be near knew it. So, in ASL books and dictionaries and the like, there would be a picture or two replicating the sign as best as possible, but there would also be a description telling you the hand shape, palm orientation, type and direction of the movement, etc to help people understand how to sign it more easily.
I’m really no trying to be a know-it-all or something, just want the right information out there.
P- there’s several signs that are actual signs that are fingerspelled. They’re called “lexicalized signs.” (This is a fairly new term, by the way. They used to be called “loaned signs.”
For example, look up on YouTube or an online ASL dictionary how the words “bank”, “job”, and “style” are signed. They aren’t just fingerspelled as you would do for someone’s name. They’re usually done with a specific flourish that kind of makes them a mix between typical signs and typical fingerspelling.
To make an ‘N’ you do not need to wrap your fingers over your thumb. In fingerspelling ‘M’ and ‘N’ are often signed with the fingers pointing out.
Also, describing a handshape as being a certain letter doesn’t always mean it’s going to look exactly like that letter. Having the pointer and middle finger out, either with the thumb tucked in to the hand or sticking out like in the sign for “no” is often described as an “N handshape.”
*quickly hides her dark glasses* I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Actually, to the best of my knowledge, Anne Sullivan didn’t know ASL. Or at least she didn’t know much (I could be wrong, though.) She was blind in one eye and her vision in the other wasn’t too great and this was all from a very young age. I can’t imagine that actual ASL would have been easy for her to learn or all that useful even if she had.
She knew the manual alphabet and she and Helen made up signs that were easier for Helen to “read” with her hands for words they used often.
I can’t stand communicating in the manual alphabet alone for very long. It’s slow and frustrating. Imagine having to spell aloud every word you wanted to say. Like talking about something “grown-up” around a toddler, but with every single word, not just the ones you don’t want the kid to hear. Then add in lots of hand cramps.
🙂
Transferred rep from other universes, I’d suspect. While these characters have been retconned to fit this universe, they’re still meant to be the same characters. In Walky, Sal was a super-powered angst machine – NOT a person anyone wanted to fight. In Shortpacked! Ultra-Carla was a robot who put on a costume and fought crime. Yes, even when she was a car!
I still think Amazi-Girl will win, though. She out-badass-es them all. Even though we may not want her to.
On the other hand, Walky was also a super-powered badass, at least once he discovered his strength, but in the Dumbiverse… well, I doubt he has quite as much fighting prowess. And of course, Amazi-Girl was nowhere near as strong as she is here. So I’m not sure transferring fighting ability across universes works here.
Half the group Amber’s confronting had military training/experience in the walkyverse.
They’ve had their history rewritten. They’ve had their physiology rewritten. Hell they’ve had their psychology rewritten, what with the effects that all the mindwiping had on everybody’s brains.
“Meant to be the same characters” doesn’t really extend very far.
I’m not saying that their reps in other universes means that they will be badasses here. I’m saying that their reps in other universes is what causes people to assume they’re badasses here.
How weird would it be if it turned out there’s totally been a Spider-Carla running around campus all semester but everybody’s been too distracted by Amazigirl to notice?
I feel like that would actually have a bit of potential for a fun conflict. Carla’s entry in the cast page makes it sound like she’d very much want to be the vigilante that’s getting all the press coverage, but of course Amazigirl just wants to remain unknown in the shadows. They’d both resent eachother for having what the other wants.
Marcie is v. athletic with good body mass.
She boards so probably has gotten back up after falling hard. So fearless and hard to bring down.
I think she’d try to avoid a fight but might hit REAL hard when it started.
Exactly…now, Amazi-Girl is not the aggressor. Telling someone “Come at me, please.” Does not permit physical assault. This is now self defense as long as she doesn’t jump on her and start mercilessly beating her and the other three would be wise to just stand there and make Amazi-girl attack them otherwise it will be more of the same.
It’s not fighting words? Even in the context of someone who has dressed up as a superhero and gone out looking for trouble, who has already expressed happiness that you (she means Sal, but Malaya doesn’t know that) doing something illegal makes things easier for her (i.e. implying she intended to attack them anyway)?
“Fighting words” is a legal concept having to do with action by the government — there’s significantly less protection of an utterance which can be shown to be fighting words or incitement as free speech than would normally be available. Malaya is neither a police officer nor any legally constituted law enforcement officer, so the fighting words doctrine has jack-shit to do with her.
Also, it could be argued that saying it counts as challenging to a fight, and therefore forfeits the right to self-defense (i.e. both parties are committing a crime.) Though I don’t know if Indiana has that law or not.
At the legal statute level there’s probably a fairly catch-all wording that includes inciting and encouraging a fight. At the police level, there’s a need to restore the peace and arrest anyone they believe broke the law (like after talking with witnesses and participants). The finer points, like if this particular instance is self-defense, is for a lawyers to argue and jurors to decide in a court of law. (IANAL)
Sure, worst case, they could all be expelled or imprisoned, but probably not, not even in real life.
There’s a character art of Carla on Willis’ tumblr and in that she’s wearing skates. Also, you can kinda see her knee pads here and why would she wear those, really, if she didn’t have skates on?
lollll I know I really shouldn’t, because she hasn’t done anything really bad in this universe yet (and in any case, violence is bad, y’all!), but when Malaya got knocked out I kinda cheered. I feel appropriately ashamed of myself xD
Based on two facts:
1) Panel4 shows Malaya in-fall, head-first, after being clotheslined,
2) Mid-fall, Malaya is clearly uttering a curseword, one that she does not finish.
Malaya does not seem like the type to utter the first three syllables of a curse word, and not utter the fourth. I’m assuming hitting the ground (which is the hard pavement of a parking lot), head-first, causes this. Seeing that she’s not wearing a helmet, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume she’s at least stunned. Unconscious is not a big stretch.
She saw the arm came up, knew what was coming, but if she’d had time to finish her reaction, she’d also have time time to STOP. Taking a fist or forearm to the face or throat is not conducive to speech.
If the others got taken out first, I could see her saying “Screw y’all, I’m out”, probably justifying it to herself by claiming she’s ‘cleverly stealing the beer’, but she relies on her facade of badassery too much to let it crack without serious reason.
Two minutes ago she was whining about how much of a chore it was to even show up at this parking lot for so little reward, I don’t know that it would be a sign of cowardice if she didn’t get up and fight for her right to be here.
Would she have been a coward if upon being asked to pay for the drinks she’d decided to just go home instead?
Honestly I can’t even find myself feeling anything but sympathy for Malaya. I mean so far all we know about her is that she’s pissy and noone likes her. I’d probably be pissy too if people openly didn’t like me.
I’m now picturing Malaya wearing a flower apron and baking cookies to give to homeless children while whistling the I Love You, You Love Me song from Barney. Either that or saving the world as a badass secret agent who’s most important mission is to find out who they really are. Either way would make great TV, so I’m happy
Considering that these so-called skater girls are missing the most important piece of hardware – their HELMETS – I’d say there’s some deservedness, here.
I like Malaya, but if you tried to show her sympathy, she’d probably mutter something about not needing your fucking sympathy and tell you to piss off.
It occurs to me that that probably should have ripped off Amazi-Girl’s arm, or at the very least caused an awful lot of shoulder pain. Malaya had all the momentum. Granted, she hit her in the neck instead of the chest, but it would still have been a significant amount of force.
Nah. Amazi-Girl is moving exactly as fast relative to Malaya as Malaya is relative to Amazi-Girl. And Amazi-Girl’s probably more massive; she may be a little shorter than Malaya, but she’s more heavily built. And she’s definitely in a much better leverage situation, particularly since Malaya is on wheels.
For that matter, Amazi-Girl doesn’t need to exert enough force to stop Malaya dead (nor have that amount of force exerted on her in return, thanks to Newton’s law). Thanks to Malaya’s complete lack of traction on skates, Amazi-girl just needs to exert a gentle shove’s worth of force so that Malaya loses balance, causing her feet to continue sailing forward while the rest of her tips backwards. Malaya still has most of her original forward momentum, judging by the way she’s flying under Amazi-Girl’s arm in that panel (in fact Malaya’s center of gravity is behind Amazi-Girl already), meaning very little of that momentum was transferred to Amazi-Girl’s arm.
yes, this. Also, relative size doesn’t matter as much. Other wise 120lb me could not have clothes lined a 180lb football player who was running by me without me being hurt. He woke up five minutes later… it was a pick up game on grass without helmets. My friends then explained that clothes lining was NOT allowed… or very sportsman like.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Both people always take exactly the same force, but the one doing the hitting is generally prepared for it. If not you can hurt yourself by throwing bad punches.
