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Desperate Measures, p22

May 26, 2025 by Tim


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Bo F
Bo F
2 days ago

I felt that ‘pop’ 😮 ugh

Cmd1095
Cmd1095
2 days ago

Oof, having had something similar happen to me at regular human speeds. I can only imagine how much this must suck at superspeed.

Dom
Dom
2 days ago
Reply to  Cmd1095

Depending on the G forces, the leg could also have been torn off his body. Too graphic for this comic however.

FIossy
FIossy
2 days ago
Reply to  Dom

That’s not what ‘g force’ means.

Cmd1095
Cmd1095
2 days ago
Reply to  Dom

Pretty sure G force isn’t the term to use, Newtons of force maybe? Idk I’m not a scientist. But yes it absolutely could’ve been ripped right off if he was going fast enough and the adhesive was strong enough. Sure feels like that could happen when it happens in real life lol

Dorander
Dorander
2 days ago
Reply to  Cmd1095

It’s not really that improper. G-force is the force felt due to acceleration that makes you feel pressure in the opposite direction that you are accelerating in.

In this scene the strain is caused by rapid deceleration, and in terms of physics, deceleration is simply acceleration in the opposite direction. So you could legitimately call this a result of g-forces.

Cmd1095
Cmd1095
1 day ago
Reply to  Dorander

That makes sense, hooray for science clarifications!

Mops
Mops
2 days ago
Reply to  Dom

The word you are looking for is momentum. Depending on the velocity he was moving at and his own weight, his momentum would be what would have torn the leg off.

Urazz
Urazz
2 days ago
Reply to  Dom

I don’t think that would happen. Speedsters usually have their bodies strengthened to an extent to be able to handle the speeds they move at. Some speedsters even heal much faster than normal humans as well. They’ll still need medical treatment to fix things but things like broken bones healing up once set into place to heal can heal in hours to days when normal humans can take months to fully heal.

ears
ears
1 day ago
Reply to  Urazz

“usually” is a weird thing to say about a completely made up subject

Greevar
Greevar
1 day ago
Reply to  Dom

Inertia, not G force.

PhobosRising
PhobosRising
2 days ago

And you thought stepping on a lego was bad…

Verdiekus
Verdiekus
2 days ago
Reply to  PhobosRising

Truly they are the caltrop of the modern world.

Silo267
Silo267
2 days ago
Reply to  PhobosRising

I honestly thought we were gonna see a Lego trap

Willess12
Willess12
2 days ago

Yikes. Even if he manages to get out of the glue, he’s not running anywhere.

Ocramot
Ocramot
2 days ago
Reply to  Willess12

Well, I guess he could just remove his shoes and pants

Pajuka
Pajuka
2 days ago
Reply to  Ocramot

No that “pop” was likely Elijah’s hamstring letting go. Which is one of those injuries that’s sending you to the ER, super powers or not.

Ocramot
Ocramot
2 days ago
Reply to  Pajuka

I was talking about the “getting out of the glue” part

Urazz
Urazz
2 days ago
Reply to  Pajuka

I thought it was his hip being dislocated

Curious
Curious
1 day ago
Reply to  Pajuka

I’d say it’s more likely his entire femur dislocated from the socket joint, due to the massive force associated with the sudden deceleration of his leg, when compared to the continued inertia of the rest of his body.

Rufusstan
Rufusstan
13 hours ago
Reply to  Pajuka

I thought the pop represented something more drastic, like his hip dislocating

Dom
Dom
2 days ago
Reply to  Ocramot

Thanks for the visual image 😂.
“Mysterious phenomenon where citizens feel a gust of wind as they feel like they’ve reportedly seen something inappropriate ‘dangling or ‘flopping’ by in the wind, feeling violated like they saw something subliminal every 1/24 frames of a movie.
Citizens of Omnitropolis have come to call this phenomenon as ‘The Flash’!
This has been Lilah Monroe reporting for ONN News. Back to Tom in the Studio.”

Glurglenuts
Glurglenuts
2 days ago

This was a really smart idea honestly. A fairly non-violent way of incapacitating a speedster.

It’s also interesting that although he can move at superspeed, his reaction speed seems to be fairly close to normal human times.

Derptastic
Derptastic
2 days ago
Reply to  Glurglenuts

It’s not really, it’s just that otherwise anyone with super speed would basically invulnerable. IMO speeders should just be avoided, because otherwise it’s always inconsistent between presentation and then the actual fight to levels which no suspension of disbelief can compensate.

Daniel
Daniel
2 days ago
Reply to  Derptastic

They would be fine as long as the speed increase wasn’t anything stupid like a thousand times regular human speed. If Elijah was presented as having somewhere around 10 to 20 times regular human speed (between 150 to 300 mph) he would still be fast enough to outrun helicopters but not so fast you couldn’t react to him if you see him coming.

