SFP

sfp-6-12-for-web

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  • RobNiner

    Really hoping he’s not the male equivalent of a femme fatale. Homme fatale?

    • Ladies Man? The Casanova? Mr Smooth?

      • dragonus45

        Lady Killer I think would be the phrase.

  • Tsapki

    Smooth.

  • Jesse Hann

    Brennan, I love you man, but “Brois Lane” is a much better name than “Max.”

    • Elaine Lee

      That’s when the break-up will happened. When the tabloids start calling him Brois.

  • Enepttastic

    You know, at first I was getting ready to expect the next comic to show Allison getting home, changing then throwing clothes into the laundry and then I realized where she’s living. Lisa/Paladin’s place. A place filled with helper/servant drones with a…questionable…sense of humor.

    Now I’m expecting them(the drones) to wash it then mess with Allison in some way before telling her what the number was.

    • Tylikcat

      I thought she got a flat above Capecakes?

  • Dean

    From Alison’s expression in panel 3, Max must have quite the gun show. And she could have just written his number on her hand…

    • Elaine Lee

      Unless her super-strong skin rejects sharpie.

  • James Holman

    This is both sweet and kind of stalker-y at the same time. Haha.

    • To be fair, everyone knows about her. So he’s no more stalkerish than anyone else would be!

  • Lostman

    Once again: Smooth.

  • Daniel Vogelsong

    I got a Max’s Shirt! I got a Max’s Shirt! And guess what’s inside it!

    • Kid Chaos

      A Max?

  • ZBass

    Razor sharp cheekbones
    Super smooth game.

  • Pol Subanajouy

    Okay, taking off the shirt was kinda a slick improvisation on his part. Heck, I know it would work on me were I in Al’s position.

    • rpenner

      So much classier than the only other option he had for writing material.

      • Taking off your underwear is definitely a second date kinda thing, right?

      • MisterTeatime

        Yeah. Asking her to open one of his veins would be super awkward after all the effort she put into saving him.

  • Dartangn

    Good job controlling your spaghetti, Allison. Panel 3 particularly.

  • Eternal

    This guy is way too much in control for someone who almost died…

    • Ganurath

      Repression is a wonderful thing… in the short term.

  • JohnTomato

    So glad that wasn’t awkward. Remember ‘Death by Snu Snu.’

  • Zechariah Val Judy

    I say he is a bad guy and he started the fire. No joy for Heroes!

  • zarawesome

    “my, it is getting quite hot in here” that’s the fire alison “FUCK”

    • Markus

      It’s like watching someone bowl with the bumpers on. If he weren’t super into her then it’d be a gutter ball from the start of the lane.

      • Emily Smith

        That is such a good analogy!

    • Jared Rosenberg

      Taking off your shirt is sure one way to make an impression.

  • ∫Clémens×ds

    Look at this, shamelessly parading the goods. Of course you couldn’t prevent yourself from objectifying men, could you? As is the media is not already overwhelmed with images of poor taste failing to represent human males (specifically!) in their complexity. ugh, typical.

    (I will mention Poe’s Law here so that, like, the 9&% percent chance someone takes that seriously lowers to like, 97%)

    • Tylikcat

      The shameless objectification of men (well, a man) is *the best* thing about this panel.

      • ∫Clémens×ds

        Jeu, I’m rather fond of the shameless objectification of women, personally. A little more scarcity to improve its perceived value wouldn’t hurt, though…

  • ∫Clémens×ds

    Look at her in the first panel. Think these are eyes innocently, mindlessly unfocused so as to concentrate on finding a pen? Riiight. She’s assessing the assets right there and then and she likes what she’s seeing. Think he’s kind of pushing it not just like, presenting his arm or something to keep his dignity intact literally two minutes since their sexual attraction started? I think he’s using his body as a decoy to prevent her from eating him alive on the very pavement.
    “Oh, I don’t have my phone, actually. All I have are my fingernails and all you have is your perfectly drawn abs I will ravish.” *proceeds to write her number under the phrase Property of Alison Green on what can only be describe as the sexual loss of his innocence*

  • demosthenese10

    Because this is a superhero comic, this will only end poorly.

    • Dartangn

      Yeah, best money’s on either getting fridged or turn evil.

    • Jared Rosenberg

      There was once a prophet who went to a wedding and she pronounced over the wedding “This can only end in tragedy” and someone responded “You don’t think this is true love?” and the prophet replied “Oh, it’s true love all right, and that’s WHY it can only end in tragedy.”

      • Francisco

        And now I’ve got a BeeGees song playing in my head (both the original and the Step versions).

  • RaeRae

    I’m so glad Allison also totally loses all of her brains talking to a cute boy. REL-ATE-A-BILITY. That should be a song.

    The best of us are reduced to a silly puddle of brain mush. Oh, hormones.

  • Arthur Frayn

    Max takes his t-shirt off and shows her his lean, hairless chest and 6 pack in order to give her his name and number. No subtext here.

  • hwhc

    He bare-ly pulled that one off.

    • Kid Chaos

      He might just bare his soul.

  • Pat

    Dude, for realsies, don’t be part of some kind of diabolical plot to hurt/bring down/manipulate Alison. She needs this, yo.

  • Seven Circle

    “It got destroyed in a fire.” You can here the smirk.

  • lizasweetling

    I kinda love that it didn’t cut out right after she asked to have his number- they never seem to show how you proceed from there in the movies

  • rpenner

    “Max is my name. My world is fire. And abs.”
    “My name is Max. Max Guapo.”
    “Alison Green, right? And I should know, because my name is Max.” [CGI gleam off gold tooth.]
    “Max is my name, by the way. Max Surveillance. The technicians who built me thought it was funny because I’m a spy.”
    “My name is Max. Max Kaeda. Um, it’s a little early to discuss this, but I’m OK if you want to hyphenate.”