Huh? Her skates aren’t rocket-powered. Malaya’s skating at her under her own leg power, from a few feet away, over a more or less flat surface. Even if she came off the line like Apollo Anton Ono, she wouldn’t have enough momentum to do major bodily harm. Amber’s not ever hitting her that hard, but the clothesline stops Malaya’s forward motion above her center of gravity so her skates go out from under her.
OH OH! That’s what Shive meant by watching enough DBZ. They each get taken out one by one in order of weakness until the ultimate one on one fight happens. So… Carla next?
Yeah, Yamcha was weak compared to the others later on. But give the guy some credit. He is stronger than the Saibamen or Raditz, who are in actual fact insanely strong. He could blow up or benchpress a tank no problem. He could be kicked through a solid chunk of rock and come out the other side basically fine.
It is only comparison to the completely insane later levels of Piccolo, Saiyans and other freaks that the “low level” guys look weak.
Here’s the thing…Yamcha was outpaced even before DBZ. Heck, when he first met Krillin at the Martial Arts Tournament, he said that getting second place is going to be tough.
Maybe I’m just talking out of my ass, but this is kind of like a reverse clothesline, right? In that Malaya runs at Amazi-Girl, who sticks her arm out so that she runs into it, rather than Amazi-Girl running at Malaya with her arm stuck out.
What if Malaya in the shortpacks universe felt that. Imagine it:”Damn, I just felt like someone bodied me SO hard I felt it in a nother universe, weird. “
Ok since I think we all know that something in this fight is going to go horribly wrong…. for one of the party members… So the real question after things go down will Danny make thing better or ten times worse? PLACE YOUR BETS!
Guys, I would just like to take a moment to appreciate panel two. That is a villain smile. A sexy, scary villain smile.
Now I’m going to take a bunch of moments to appreciate that last panel and these last few comments. I did not know how much I needed these four hanging out together, but I did, and I do, and it is absolutely delightful.
I don’t “want” Amber to take a beating here… but maybe it would help her?
No probably not, a beating might cause a full mental breakdown. Probably only some kind of epiphany from a conversation with Sal (instead of fighting her) would have any realistic positive mental health outcome here.
Still, she DOES deserve a medal for decking Malaya.
OOooooh! Clotheslined! And now, Malaya is down. What is Team Fake ID going to do now? We have to go to a commercial break, stay with us as we’ll be back LIVE with DOA.
Real life, no. It’s incredibly hard to attack in a coordinated fashion in an uncontrolled environment. Someone will always arrive first, and then somebody else, and so on. On defense, it always looks like one at a time if the attackers can’t surround you.
I was one who figured Malaya would run….but not because she’s a friggin’ coward David, but because she is Malaya.
She has no fight with Amazi-girl, other than with anyone else anyway. And she is best known for covering her own ass.
So, I figured she’d back off and watch the show. Then back the winner.
Don’t matter, I’m happier with this outcome than the one I had imagined.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer ‘person’.
Nice move Amazi-girl, and Hell, she did ask for it.
Also, Amber is no fool. A good superhero, when facing a group, always taunts them. This will piss off the loose cannons in the group, causing them to attack individually, allowing them to be taken out early. This evens the odds.
I love Amber… easily my fav character in the comic.
But damn… I don’t know if I can really call her a ‘superhero’ anymore.
She’s treading awful quick down the path of ‘supervillain’.
I mean, let’s be honest; the girls aren’t on university grounds, we all know this is just a personal vendetta for something Sal did years ago… which, frankly, was well and truly paid for in full by Amber stabbing her in the hand.
This is just excessive; I can only hope Sal will be the cooler head.
But given the pure rage she nearly fell into when Ruth ticked her off earlier in the comic (“She’s not worth it”), I can only wonder what she’ll do when confronted by the girl who drove a frickin’ knife through her hand as a child.
Amazi-Girl was never a superhero. She was always an unstable person looking for outlets to vent her rage at. To make her feel less weak and pathetic. Amazi-Girl was always about the violence until Danny came along and refused to have his affection switched over to Amber.
You know, it looks like if AmaziGirl had just stepped aside, Malaya would have run head-first full-speed into the side of a van. Maybe not as satisfying as a clothesline, but in a way, even more elegant.
I hope this doesn’t go wrong for her. If she gets caught beating up other students that’s game over for her. No idea where this is going but I’ll enjoy the ride.
Screw the haters, I applaud Malaya’s aggressive spirit. Seems hypocritical to approve of Amber’s violence and not others. And lest you all forget, Amber’s plan here is to beat them all up, savagely and unprovoked.
Sides, one clothesline won’t take her out of commission. She does roller derby. Though insisting on skates in a fight might do her in.
Some of us have built-up hatred for her projected from over at Shortpacked where she would never get physical retribution. It’s a catharsis toward this asshole who seems to have almost no redeeming or even humorous features other than her relationship with Ultra-Car who has spent her time being an ass to everyone else. Maybe we like to think Amber punches so hard Shortpacked Malaya can feel it.
Oh please, Shortpacked Malaya was utterly miserable. She punished herself every day with her own bad attitude and lack of social skills. Ultra Car wasn’t exactly happy itself. I’m not sure what further retribution they need.
So, the trio have no animus towards AG for decking Malaya and want to give her a medal. Why would they now attack AG (which AG wants/needs)? Sal is AG’s nemesis, but Sal doesn’t even know who AG is. It’s like a crazy Sherlock Holmes stalking that nice Professor Moriarity, who was just busy teaching maths. Not like they are all full of testosterone and need to fight to prove their badassitude..
And AG doesn’t want them to hand over the beer and confess their sins, she wants to confront her nemesis and end it now. Sal just wants to relax. Does it take two to tangle or will AG attack Sal? I’m hoping for Sal to refuse to play the nemesis here and for AG to realize that she can’t just attack her.
Ha! I know I shouldn’t take joy in the unnecessary violence, but this was awesome! 🙂
Side note: I got my order of Shortpacked! 1-4 in the mail yesterday!! Thank you, Willis! It’s been a long time since I read the beginning of that comic and it was really interested to compare Amber, Ethan, and Robin from that time period and timeline to this one — especially that Amber contrasted with today’s DoA Amazigirl. (Mike was about the same.) 🙂
I think the best possible outcome if is Ethan or Danny has kept close enough watch on Amber to realize she is about to do something incredibly stupid and shows up to try to talk her out of it. It would at lest defuse the situation from violence to shouting.
Come to think about it, they should team up. HE is an insecure young man with bad relationship track record and HE is an insecure young man with bad relationship track record. Together they FIGHT-ish CRIME-ish. Their archenemies is their shared EX-GIRLFRIEND who they have to SAVE from HERSELF.
…Wow, that actually sounded a lot more sexist than I intended when I typed it all out. I think I will stick with Danny’s “You take care of the bad guys and I take care of you” instead. But, you know Danny, now would be an EXCELLENT time to take care of Amazi-girl.
Or maybe Dina. She cares about Amber and understands well enough that something is wrong to set the Raptor lose. Maybe she followed amazi-girl.
Or maybe Dorothy’s reporter instinct took over and she went snooping?
…or maybe I’m just grasping at straws because I want someone who cares about her to talk Amber down from a bad situation. But maybe no one is coming – maybe Sal has to figure out what is going on and be the mature and responsible one, while being attacked on a parking lot in the middle of the night. Piece of cake…
Somebody who cares? Pheh, that’s no fun. I want Ninja Rick to come in, pummel everybody into confused submission with nerf weaponry and cardboard tubes, and then disappear into the night. With no explanation whatsoever.
It occurs to me that I don’t think we’ve seen Sal fight anyone in this world. We know she’s versed in Parkour, and is street savvy, but she might not be able to actually hold her own in a fight.
Would Amber realize it before she’s gone too far down the path of her father, brutalizing someone who isn’t able to fight back?
Well, we know that she can enter a building through the windows. Parkour seems a stretch.
Street Savyness is more something we’ve inferred from the fact that she rides a motorcycle and smokes, maybe also from the fact that she’s committed a crime or two. I don’t get the impression that her time at catholic school was actually spent making connections as a black market dealer or anything though.
Don’t get me wrong, she’s super duper cool, but I’m not counting on her to start doing flips around Amber while pulling hidden blades from all over her body.
That really depends. There are ways to fall, even in a violent fall like Malaya is taking, which will work.
Of course, that’s real world. In real world, however, Amber would be desperately trying to keep her own balance due to momentum transfer, and Malay would not be moving as fast, because the clothesline would have yielded at the moment of impact, etc., etc., etc. Fortunately for everyone, we get comic-book physics here.
If Amber was prepared for the impact, I doubt she’d be struggling to keep her balance. Malaya can’t have that much momentum, they didn’t start that far apart.