Derptastic
Derptastic
2 days ago
Reply to  Daniel

I think the kid with the ‘world hack’ glove was pretty well done in that regards, with regards to his speed hacking. I wish he wasn’t taken out that early on.

Thomas
Thomas
2 days ago
Reply to  Daniel

Aside from that one scene where he was tagging 3 things at once (allegedly) while maintaining a calm face to face conversation; the implication that he was breaking the speed of light there seemed more played as a one-off gag though.

Dorander
Dorander
2 days ago
Reply to  Derptastic

Speedsters always move at the speed of plot, by necessity.

Derptastic
Derptastic
1 day ago
Reply to  Dorander

Yeah, but then what’s the point, honestly…

Laughing Luna
Laughing Luna
2 days ago
Reply to  Glurglenuts

Kinda depends in this case. The previous page has it a little ambiguous on how Elijah turned 90 degrees twice while still at pace, but I imagine he used the freshly made walls, pushing off of them to redirect his momentum and inertia. Yeah he can stop pretty fast as is, but I imagine it still takes at least a *little* lead time to go from dead super sprint to a full stop – especially since he just had an adverse reaction to going from very fast to nothing. There is also the consideration that, even if he had a… Read more »

Snark
Snark
2 days ago
Reply to  Glurglenuts

But seriously, superspeeds should have a faster reaction. To avoid bumping into corners at supersonic speeds. And to stope their own limbs from going through other limbs. And to coordinate all that mechanics in the first place (I mean, the brain still needs to send nerve impulses to muscles and get a response).

Quite durable bones (and tendons and joints) also…

But we are not going there, OK. If we start to apply conventional physics to supers, something has to give.

Nightdagger
Nightdagger
2 days ago

Oh GOD, having torn my ACL in an accident at work a few years ago, I recoiled VIOLENTLY at that panel! It’s UNGODLY painful and depending on how bad it is and what happens to you during the surgery (because surgery is the only option if it’s fully torn) and your recovery you might never regain full use of the joint.

Risky
Risky
2 days ago

Ouch… been there, I’m sure he’s got it worse though. Time for a lawsuit, vigilantes using inhumane tactics, unlike cops would would have laid a tack strip and had him need a few bandaids.

Risky
Risky
2 days ago
Reply to  Risky

This comment section keeps telling me the email address I had been using here for over a year is not real, so I end up with my gmail avatar instead of my comics avatar.

Silo267
Silo267
2 days ago
Reply to  Risky

Im not sure “im suing them because they used a non Lethal trap to stop me from committing murder and vandalism

Pulse
Pulse
2 days ago
Reply to  Silo267

people have done it and won the cases before. turns out traps are liability

TerryclothMonkey
TerryclothMonkey
2 days ago
Reply to  Pulse

Youve misunderstood the case. The Iowa shotgun case was a couple who set a shotgun spring gun trap to defend an unoccupied house from robbers. So in that case it was murder to prevent robbery, instead of injury to prevent murder and arson.

FIossy
FIossy
2 days ago
Reply to  Pulse

No

Curious
Curious
1 day ago
Reply to  Pulse

PLEASE don’t use the “burglar that fell onto a knife when breaking into a house” example. That one is a known fallacy – no one has been able to ever provide a source to this claimed case and has since been discarded as something to help push through legal statutes on ‘frivolous lawsuits’.

Tales
Tales
1 day ago
Reply to  Pulse

Yes, unmanned traps are a liability because you don’t know who could potentially trip them. However with a manually activated trap with warning signs the “victim” has every chance to just walk away and leave people alone.

This on the other hand is a fight not a trap, one that uses a non-lethal takedown method.

Charlie
Charlie
1 day ago
Reply to  Tales

Not to mention, it’s a couple vigilantes vs a criminal murderer… I don’t think normal interpretations of the law really apply here.

Robert
Member
Robert
1 day ago
Reply to  Pulse

You’ve misread Katko V. Briney. That’s an entirely different situation. Theres a good video about it by Legal Eagle on Youtube/Nebula.

Karrde
Karrde
2 days ago
Reply to  Silo267

Non-Lethal tends to create more problems than not, looking at instances of civilians stopping criminals in real life. The aggrieved party being alive to sue you and tell a different story tends to create issues. This is why most home defense lawyers tell you that if you’re going to shoot somebody breaking into your home, do yourself a favor and shoot to kill. Thats an additional layer of advice on top of the “this is a person who has violated the sanctity of your home and you have no idea his purpose, which could be murderous, or thievery, or if… Read more »

Dorander
Dorander
2 days ago
Reply to  Karrde

I’m going to say “provide sources or I’m calling BS” here. The level of violence allowed to defend one’s home depends on local defense laws, and evidence of a crime isn’t simply a matter of ‘your story vs my story’.