Shouldn’t Malaya have fallen forward from that blow. Also, it would result in facial bruising against the van rather than a potentially lethal back-of-the-head-on-asphalt and I don’t think Willis is killing off Malaya already.
I’m a bit confused as to why everybody thinks Malaya is now unconscious, concussed, or dead, or whatever they’re thinking. I’m expecting her to pop right up, give or take I’m not sure Amazi-girl is going to let her get her skates under her again.
Also, I’m not sure that attacking somebody while you’re wearing roller skates it a really good idea. Not that I have experience with it, mind you, but it just sort of sounds like the basis of a comedy routine. (Well, until you realize that the skateless person intends to maul somebody, anyway.)
Ditto. She’s had the wind knocked out of her; she might have hit her head and is now suffering a bump on her noggin or her ass or both, but to figure that she is concussed or worse is revealing a total lack of physics, as well as the resilience of the human body. Putting it bluntly, it’s not that easy to seriously injure or kill someone just by knocking them off their feet (or skates). Otherwise we’d have a stack of corpses at every skate park in the country.
That’s because people have reflexes which tell them to put their body between their head/neck and the ground. This is why falls so often result in broken arms or hands. When those reflexes don’t work right because the falling person is stunned or surprised — say, as a result of being hit in the face by someone strong enough to uppercut a man 1.5 times her size onto his ass — you tend to fall on your vertebrae, or your head. Both of those can be very bad. If you want to incapacitate someone quickly, throwing them to the ground is the best thing you can do, because I guarantee you that gravity is stronger than you are.
Trained athletes and fighters learn better ways to fall, but it can still be a moot point if the fall is unexpected and you’re dizzy from a blow to the jaw anyway.
Humans are surprisingly resilient in many ways, but also surprisingly fragile in other ways. People die from falling down badly. Falling down properly is a valuable and much underrated skill, and it’s not what Malaya’s doing here. If she actually landed on her head – which it looks like she might – on pavement, it is well within the realm of possibility that it could kill her. A concussion is very likely… my niece actually got concussed (and also broke her wrist) in a very similar incident (though accidental) a couple weeks ago. There’s a reason they recommend helmets for skating. At least Malaya’s wearing her pads, so she’s not likely to break an elbow or whatever.
I don’t think Malaya’s actually dead or seriously injured, but that’s just because I don’t think Willis wants to take the comic there. Realistically, it’s not just possible but pretty plausible. And they should definitely be checking her for a concussion.
It would not at all surprise me if this was the point in the story where Amber irredeemably and irreversibly fucked up.
But I imagine Malaya’s gonna be hanging around for a while. I’d be pretty surprised if he just introduced her to have her immediately dragged away to a hospital for months.
Malaya’s still conscious -there’s all evidence that she swore *after* taking the hit, based on the placement of the speech bubble and the fact she’d have no reason to swear beforehand- and she’s also got both elbows angled behind her back. All she has to do is tense her arms and she should be basically fine. Though pissed.
As of her swearing in panel four, she hasn’t taken the real hit yet. The clothesline just tips her over. The real hit’s coming in a moment when the planet hits her.
If she lands as she is now, she should take the impact on her elbows and butt, and her padding should save her from serious injury. But she’s not just falling here, she’s also rotating around her center of mass – feet coming up, head going down – which means she might well land not on her elbows but on the back of her head and neck, which is a much more serious, potentially lethal, impact.
Like I said, I don’t think Malaya’s getting killed or seriously injured here, but that’s because I don’t think Willis wants to take her out of the comic so quickly, or turn DoA into dealing with the fallout of Amazi-Girl murdering or hospitalizing a relative innocent, not because it couldn’t happen.
She’s on in-line skates, and she’s supposed to be a roller-derby skater, right? If roller derby now is anything like I remember it in the days of Raquel Welch and “Kansas City Bombers”, these gals spend as much time flat on the track as they do on their skates. So just like pro wrestlers, BMX bikers, extreme skateboarders, she knows how to fall… and turn a bad landing into a not-quite-so-bad landing.
Not sure if this has been said, but I just realized how much I love the variety of characters on this page. You’ve got an entire rainbow of diverse female characters here, but it doesn’t feel forced or cheap because we know them as separate individuals, and the context for them all to be here doing what they’re doing is bigger than the fact that they are. That’s awesome! Thank you for doing what most media cannot. <3
Nuuu, after starting the other day I’ve finally caught up… now I have to wait for daily updates like everyone else T_T why didn’t I pace myself more slowly? On the bright side, Malaya and Carla 😀
okay, so a lot of people are guessing what happens next. Willis has pretty well telegraphed that since her identity is compromised, Amber is going to ‘end game’ between her and Sal. A lot of people expect violence, and although possible, I don’t see it as likely. IMO, Amber will reveal herself (why not? her covers blown by the paper, right?) and admit to Sal that the night at the convenience store is the reason for Amazi-girl… possible thanking Sal… and ‘offering’ Sal a ‘duel’ to get revenge for the stabbing. Sal kisses Marcie (ala Jen Aside’s avatar) then prepares to fight Amber just as Danny or another convenient scene ender shows up. I guess we’ll see how close I am… hopefully soon.
A couple of disagreements:
– Amber won’t reveal herself – removing the mask allows fear to creep in, and she can’t afford fear right now. She needs to be Amazi-Girl right now, not Amber. She may make remarks that reveal her knowledge of that night (“Take off your glove, Sal, I want to see it!”), hoping it will provoke her.
– I don’t see any romantic relationship between Marcie and Sal (despite all the shippers). They’re good friends, definitely with a shared past that may involve Sal’s Catholic school days, but not lovers.
– I don’t think Sal would want to fight Amazi-Girl, even if she knew. As Ethan suggested earlier, Sal has moved on, and sees the robbery as an embarrassing episode of her life that she’d rather forget. She’ll fight if Amazi-Girl goes on the offensive, but I think she’d rather end this amicably.
Amber announced herself by saying that Sal would *not* be having a relaxing night, and then stated the fact that she had found Sal committing a crime made things so much easier – which only makes any sense in the context of Amber kicking the shit out of her using “dispensing justice” as a pretense. And then of course her next word was to provoke Malaya into an attack.
I have no idea how you get from these facts to Amber quietly offering an apology for her past attack and a gratitude-filled explanation for her current status as a vigilante, but I’m afraid I can’t agree. Everything Amber has said or done since being outed to Dorothy and seeing Sal in the hallway indicates that Amber intends to deal with Sal as she did with her father – with extreme violence.
Everybody is positing that Amber is working on the knowledge that Dorothy knows she is Amazi-Girl, and Amber’s own assumption that Dorothy has taken this and run with it. *BUT WE DON’T KNOW THAT FOR A FACT!* Willis placed Dorothy on the horns of a dilemma. Does she deep-six her scoop in deference to her classmate, or take it and publish it — and in the process deliver a friend up as a sacrifice on the altar of journalistic idealism? Point is, nobody knows what Dorothy has decided except Willis — and he ain’t telling (yet).
Of course Dorothy’s not going to publish it. She doesn’t even have a story yet. What’s she gonna tell Daisy, “There’s a girl who owns the same shoe and transformer as Amazigirl?”
We do know for a fact that this isn’t how Amber sees it though.
Considering Willis does his strips ahead of time, you have to wonder if this *ahem* not-at-all-Walky-verse-crossover of Ultracar & Malaya appearing right as their story wrapped up in Shortpacked was intentional or just a weird accident. O_O
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That was fast
Malaya is, unfortunately, always fast
Ah I see what you did there.
It just occurred to me to see what her name actually means.
From Wikipedia:
– Swahili for a “woman of the town”
– a genus of the mosquito
[sorry, I’ll be fair: the Filipino word that means “freedom”]
You left out the obvious (on purpose?)
Malaya (newspaper), after the Tagalog word meaning “free” or “freedom”
Or it’s the opposite of “May not lay ‘er”
Plus a term for the Malay Peninsula.
Actually, word “malaya” (cyrillic малая) means “small girl” in Russian.
This is the real purpose for Willis’s word choice.
…oh THAT kind of “Asian”! I see! [/sarcasm]
Alright raise of hands who Else saw this coming?
Aye
What is Marcie saying?
Willis, we need you or anyone else who can read ASL.
We gotta go fight Amazi-butt.
use your context clues
my context clues arent helping Willis
its like high school english class never happened
Dunno, either, or neither would be my guesses.
Ah, thank-you Obi Wan-Kenobi!
I don’t know what these folks are complaining about, I have no problem understanding what she’s saying. However I just now figured out she’s using sign language and not some telepathic or electronic link a la Lobot.
Looks like “medal” to me. She’s pointing to her chest where one would be pinned.
Quick google shows that you’re right. I guess I’m just too used to medals around the neck. That and I can be thick.
The real clue is in the options listed. Nobody is going to help Malaya.
That was my guess, though I would have expected it to include the letter “m” in the sign, but it’s an “n” or close to it, and that confused me.
I suppose the fact that I know a little sign language myself was my downfall in this case.
Translation: fuck that shit.
http://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/MEDAL/1803/1
Hmm, if she made an “L” with her hand instead, that means “lazy”
Thank you, that’s a terrific resource, you rock like Satan, as always.
Thank you Jen for this useful resource we shall now understand her sign languages the lazy way with the internet minus context clues
I believe she’s suggesting they fucking run.
Medal. Waving her fingers in the m form where a medal should be. Also, without ASL: Obviously Malaya is disliked. Options are either “back-up Malaya” or “give Amazigirl a medal”. Context indicates humour is in the mass dislike of Malaya. QED, medal.
And here I figured it was “yes” (i.e. both)
its closer to a ‘N’ than a ‘M’, but it really looks like neither of those. the pointer and middle finger would have to be hooked over the thumb to be a ‘N’ and the ring finger would have to join those to be a ‘M’. Its like cursive rather than print, two humps for ‘n’, three humps for ‘m’.
Remember not to forget about ‘T’ (pointer hooked over thumb), which i’m assuming your error.
I’m assuming there’s a word for medal in ASL, so she’s probably not signing a letter. Usually you only spell-sign for names or neologisms.
Some signs use the letter they start with (like when Jen mentioned that if you change Marcie’s hand to an L, it means “lazy.” To a C, it means “character.” Some signs use the letter the word starts with in French because of ASL being based in French and French Sign Language.
And a great many signs use a letter handshape. Handshape is important and there’s a name or descriptive word for most of them. A lot of the handshape names reference a fingerspelling letter. Marcie is using an ‘N handshape’ here. The letter ‘n’ has nothing to do with it. The sign is supposed to mimic pinning a medal to one’s chest. But because of the similarity of that handshape to a manual N, that’s what it’s called.
A great many words use handshapes that are described as a letter when that letter has nothing to do with the word. For example both “donkey” and “stubborn” use a b-handshape to represent a donkey’s ear. That shape just happens to match up with the letter B.
The handshapes have names like that because until very, very recently it was difficult to learn a new sign if no one you could physically be near knew it. So, in ASL books and dictionaries and the like, there would be a picture or two replicating the sign as best as possible, but there would also be a description telling you the hand shape, palm orientation, type and direction of the movement, etc to help people understand how to sign it more easily.
I’m really no trying to be a know-it-all or something, just want the right information out there.
P- there’s several signs that are actual signs that are fingerspelled. They’re called “lexicalized signs.” (This is a fairly new term, by the way. They used to be called “loaned signs.”
For example, look up on YouTube or an online ASL dictionary how the words “bank”, “job”, and “style” are signed. They aren’t just fingerspelled as you would do for someone’s name. They’re usually done with a specific flourish that kind of makes them a mix between typical signs and typical fingerspelling.
To make an ‘N’ you do not need to wrap your fingers over your thumb. In fingerspelling ‘M’ and ‘N’ are often signed with the fingers pointing out.
Also, describing a handshape as being a certain letter doesn’t always mean it’s going to look exactly like that letter. Having the pointer and middle finger out, either with the thumb tucked in to the hand or sticking out like in the sign for “no” is often described as an “N handshape.”
I am now imagining that Annie’s last name is Sullivan and she is typing on an internetted typewriter from the Past.
*quickly hides her dark glasses* I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Actually, to the best of my knowledge, Anne Sullivan didn’t know ASL. Or at least she didn’t know much (I could be wrong, though.) She was blind in one eye and her vision in the other wasn’t too great and this was all from a very young age. I can’t imagine that actual ASL would have been easy for her to learn or all that useful even if she had.
She knew the manual alphabet and she and Helen made up signs that were easier for Helen to “read” with her hands for words they used often.
I can’t stand communicating in the manual alphabet alone for very long. It’s slow and frustrating. Imagine having to spell aloud every word you wanted to say. Like talking about something “grown-up” around a toddler, but with every single word, not just the ones you don’t want the kid to hear. Then add in lots of hand cramps.
🙂
She’s slurring. It’s the beer.
“Now we can have two beers each!”
DEAF PERSON WITH ASL HERE.
First panel sign is “print”, which is often used for “newspaper” as well.
Second sign in last panel is pin/medal.
ROCK ON.
Thank you, I was able to guess the medal sign but not the one in the first panel.
I believe Marcie is saying “Reboot.”
That’s all fingers [or one].
Yea, I miss that show too.
Ditto.
Well she had that coming.
But she didn’t see that coming.
HOT
HOT
HOT
HOT
Don’t touch it, you’ll burn.
ewwwwwww
If you see blasting caps don’t touch them!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skfZQ9fRpf4
For you Tom Hanks!
Here you go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbc_LxfhSoY&feature=kp
oh, oh why did I click? I CANNOT RESIST! now, even though I hit back faster than a second near-viewing of goatse, it is in my heaaaaaad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6MlHxAzLXA
HOORAY definitely going to rewatch that movie, possibly tonight :):):)
Chris Cooper really sold me on that movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVENWl8uBeg
This video is quite… hot you could say?
It has a certain… je n’est ces qua.
je ne sais quoi
Which means…..
…
I don’t know what.
I may not have been happy about yesterday’s strip, but I find today’s…acceptable.
UNACCCEPTAAAAAAABLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
30 YEARS DUNGEON!
20 YEARS NO TRIAL!
12 YEARS A SLAVE
wait
5 days a stranger, and 7 days a skeptic.
EIGHT DAYS A WEEK!
It’s not enough to show I care…
7 days and 7 nights was an underrated movie
FORTY DAYS AND FORTY NIGHTS!
Five Million Years to Earth!!!!
MMMMMMMMMM!
THOUSAND YEARS DUNGEON!
AAAAAAAAAAARGH!
NUMBER TIME INCREMENT!
It bears clarifying: I really like panel 4.
Thought you said ‘it beers clarifying’ and wasn’t sure what the joke was
I was hoping that would prove slightly more interesting. Oh well, 3 to go.
I’m expecting a lot from Carla.
Where are you people getting these ideas of everybody’s fighting abilities?
Transferred rep from other universes, I’d suspect. While these characters have been retconned to fit this universe, they’re still meant to be the same characters. In Walky, Sal was a super-powered angst machine – NOT a person anyone wanted to fight. In Shortpacked! Ultra-Carla was a robot who put on a costume and fought crime. Yes, even when she was a car!
I still think Amazi-Girl will win, though. She out-badass-es them all. Even though we may not want her to.
On the other hand, Walky was also a super-powered badass, at least once he discovered his strength, but in the Dumbiverse… well, I doubt he has quite as much fighting prowess. And of course, Amazi-Girl was nowhere near as strong as she is here. So I’m not sure transferring fighting ability across universes works here.
Half the group Amber’s confronting had military training/experience in the walkyverse.
They’ve had their history rewritten. They’ve had their physiology rewritten. Hell they’ve had their psychology rewritten, what with the effects that all the mindwiping had on everybody’s brains.
“Meant to be the same characters” doesn’t really extend very far.
I’m not saying that their reps in other universes means that they will be badasses here. I’m saying that their reps in other universes is what causes people to assume they’re badasses here.
That was gangler’s original question.
How weird would it be if it turned out there’s totally been a Spider-Carla running around campus all semester but everybody’s been too distracted by Amazigirl to notice?
Awesomely weird.
I feel like that would actually have a bit of potential for a fun conflict. Carla’s entry in the cast page makes it sound like she’d very much want to be the vigilante that’s getting all the press coverage, but of course Amazigirl just wants to remain unknown in the shadows. They’d both resent eachother for having what the other wants.
Marcie is v. athletic with good body mass.
She boards so probably has gotten back up after falling hard. So fearless and hard to bring down.
I think she’d try to avoid a fight but might hit REAL hard when it started.
I’m expecting a boxing glove to sproing out of her chest and knock Amber cold.
Round One. FIGHT!
Amazi-Girl. Wins.
Flawless. Victory.
(Think Mortal Kombat 2’s announcer.) 😀
Ready? FIGHT! HYPER COMBO FINISH! KO! PERFECT!
BOOM! Headshot!
Malaya used Quick Attack!
But it failed!
Amber used Arm Thrust!
It’s super effective!
FLAWLESS VICTORY!!!
Ultra-kill!
The four delinquents may think they have an advantage, but they face Level 3 X-Factor Dark Amazi-Girl. They don’t stand a chance.
Amazi-Girl vs. Roller Derby sounds like it should be more interesting than this was
“Amazi-Girl vs. Roller Derby” sounds like the title to a feature film with a cult following.