If you kill somebody in your own home you STILL have to prove self-defense according to local laws.

And that’s not even touching the off the walls insane claim of defense lawyers advocating for lethal violence.

echosam
echosam
1 day ago
Reply to  Dorander

It’s a little more complicated than that. And, yes, it depends on location.

In most states there is a presumption of danger (rebuttable) if someone breaks into your occupied home. IOW, if I find someone who doesn’t belong in my house up to no good, It is assumed they are a danger to the occupants. And unless it is clear a reasonable person would know they was no danger, using lethal force is valid. In my state it’s pretty much, as long as I’m not shooting them in the back as they run away, it will be considered self defense.

Curious
Curious
1 day ago
Reply to  Dorander

“If you kill somebody in your own home you STILL have to prove self-defense according to local laws.”

Yup. There’s a well known lawsuit known as the “shotgun boobytrap” case – basic details can be found at Katko v. Briney – Wikipedia, while more detailed breakdowns can be found on free legal sites like Westlaw or PACER, where the owner of the property was found liable because they had set the deadly-force trap while their house was unoccupied, so it was not protected under Castle Doctrine.

Phire
Phire
1 day ago
Reply to  Dorander

All states have some sort of castle doctrine.

The one place you are -not- expected to retreat from is your own home. And if it’s dark, which, chances are it’s going to be, you don’t have a realistic way to determine if someone is armed or not.

And if you have children in your home, the state would have an extremely difficult time convicting you of anything, if they even wanted to try.

Especially when the court only has one testimony to go by.

echosam
echosam
1 day ago
Reply to  Karrde

“…most home defense lawyers tell you that if you’re going to shoot somebody breaking into your home, do yourself a favor and shoot to kill.”

No, no, no. You never “shoot to kill”. You shoot to stop the threat. Yea, its close to the same thing, since you are probably sending multiple bullets center mass. But, if a prosecutor ever can show you “shoot to kill” it will be used against you to prove it was an intentional murder, not self-defense.

Darkhorse
Darkhorse
1 day ago
Reply to  Karrde

Maybe you should add that its American lawyers, or so I assume? In most of the Western world we hold life in a higher regard, so shooting and killing without further thought or understanding why the person is there is heavily scrutinized. Taking a life is a big deal here. Not doing anything to resolve the situation non-violently and simply shooting to kill at first sight will get you into trouble. Not to mention that the amount of armed robbers is quite rare. Though an interesting thought occurs. If you’re a thief and know there’s people with guns shooting to… Read more »

Risky
Risky
23 hours ago
Reply to  Darkhorse

We know he’s not in his house, right? There’s no house.

Rufusstan
Rufusstan
13 hours ago
Reply to  Darkhorse

Additionally, in most if the western world the ability to claim self defence isn’t a given. You have to react proportionally to a threat for it to be applicable. So if you shoot an unarmed intruder, not only are you unlikely to successfully claim self defence but might open yourself to (attempted) murder charges.

KatG
KatG
2 days ago
Reply to  Risky

At that speed even tacks wouldn’t have needed “a few bandaids” as would have likely shredded the skin of his feet

MJC
MJC
2 days ago
Reply to  Risky

Tack strips are designed for popping tires, I wouldn’t consider spikes going fully through my foot to be more humane

Risky
Risky
23 hours ago
Reply to  MJC

That’s a fair viewpoint although there’s no guarantee his recovery time would be longer due to a pierced foot than from whatever just happened to his hip. The main treatment for the foot injury will still be a bandage aside from wound cleaning and booster shots, assuming they don’t keep the wounds uncovered like they did in my case.

Crestlinger
Crestlinger
2 days ago

🎶hip bone’s connected to the…*POP* …nevermind!

Mor
Mor
2 days ago
Reply to  Crestlinger

You owe me a coffee… 🤣 Luckily no hardware was damaged during that snort…

GUNnibal
GUNnibal
2 days ago

You know what they say – stick to the ol’ reliable.

Last edited 2 days ago by GUNnibal
Del Cox
Del Cox
2 days ago

Thaaaaaat’s a dislocated hip. Yikes.

Gonfrask
Gonfrask
2 days ago

In a super universe you can trust in the good old super glue.

A lot of emergency cases too, the modeling world is full of peoples with their fingers forever sticked…

lightsabermario
lightsabermario
2 days ago
Reply to  Gonfrask

Heh, *Super* glue.

Daniel
Daniel
2 days ago

Where are his tools, by the way?
Wouldn’t it be ironic if he has a gun, as plan B?