Amazi-Girl vs. Roller Derby soundsl ike it should be the next Slipshine project.
EVERYTHING could be the next Slipshine in the hands of a good artist ;3
MALAYA!!!!NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
YES WAY!
Who’s next, Who’s next!? >:-)
Goldberg…..Goldberg….Goldberg.
STONE COLD!, STONE COLD! , STONE COLD!
BAH GAWD JERRY BAH GAWD SLOBBERKNOCKER *foams at the mouth*
Watt is on second. ^_^
I don’t know. Third base
I prefer the woodstock version of this routine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlXjIg4fH74
…anyone…anyone…Bueller?
M. Bison: YES! YES!
Let me help you with that
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p0j0lO7uQBo
Hmmm. Yes!
BOOM! owned.
First rule of being asked to hit someone else: don’t. Suddenly, their response becomes self-defense.
Although if you skate right into their extended arm, maybe that’s exactly what you wanted.
Does nobody understand the terms of “come at me Bro,” anyone.
Exactly…now, Amazi-Girl is not the aggressor. Telling someone “Come at me, please.” Does not permit physical assault. This is now self defense as long as she doesn’t jump on her and start mercilessly beating her and the other three would be wise to just stand there and make Amazi-girl attack them otherwise it will be more of the same.
It’s not fighting words? Even in the context of someone who has dressed up as a superhero and gone out looking for trouble, who has already expressed happiness that you (she means Sal, but Malaya doesn’t know that) doing something illegal makes things easier for her (i.e. implying she intended to attack them anyway)?
“Fighting words” is a legal concept having to do with action by the government — there’s significantly less protection of an utterance which can be shown to be fighting words or incitement as free speech than would normally be available. Malaya is neither a police officer nor any legally constituted law enforcement officer, so the fighting words doctrine has jack-shit to do with her.
In short, she’s screwed.
Also, it could be argued that saying it counts as challenging to a fight, and therefore forfeits the right to self-defense (i.e. both parties are committing a crime.) Though I don’t know if Indiana has that law or not.
At the legal statute level there’s probably a fairly catch-all wording that includes inciting and encouraging a fight. At the police level, there’s a need to restore the peace and arrest anyone they believe broke the law (like after talking with witnesses and participants). The finer points, like if this particular instance is self-defense, is for a lawyers to argue and jurors to decide in a court of law. (IANAL)
Sure, worst case, they could all be expelled or imprisoned, but probably not, not even in real life.
Poor Malaya. 🙁
Yeah, she didn’t get to finish her curse.
A Malaya without vulgarity is no Malaya at all.
She did get on the scoreboard in panel one! Amazi-Girl just stuffed her second point back into her face.
Is Carla wearing roller skates to? I can’t tell and I’ve been wanting to know ever since she showed up.
There’s a character art of Carla on Willis’ tumblr and in that she’s wearing skates. Also, you can kinda see her knee pads here and why would she wear those, really, if she didn’t have skates on?
Plus there’s, you know YESTERDAY’S first panel, where we see Carla putting on skates.
lmao you’re totally right. My brain seriously glossed that over. Amazing there, brain, thanks a lot xD
She’s wearing skates in the previous page. 😛
Cushioning when she knees someone in the groin?
Yeah, she was wearing them in yesterday’s strip. I think they are visible in the first panel, if memory serves me right.
They were shown on her feet in yesterday’s strip.
Malaya, that was quite the excellent achievement of being knocked out by Amazi-Girl with her using only one arm
Record time quite possibly!
You’d think a derby girl could take a hit, or at least dodge one.
She hit her in the arm with her face.
With her FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE.
Thank you, saved me from having to do it.
She did take the hit. She got knocked down. I don’t know why people seem to think she got knocked out.
Boy that escalated quickly.
It kicked up a notch.
it did, didn’t it?
Yeah, I stabbed a man in the heart.
BOMP
And now I have a new favorite panel
“Roller derby says hello” or “BOMP!”? for me I think it’s bomp : )
Now we know who put the bomp in the bomp bah bomp bah bomp.
It was Willis the whole time.
Nice
YOUR FIRST NAME IS MY LAST NAME AAAHHHHHHHH
And the Wrestling Community says “Goodbye”.
She was knocked into the middle of next week!
MEDAL!!
Looks like “medal” to me too.
I don’t want her to get seriously harmed or anything, but it is somewhat cathartic to see Malaya get clotheslined.
lollll I know I really shouldn’t, because she hasn’t done anything really bad in this universe yet (and in any case, violence is bad, y’all!), but when Malaya got knocked out I kinda cheered. I feel appropriately ashamed of myself xD
Yes, I could watch that takedown every day. Willis should make that panel into the background for the DOA page.
I think a lot of folks predicted yesterday that Malaya’d be useless. Shame we never got a pool going.
Several folks thought she’d be a friggin’ coward and run off! I’m not sure we were thinking of the same Malaya.
Yeah, I can’t see her running.
She’s like the chickenhawk from those old Looney Tunes. She’d kick King Kong in the shins, and be honestly surprised when it doesn’t work out for her.
She’ll probably wake up at the end of this, saying, “That wasn’t fair! She sucker-punched me! Lemme at her!”
Wake up from what? She’s not unconscious, she’s still swearing as she falls after the hit.
Based on two facts:
1) Panel4 shows Malaya in-fall, head-first, after being clotheslined,
2) Mid-fall, Malaya is clearly uttering a curseword, one that she does not finish.
Malaya does not seem like the type to utter the first three syllables of a curse word, and not utter the fourth. I’m assuming hitting the ground (which is the hard pavement of a parking lot), head-first, causes this. Seeing that she’s not wearing a helmet, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume she’s at least stunned. Unconscious is not a big stretch.
She saw the arm came up, knew what was coming, but if she’d had time to finish her reaction, she’d also have time time to STOP. Taking a fist or forearm to the face or throat is not conducive to speech.
Let’s hope she’s not unconscious. It’s hard to knock someone unconscious without killing them. The margin’s pretty thin. Root for stunned.
If the others got taken out first, I could see her saying “Screw y’all, I’m out”, probably justifying it to herself by claiming she’s ‘cleverly stealing the beer’, but she relies on her facade of badassery too much to let it crack without serious reason.
Oh, no, I knew she’d at least try something, but her immediate KO is decidedly non-shocking.
hmm
Indeed. Who says she’s KO’ed?
And… how many eyes does Amber have?
Hmm? Hmm?
Yeah. She’s a derby girl, it’ll take more than one clothesline to take her out for good.
It’s welcome. 🙂
“Down” isn’t necessarily “out”.
She’s down, but I don’t think she’s out. Remember her first fist/knife fight with UC in SP? She’ll pull a Rocky or die trying.
Two minutes ago she was whining about how much of a chore it was to even show up at this parking lot for so little reward, I don’t know that it would be a sign of cowardice if she didn’t get up and fight for her right to be here.
Would she have been a coward if upon being asked to pay for the drinks she’d decided to just go home instead?
Wow…Malaya goes down faster than Bart Gunn v Butterbean.
She goes down faster than a porn actress.
She went down faster than the Obamacare website LOLOLOLOL
She went down faster than your mom for a nickel
She went down faster than a man who got kicked in the nuts by the love child of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris
If that child was born then that person would never hit the ground again.
Doesn’t that imply they’d remain standing?
No they’d be lifted into stable orbit at the very least.
she went down faster than the Titanic.
Too soon?
Nah, flight MH 370, yes.
The Titanic took about 3 hours to sink, that’s not exactly fast.
Might’ve given more “too soon” points for the Hindenburg.
Honestly I can’t even find myself feeling anything but sympathy for Malaya. I mean so far all we know about her is that she’s pissy and noone likes her. I’d probably be pissy too if people openly didn’t like me.
I feel bad simply because concussions are no joke.
She’ll wake up and lose her memory.
If it comes with a personality shift more people might like her.
I’m now picturing Malaya wearing a flower apron and baking cookies to give to homeless children while whistling the I Love You, You Love Me song from Barney. Either that or saving the world as a badass secret agent who’s most important mission is to find out who they really are. Either way would make great TV, so I’m happy
My reaction to the first one would be, damn she most have gotten hit harder than I thought.
Malaya got hit so hard she turned into Mike’s mom?
(I mean his actual mom, not yours, who is in some sense “his”, because he paid a nickel for her.)
A friend of mine got a concussion recently. Really bad deal 🙁
Luckily comics don’t have to have concussions if they are not wanted.
Considering that these so-called skater girls are missing the most important piece of hardware – their HELMETS – I’d say there’s some deservedness, here.
Ya I guess but come on when a costume vigilante confronts you late at night the last thing you do rush her, I mean look at the movie kick ass.
…Not sure if sarcastic or needs to rewatch movie…
If it was Hit girl instead.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vsBKyduk3RE
I think you may have the cause and effect a little backwards, but I suppose at this point it’s a vicious cycle.
I like Malaya, but if you tried to show her sympathy, she’d probably mutter something about not needing your fucking sympathy and tell you to piss off.
I vote medal.
It occurs to me that that probably should have ripped off Amazi-Girl’s arm, or at the very least caused an awful lot of shoulder pain. Malaya had all the momentum. Granted, she hit her in the neck instead of the chest, but it would still have been a significant amount of force.
Nah. Amazi-Girl is moving exactly as fast relative to Malaya as Malaya is relative to Amazi-Girl. And Amazi-Girl’s probably more massive; she may be a little shorter than Malaya, but she’s more heavily built. And she’s definitely in a much better leverage situation, particularly since Malaya is on wheels.
Was on wheels. Is on her butt now.
For that matter, Amazi-Girl doesn’t need to exert enough force to stop Malaya dead (nor have that amount of force exerted on her in return, thanks to Newton’s law). Thanks to Malaya’s complete lack of traction on skates, Amazi-girl just needs to exert a gentle shove’s worth of force so that Malaya loses balance, causing her feet to continue sailing forward while the rest of her tips backwards. Malaya still has most of her original forward momentum, judging by the way she’s flying under Amazi-Girl’s arm in that panel (in fact Malaya’s center of gravity is behind Amazi-Girl already), meaning very little of that momentum was transferred to Amazi-Girl’s arm.
If I could like this, I would.
yes, this. Also, relative size doesn’t matter as much. Other wise 120lb me could not have clothes lined a 180lb football player who was running by me without me being hurt. He woke up five minutes later… it was a pick up game on grass without helmets. My friends then explained that clothes lining was NOT allowed… or very sportsman like.
Your gravatar is making me picture Dorothy saying this, which makes me grin.
No, there’s a reason why clotheslining is illegal in just about every organized sport where it’s likely.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Both people always take exactly the same force, but the one doing the hitting is generally prepared for it. If not you can hurt yourself by throwing bad punches.
Nah, clothslining people is about tipping them over. The force to actually stop them comes when they hit the ground, not from your arm.
Not exactly. It transfers linear momentum into angular. So their forward motion slows but they spin
Nah. Clotheslining just has to overcome the amount of force they have that’s keeping them upright. Gravity will do the rest. Trust me on this.
Huh? Her skates aren’t rocket-powered. Malaya’s skating at her under her own leg power, from a few feet away, over a more or less flat surface. Even if she came off the line like Apollo Anton Ono, she wouldn’t have enough momentum to do major bodily harm. Amber’s not ever hitting her that hard, but the clothesline stops Malaya’s forward motion above her center of gravity so her skates go out from under her.
PHYSICS!
OH OH! That’s what Shive meant by watching enough DBZ. They each get taken out one by one in order of weakness until the ultimate one on one fight happens. So… Carla next?
So…Malaya is about as tough as Yamcha?
Nah, I’d give her a Krillin. Yamcha didn’t even get to the real villains.
Ooh,oh,can we started up a Malaya got owned counter.
I wonder if Malaya will be needing a Krillin style Owned Count.
Yeah, Yamcha was weak compared to the others later on. But give the guy some credit. He is stronger than the Saibamen or Raditz, who are in actual fact insanely strong. He could blow up or benchpress a tank no problem. He could be kicked through a solid chunk of rock and come out the other side basically fine.
It is only comparison to the completely insane later levels of Piccolo, Saiyans and other freaks that the “low level” guys look weak.
Here’s the thing…Yamcha was outpaced even before DBZ. Heck, when he first met Krillin at the Martial Arts Tournament, he said that getting second place is going to be tough.
More like Yamcha’s cat.
Pu’ar! 😀
I kinda want to say Oolong, just so someone can make her immediately have to poop.
Look closely at Amber’s face.
Make note of the expression she has.
Realize who else does that.
Subtle, Willis. Subtle…
I noticed that too. *shivers*
I’m bad with faces (I should swap to a Dina gravitar), what is this link you are referring to?
She’s being Daddy’s Girl, here.
Yeah, but to me it’s pretty lacking without the crazed eyes.
Maybe I’m just talking out of my ass, but this is kind of like a reverse clothesline, right? In that Malaya runs at Amazi-Girl, who sticks her arm out so that she runs into it, rather than Amazi-Girl running at Malaya with her arm stuck out.
I think it’s the aftermath of a backhand.
Nah, it’s still a clothesline.
Indeed, still a clothesline. Not as awesome as when you’re proactive about wanting to fuck someone’s shit up but a clothesline nevertheless.
Ugh, YouTube link fail.
(video of what a clothesline should look like)
I’d say Amber sidestepped quickly. It’s quite effective when your opponent is inexperienced and overconfident.
A reverse clothesline would be the rather more impressive move of knocking someone down by ramming into their arm.
That’s still a clothesline.
Remember, the move is named after running into an actual clothesline (the kind used for hanging up clothes to dry).
Fight club commences!
But isn’t rule #1 of Fight Club: you do not comment about Fight Club? 🙁
the official rule says do not “talk”, so I guess commenting is allowed.
Malaya will lose her memory and become the exact opposite of who she was in shortpacked.
One would hope!
Malaya…have you ever seen Batman?
Psssh, duh no, superheroes are for nerds.
Well, I guess now we know who Billie’s dating next.
It’s sure as hell be better than dwelling on Ruth.
Unless this Malaya is significantly different from her Shortpacked! counterpart, probably not.
She now has a fractured skull. Is that enough of a difference?
I want to say, “Yeah, it’s a significant improvement,” but that might be a bit too mean.
Also, panel 4 is maybe my favorite DoA panel ever. Definitely top 5 material at least.
I adore Malaya. Nonetheless, Amazi-Girl’s competence and look of disdain is giving me life.
“Roller Derby says hello”… Whack!…hello!
Panel 4 had potential for a “LARIATO!”
Nah…it doesn’t have that oomph that a lariat has.
The potential was there, the clothesline just didn’t happened the way I would have liked. *hops off soapbox*
What if Malaya in the shortpacks universe felt that. Imagine it:”Damn, I just felt like someone bodied me SO hard I felt it in a nother universe, weird. “
“Is that you, ultra car?”
Here’s a hint. -transforms into a car-
Cue flashback to 1988.
For some reason I was expecting that to be Galvatron.
Right? But that would be this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4iwY2LXhz0
and 1986
Hey, I saw it once on my ex’s computer as a shitty pirate, cut me some slack on being off by two years
[Funny dude–a hoarder, but had all the worst quality bootlegs]
A car with a huge particle cannon? Does Malaya’s indestructible ghost roam the cosmos after that?
Ok since I think we all know that something in this fight is going to go horribly wrong…. for one of the party members… So the real question after things go down will Danny make thing better or ten times worse? PLACE YOUR BETS!
Well, long odds pay big so I’ll put 10 on making things better
I can’t bet against Danny – he’s our only real hope, here! C’mon, Danny!
Right now she’s focused and seems to be stable. I just wonder though how long that will last.
Guys, I would just like to take a moment to appreciate panel two. That is a villain smile. A sexy, scary villain smile.
Now I’m going to take a bunch of moments to appreciate that last panel and these last few comments. I did not know how much I needed these four hanging out together, but I did, and I do, and it is absolutely delightful.
comics* Yesterday, I meant these last few comics.
Flawless Victory!
This is the best DoA ever by far.
This fights going to be easier now that Amazi-girl can use the excuse of self defense.
I don’t “want” Amber to take a beating here… but maybe it would help her?
No probably not, a beating might cause a full mental breakdown. Probably only some kind of epiphany from a conversation with Sal (instead of fighting her) would have any realistic positive mental health outcome here.
Still, she DOES deserve a medal for decking Malaya.
OK let’s get a vote on who we think is going to win this fight I vote Amber.
I vote a tie where they end up all sitting around drinking.
I still have my heart set on Sal pulls out a Twinkie and AG accepts her offering
Hostess Fruit Pies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbR4WLBvF7Q
OOooooh! Clotheslined! And now, Malaya is down. What is Team Fake ID going to do now? We have to go to a commercial break, stay with us as we’ll be back LIVE with DOA.
That “bomp” was one of the most satisfying things that has ever happened in this comic
“Who put the bomp in the bomp bah bomp bah bomp…”
Nice matching of avatar to screen name, by the way, MC.
…dangit, I think if I want to match Gravatar to username, I’ll have to use the hand-stabbing =|
I must say I like that Carla appears to be an Amazigirl fan. For the moment, anyway.