Gonfrask
Gonfrask
1 day ago
Reply to  Daniel

Ozimandias moment? What kind of videogame villain do you think I am? I started the fire the moment I saw you

DerGrimmigeZwerg
DerGrimmigeZwerg
2 days ago

At first I thought they were casting Grease. Turns out Web is a lot better, no wonder it’s a lvl 2 spell..

Banjo
Banjo
2 days ago

Well that should calm him down and make him less crazy in their next encounter.

Steve
Steve
2 days ago

That’s only one hamstring. Does he have the power of super hopping?

Logan
Logan
1 day ago
Reply to  Steve

Muscles don’t ‘pop’ (they extend to tear, if anything). But joints do. That’s a dislocation, not a pulled muscle.

Last edited 1 day ago by Logan
Logan
Logan
1 day ago
Reply to  Logan

Tend* bad autocorrect! xD

Dr.Strangegun
Dr.Strangegun
2 days ago

This is the same injury type that gave Bo Jackson an artificial hip joint….

foducool
foducool
2 days ago

ow I felt that one

Eodyne
Eodyne
2 days ago

Oooooohhh I felt that hammy…

will scott
will scott
2 days ago

if that was me my knee would have torn off. thats def a career ender.

Bumpfer
Bumpfer
2 days ago

Genuinely I’m surprised he didn’t tear his leg more at the speed he was going. Elijah must have a bit of enhanced durability to go along with his speed.

Angrylittleman
Angrylittleman
2 days ago

Ohhh I felt that! Ouch!

jonathan corbett
jonathan corbett
1 day ago

This makes NO sense. With how fast Elijah was, he should have moved faster than hte chemical bonding. He’s suddenly gone from untouchable speed, to race car speed. THat’s why evil speedsters are so HARD to write correctly, no offense to the cartoonist.

Nightdagger
Nightdagger
1 day ago

And in a universe with characters with superpowers where there’s actually a question as to whether some scientist’s serum has disabled the superpower of one of the main characters, who’s to say there can’t be some super bonding agent that works fast enough to trap a speedster?

We’re already defying the laws of normal physical reality. This isn’t too much of a stretch.

GeorgeV
GeorgeV
1 day ago

Don’t know about that, too much unknowable fictional physics involved to say how (im)plausible that is. We don’t know what kind of glue, how quickly it bonds, and it’s even arguable the super speed could affect the glue (and speed up the gluing) as soon as it makes contact.

The bigger problem (to me) is how Elijah would be hit by such a slow projectile.

Curious
Curious
1 day ago

Cartoon physics and suspension of disbelief – plain and simple. In the old Sonic the Hedgehog Saturday Morning cartoons, there is a plot device called “Mega Muck”, which can bring Sonic to an INSTANT halt if he sets foot on it, even going at supersonic speed.

ears
ears
1 day ago

I agree (with jonathan).

But on the other hand, the whole concept of superspeed wouldn’t work in real word anyway. A hummingbird can flap its wings 80 times a second, but that doesn’t scale to larger animals. Muscle energy / heart / breathing.

So whatever. If one concept is made up, might as well make up super fast and strong glue. Resurrection and lit up arrows conjured out of nothing are much further on the suspension of disbelief breaking scale.

Richard Weatherfield
Richard Weatherfield
1 day ago
Reply to  ears

Comics are about plausibility. it’s plausible that this could work based on basic principles in real life and it’s not hard to wrap your head around. I don’t get why people have to be all “this wouldn’t happen in real life.” Of course it wouldn’t. This isn’t real life!

Curious
Curious
1 day ago

I was chatting with a friend that has a doctorate in sports medicine and deals with dislocations, sprains and tears frequently, here’s the breakdown they gave me: Looking at this comic, the physics of what’s happening here are brutal from a biomechanical standpoint, ignoring cartoon physics and plot armor. When someone running at super-speed gets waylaid like this, we’re dealing with a frankly MASSIVE change in momentum. The lower body comes to an almost instantaneous stop while the upper body continues forward with superhuman velocity. This creates what engineers would call a “point loading” scenario where enormous forces concentrate at… Read more »

Axiomite
Axiomite
1 day ago

ooooh. I felt that. There is going to be a high physical therapy bill.

That sticky point
That sticky point
1 day ago

Superspeed: Meet super-deceleration

Entercoven
Entercoven
21 hours ago

This happens to me when I mildly stretch in the morning, I cant imagine it at Mach 1 or however fast he’s moving.

Wesley Riot
Wesley Riot
16 hours ago

Did he dislocate his arse?

wysskers4
wysskers4
5 hours ago

oh i FELT that in panel 3. welcome to a lifetime of sciatica on top of the other tragedies 🙁