GO, AMBER!
Malaya…
If you realize that you have an advantage in that you have her outnumbered four-to-one, you do not then attack her solo.
That defeats the purpose.
She’s been watching her Steven Segal movies
Real life, no. It’s incredibly hard to attack in a coordinated fashion in an uncontrolled environment. Someone will always arrive first, and then somebody else, and so on. On defense, it always looks like one at a time if the attackers can’t surround you.
She didn’t even try, though.
She commented on how they had her outnumbered, and then attacked all by herself. She didn’t just get there first, she was the only one attacking.
Well, I kinda called it. Malaya proceeded to try and beat the crap out of Amber.
I was one who figured Malaya would run….but not because she’s a friggin’ coward David, but because she is Malaya.
She has no fight with Amazi-girl, other than with anyone else anyway. And she is best known for covering her own ass.
So, I figured she’d back off and watch the show. Then back the winner.
Don’t matter, I’m happier with this outcome than the one I had imagined.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer ‘person’.
Nice move Amazi-girl, and Hell, she did ask for it.
You under estimated her rage towards anyone dressed in a super hero costume that she may see as nerdy
Also, Amber is no fool. A good superhero, when facing a group, always taunts them. This will piss off the loose cannons in the group, causing them to attack individually, allowing them to be taken out early. This evens the odds.
I love Amber… easily my fav character in the comic.
But damn… I don’t know if I can really call her a ‘superhero’ anymore.
She’s treading awful quick down the path of ‘supervillain’.
I mean, let’s be honest; the girls aren’t on university grounds, we all know this is just a personal vendetta for something Sal did years ago… which, frankly, was well and truly paid for in full by Amber stabbing her in the hand.
This is just excessive; I can only hope Sal will be the cooler head.
But given the pure rage she nearly fell into when Ruth ticked her off earlier in the comic (“She’s not worth it”), I can only wonder what she’ll do when confronted by the girl who drove a frickin’ knife through her hand as a child.
Amazi-Girl was never a superhero. She was always an unstable person looking for outlets to vent her rage at. To make her feel less weak and pathetic. Amazi-Girl was always about the violence until Danny came along and refused to have his affection switched over to Amber.
You know, it looks like if AmaziGirl had just stepped aside, Malaya would have run head-first full-speed into the side of a van. Maybe not as satisfying as a clothesline, but in a way, even more elegant.
I’ve been waiting for this moment since Malaya’s intro in Shortpacked! Praise be to Willis!
I feel like I know you from somewhere…
I’m not surprised if Malaya was bongoslapped by Mickey Mouse when she went to the the nerdfest that is Disneyland and got her hair stuck that way.
Amber taught herself to be pretty damn awesome.
I hope this doesn’t go wrong for her. If she gets caught beating up other students that’s game over for her. No idea where this is going but I’ll enjoy the ride.
Ya know, as much as I tend to dislike Malaya
…panel 3 makes her look really cute! :3
She’s always cute. It’s just that her personality isn’t.
G’Kar: “…and [she] made a very satisfying THUMP when [she] hit the floor.”
Malaya is down!
DAMNTHANK YOU WILLIS.[AmaziGirl] http://youtu.be/dy_DASt7hDs
“Tiny”? Really?
Screw the haters, I applaud Malaya’s aggressive spirit. Seems hypocritical to approve of Amber’s violence and not others. And lest you all forget, Amber’s plan here is to beat them all up, savagely and unprovoked.
Sides, one clothesline won’t take her out of commission. She does roller derby. Though insisting on skates in a fight might do her in.
Some of us have built-up hatred for her projected from over at Shortpacked where she would never get physical retribution. It’s a catharsis toward this asshole who seems to have almost no redeeming or even humorous features other than her relationship with Ultra-Car who has spent her time being an ass to everyone else. Maybe we like to think Amber punches so hard Shortpacked Malaya can feel it.
Oh please, Shortpacked Malaya was utterly miserable. She punished herself every day with her own bad attitude and lack of social skills. Ultra Car wasn’t exactly happy itself. I’m not sure what further retribution they need.
I just now noticed the freckle pattern on Malaya’s thighs. It looks like she has an “ergo” cutie mark.
So, the trio have no animus towards AG for decking Malaya and want to give her a medal. Why would they now attack AG (which AG wants/needs)? Sal is AG’s nemesis, but Sal doesn’t even know who AG is. It’s like a crazy Sherlock Holmes stalking that nice Professor Moriarity, who was just busy teaching maths. Not like they are all full of testosterone and need to fight to prove their badassitude..
And AG doesn’t want them to hand over the beer and confess their sins, she wants to confront her nemesis and end it now. Sal just wants to relax. Does it take two to tangle or will AG attack Sal? I’m hoping for Sal to refuse to play the nemesis here and for AG to realize that she can’t just attack her.
Sane defuses crazy?
Ha! I know I shouldn’t take joy in the unnecessary violence, but this was awesome! 🙂
Side note: I got my order of Shortpacked! 1-4 in the mail yesterday!! Thank you, Willis! It’s been a long time since I read the beginning of that comic and it was really interested to compare Amber, Ethan, and Robin from that time period and timeline to this one — especially that Amber contrasted with today’s DoA Amazigirl. (Mike was about the same.) 🙂
Hmm… actually, I prefer Malaya to Amazi-Girl. So, go Malaya. Thanks for standing up to the psychopath.
I think the best possible outcome if is Ethan or Danny has kept close enough watch on Amber to realize she is about to do something incredibly stupid and shows up to try to talk her out of it. It would at lest defuse the situation from violence to shouting.
Come to think about it, they should team up. HE is an insecure young man with bad relationship track record and HE is an insecure young man with bad relationship track record. Together they FIGHT-ish CRIME-ish. Their archenemies is their shared EX-GIRLFRIEND who they have to SAVE from HERSELF.
…Wow, that actually sounded a lot more sexist than I intended when I typed it all out. I think I will stick with Danny’s “You take care of the bad guys and I take care of you” instead. But, you know Danny, now would be an EXCELLENT time to take care of Amazi-girl.
Or maybe Dina. She cares about Amber and understands well enough that something is wrong to set the Raptor lose. Maybe she followed amazi-girl.
Or maybe Dorothy’s reporter instinct took over and she went snooping?
…or maybe I’m just grasping at straws because I want someone who cares about her to talk Amber down from a bad situation. But maybe no one is coming – maybe Sal has to figure out what is going on and be the mature and responsible one, while being attacked on a parking lot in the middle of the night. Piece of cake…
Somebody who cares? Pheh, that’s no fun. I want Ninja Rick to come in, pummel everybody into confused submission with nerf weaponry and cardboard tubes, and then disappear into the night. With no explanation whatsoever.
I WOULD be confused.
Except that Ninja Rick is the counsellor in this universe(?) but taking people out with Nerf Swords (or the Ampguard equivalent) would be awesome.
Grah! What’re you doing to me Willis!
The anticipation is killin’ me.
BTW, Panel 2: It’s spelled, “SkHates”, but the ‘H’ is silent, like the silent depths of her hates.
Malaya’s hates are not really all that silent.
At first, it was cute when she was stopping graffiti or beating up Devil Dad. Now I’m starting to get sick of Amazigil’s crap.
*Amazigirl’s
It occurs to me that I don’t think we’ve seen Sal fight anyone in this world. We know she’s versed in Parkour, and is street savvy, but she might not be able to actually hold her own in a fight.
Would Amber realize it before she’s gone too far down the path of her father, brutalizing someone who isn’t able to fight back?
Well, we know that she can enter a building through the windows. Parkour seems a stretch.
Street Savyness is more something we’ve inferred from the fact that she rides a motorcycle and smokes, maybe also from the fact that she’s committed a crime or two. I don’t get the impression that her time at catholic school was actually spent making connections as a black market dealer or anything though.
Don’t get me wrong, she’s super duper cool, but I’m not counting on her to start doing flips around Amber while pulling hidden blades from all over her body.
So uh, pretty sure Malaya’s dead now if she was moving that fast. Judging by how she tumbled her skull would have cracked on the pavement.
That really depends. There are ways to fall, even in a violent fall like Malaya is taking, which will work.
Of course, that’s real world. In real world, however, Amber would be desperately trying to keep her own balance due to momentum transfer, and Malay would not be moving as fast, because the clothesline would have yielded at the moment of impact, etc., etc., etc. Fortunately for everyone, we get comic-book physics here.
If Amber was prepared for the impact, I doubt she’d be struggling to keep her balance. Malaya can’t have that much momentum, they didn’t start that far apart.
Shouldn’t Malaya have fallen forward from that blow. Also, it would result in facial bruising against the van rather than a potentially lethal back-of-the-head-on-asphalt and I don’t think Willis is killing off Malaya already.
Never mind. Thought I saw motion lines but another comment pointed out it was a clothesline.
I’m a bit confused as to why everybody thinks Malaya is now unconscious, concussed, or dead, or whatever they’re thinking. I’m expecting her to pop right up, give or take I’m not sure Amazi-girl is going to let her get her skates under her again.
Also, I’m not sure that attacking somebody while you’re wearing roller skates it a really good idea. Not that I have experience with it, mind you, but it just sort of sounds like the basis of a comedy routine. (Well, until you realize that the skateless person intends to maul somebody, anyway.)
Ditto. She’s had the wind knocked out of her; she might have hit her head and is now suffering a bump on her noggin or her ass or both, but to figure that she is concussed or worse is revealing a total lack of physics, as well as the resilience of the human body. Putting it bluntly, it’s not that easy to seriously injure or kill someone just by knocking them off their feet (or skates). Otherwise we’d have a stack of corpses at every skate park in the country.
That’s because people have reflexes which tell them to put their body between their head/neck and the ground. This is why falls so often result in broken arms or hands. When those reflexes don’t work right because the falling person is stunned or surprised — say, as a result of being hit in the face by someone strong enough to uppercut a man 1.5 times her size onto his ass — you tend to fall on your vertebrae, or your head. Both of those can be very bad. If you want to incapacitate someone quickly, throwing them to the ground is the best thing you can do, because I guarantee you that gravity is stronger than you are.
Trained athletes and fighters learn better ways to fall, but it can still be a moot point if the fall is unexpected and you’re dizzy from a blow to the jaw anyway.
Humans are surprisingly resilient in many ways, but also surprisingly fragile in other ways. People die from falling down badly. Falling down properly is a valuable and much underrated skill, and it’s not what Malaya’s doing here. If she actually landed on her head – which it looks like she might – on pavement, it is well within the realm of possibility that it could kill her. A concussion is very likely… my niece actually got concussed (and also broke her wrist) in a very similar incident (though accidental) a couple weeks ago. There’s a reason they recommend helmets for skating. At least Malaya’s wearing her pads, so she’s not likely to break an elbow or whatever.
I don’t think Malaya’s actually dead or seriously injured, but that’s just because I don’t think Willis wants to take the comic there. Realistically, it’s not just possible but pretty plausible. And they should definitely be checking her for a concussion.
It would not at all surprise me if this was the point in the story where Amber irredeemably and irreversibly fucked up.
But I imagine Malaya’s gonna be hanging around for a while. I’d be pretty surprised if he just introduced her to have her immediately dragged away to a hospital for months.
Malaya’s still conscious -there’s all evidence that she swore *after* taking the hit, based on the placement of the speech bubble and the fact she’d have no reason to swear beforehand- and she’s also got both elbows angled behind her back. All she has to do is tense her arms and she should be basically fine. Though pissed.
As of her swearing in panel four, she hasn’t taken the real hit yet. The clothesline just tips her over. The real hit’s coming in a moment when the planet hits her.
If she lands as she is now, she should take the impact on her elbows and butt, and her padding should save her from serious injury. But she’s not just falling here, she’s also rotating around her center of mass – feet coming up, head going down – which means she might well land not on her elbows but on the back of her head and neck, which is a much more serious, potentially lethal, impact.
Like I said, I don’t think Malaya’s getting killed or seriously injured here, but that’s because I don’t think Willis wants to take her out of the comic so quickly, or turn DoA into dealing with the fallout of Amazi-Girl murdering or hospitalizing a relative innocent, not because it couldn’t happen.
She is swearing after the arm hits her – and she doesn’t finish. Why did she stop? As John said, the planet stopped her.
To use sound effects:
*DOOF*
Motherf–
*THUD*
She’s on in-line skates, and she’s supposed to be a roller-derby skater, right? If roller derby now is anything like I remember it in the days of Raquel Welch and “Kansas City Bombers”, these gals spend as much time flat on the track as they do on their skates. So just like pro wrestlers, BMX bikers, extreme skateboarders, she knows how to fall… and turn a bad landing into a not-quite-so-bad landing.
BTW — 11 was the number of K.C. Carr (Raquel Welch’s character) in the above-mentioned movie. And I’m sure Willis knew that already.
Yeah. Derby is a fall-intensive sport. This is probably the least-likely-to-injure-her fall she’s taken in a while.
I’m glad there’s at least ONE universe in which Malaya gets clotheslined.
+1
Not sure if this has been said, but I just realized how much I love the variety of characters on this page. You’ve got an entire rainbow of diverse female characters here, but it doesn’t feel forced or cheap because we know them as separate individuals, and the context for them all to be here doing what they’re doing is bigger than the fact that they are. That’s awesome! Thank you for doing what most media cannot. <3
So true!
Huh, I didn’t realize that! That’s really cool! 🙂
Nuuu, after starting the other day I’ve finally caught up… now I have to wait for daily updates like everyone else T_T why didn’t I pace myself more slowly? On the bright side, Malaya and Carla 😀
At least it updates reliably every day!
At least the other characters can’t stand Malaya either. Back in Shortpacked! everybody tolerated her incessant whining remarkably well.
They had to. They worked with her, or lived with her.
And Leslie didn’t fire her because she’s too friggin’ nice for her own good.
okay, so a lot of people are guessing what happens next. Willis has pretty well telegraphed that since her identity is compromised, Amber is going to ‘end game’ between her and Sal. A lot of people expect violence, and although possible, I don’t see it as likely. IMO, Amber will reveal herself (why not? her covers blown by the paper, right?) and admit to Sal that the night at the convenience store is the reason for Amazi-girl… possible thanking Sal… and ‘offering’ Sal a ‘duel’ to get revenge for the stabbing. Sal kisses Marcie (ala Jen Aside’s avatar) then prepares to fight Amber just as Danny or another convenient scene ender shows up. I guess we’ll see how close I am… hopefully soon.
A couple of disagreements:
– Amber won’t reveal herself – removing the mask allows fear to creep in, and she can’t afford fear right now. She needs to be Amazi-Girl right now, not Amber. She may make remarks that reveal her knowledge of that night (“Take off your glove, Sal, I want to see it!”), hoping it will provoke her.
– I don’t see any romantic relationship between Marcie and Sal (despite all the shippers). They’re good friends, definitely with a shared past that may involve Sal’s Catholic school days, but not lovers.
– I don’t think Sal would want to fight Amazi-Girl, even if she knew. As Ethan suggested earlier, Sal has moved on, and sees the robbery as an embarrassing episode of her life that she’d rather forget. She’ll fight if Amazi-Girl goes on the offensive, but I think she’d rather end this amicably.
But we’re in Math Club. The first rule of Math Club is you do Fight Club’s homework.
You’re not supposed to talk about Fight Club!
Amber announced herself by saying that Sal would *not* be having a relaxing night, and then stated the fact that she had found Sal committing a crime made things so much easier – which only makes any sense in the context of Amber kicking the shit out of her using “dispensing justice” as a pretense. And then of course her next word was to provoke Malaya into an attack.
I have no idea how you get from these facts to Amber quietly offering an apology for her past attack and a gratitude-filled explanation for her current status as a vigilante, but I’m afraid I can’t agree. Everything Amber has said or done since being outed to Dorothy and seeing Sal in the hallway indicates that Amber intends to deal with Sal as she did with her father – with extreme violence.
Everybody is positing that Amber is working on the knowledge that Dorothy knows she is Amazi-Girl, and Amber’s own assumption that Dorothy has taken this and run with it. *BUT WE DON’T KNOW THAT FOR A FACT!* Willis placed Dorothy on the horns of a dilemma. Does she deep-six her scoop in deference to her classmate, or take it and publish it — and in the process deliver a friend up as a sacrifice on the altar of journalistic idealism? Point is, nobody knows what Dorothy has decided except Willis — and he ain’t telling (yet).
Of course Dorothy’s not going to publish it. She doesn’t even have a story yet. What’s she gonna tell Daisy, “There’s a girl who owns the same shoe and transformer as Amazigirl?”
We do know for a fact that this isn’t how Amber sees it though.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/02-i-was-a-teenage-churchmouse/it/
Seeing young amber with a malaya who is her age is…really really weird.
The entire Dumbiverse is centered around that idea, get used to it [or not, that might be the point]
Considering Willis does his strips ahead of time, you have to wonder if this *ahem* not-at-all-Walky-verse-crossover of Ultracar & Malaya appearing right as their story wrapped up in Shortpacked was intentional or just a weird accident. O_O
…this entire thing is a crossover between the Walkyverse and Real Life.
I say they back up AmaziGirl! Now that would be interesting.
Motherf— duck