    • Lysiuj

      “How do I call you?”
      “Does it matter?”
      “Fine. When I yell ‘fool’, you drive to our date as fast as you can.”

  • rpenner

    Ba-dum-dump! Ksssh!

  • Eavan

    I was gonna say, “No, real numbers don’t have 555 in them,” but according to Wikipedia it’s only a certain range of 555 number that are reserved for fictional use — and Max’s number falls outside that range. Hmmm.

  • Tylikcat

    555- phone numbers are reserved for just this kind of use.

  • sammybaby

    Now taking odds on “he’s secretly a bad guy and set that fire to put himself in her path.”

    • He’s Furnace! Back from THE DEAD!

      • Ralph, the Dire Opossum

        And from the not-very-attractive-ness!

  • rpenner

    In the United States, the sequence “555” (or KL5, or KLondike5 for old movies where operator assistance is needed to connect) starting the final seven digits following the area code is reserved and not assigned to customers. For example 555-1212 is directory assistance for any given area code. This convention has existed for decades and has allowed movie makers (and other authors) to make up phone numbers for their fictional worlds.

    Some examples:

    In “The Last Action Hero”, Danny tries to convince Jack that since there can only be 10,000 numbers that start with 555 and there are more than a million people in Los Angeles, Jacks world must be fictional.
    in “Ghostbusters” the number to call is 555-2368
    In “The Simpsons” Homer’s Snow Plow business number was given as the anachronistic “KL5-3226”

    Wikipedia turns out to have an article on 555 which indicates the subject is slightly more involved than I indicated.

  • Numbers with 555 as the prefix are usually null.

    With a 718 area code, Max must have been living in the area (NYC outer boroughs) for a while.

  • R.Nav

    I will type so many frowny faces at you if he turns out to be an Arsonist or something.

  • MrSing

    “That was the last shirt I owned. Boy, I sure hope she gives it back to me later.”

    • Kid Chaos

      Maybe she could get him some Mega-Girl t-shirts (Men’s XL, right?).

  • Kittenbot Doomypants

    Please tell me someone said it and I just missed it… “Wuv… twoooo wuv…”

  • Hawthorne

    *takes off shirt*
    Brois: Here’s my number.

    *takes off boxers*
    Brois: And here’s…my extension.

  • Hawthorne

    Look at Nameless Rescue Blanket Man’s face…look at that delicate shoulder touch.

    If he weren’t wearing gloves he’d totally be biting his knuckles over missing his chance with Brois.

    He’s like, “A parting cape…for the hero of *my* heart…”

    *turns away and watches the world burn*

    • Dean

      Nah, look at that thousand-yard stare. Rescue Blanket Man has seen too much, man. You don’t even know.

    • Miss X

      Huh, I totally saw Nameless Rescue Man’s facial expression as him trying really hard not to intrude on Allison’s moment with the dude, but keeping an ear on the conversation so he could provide some gentle ribbing later 😛

      I mean, he’s one of the firemen, and they seem to have a good relationship with her. You just know Rodriguez is going to tease her about this as soon as she’s away from Brois…

  • Hawthorne

    I’m waiting for the *click* moment when he realizes that was his only shirt.

    • Tylikcat

      I’m thinking he made a calculation and already hit “worth it”. I just don’t know all the variables in the calculation. (And, of course, later reworkings of the problem might produce different answers.)

  • Asher Elbein

    *Don’t be a supervillain * don’t be a supervillain * don’t be a supervillain*

  • Kid Chaos

    “That might be a little harder.”

  • Mechwarrior

    Alison, put a bib on before you start drooling on that shirt.

  • Alex Hollins

    Of course we will. The villain spent way too much time finding the right guy and engineering a fire to let it end at this.

  • Kris Dunlap

    Max has the super power of captivating young women with strategic shirt removal. Clever considering she could have just scratched his number into a stray brick with her super strength.

  • motorfirebox

    Something’s fishy, here. How could there have been a fire in Max’s apartment building…

    …when he’s so cool?

  • jerard

    First panel: Alison is looking downward seemingly at his crotch. She’s probably trying to determine size and wishing she had x-ray vision.

  • Zmm

    Huh.. well that was strategic of him..
    NOW SCIENCY FRIEND PALADIN GIRL.
    DO A DNA TEST ON EVERY SHRED OF DNA ON THAT SHIRT.
    makes sure who he is. and hell.. make sure he didn’t murder someone take their shit and fake the emergency there to get to her.

    • Inbetweenbooks

      and make clones of him in the dungeon for… science and stuff

    • spriteless

      Oh. Now I wonder if he is the one who stole Menace’s army. And also if he also has mindy powers like Menace. And also is working for the conspiracy.

  • Walter

    Cheekbones of evil. just sayin’.

  • Graeme Sutton

    This is triggering all sort of alarms. Attractive admirers with more social/sexual experience don’t go well with young, naive and insecure (but powerful) celebrities with limited family/emotional support.

  • Darkoneko Hellsing

    Oh you smooth guy.

  • So nice he gave her the shirt off his back? I can’t believe no one else caught that.

  • fairportfan

    Alison probably hopes so, too.

    Lots more.

  • fairportfan
  • chaosvii

    Having your life saved by somebody that you admire and find super pretty covereth a multitude of inconvenience as well as actual problems.
    I’d go on about how folks don’t respond to crazy things the same way, but I this video portrays one of the alternatives to the “this is superhero fiction therefore paranoia is appropriate” paradigm: https://youtu.be/hQiipuDbbxw

  • Zixinus

    Smooth AF.

  • Mike Elsner

    Blushing is her Kryptonite.

  • zathura

    too good to be true, I’m calling super villain set up

  • chaosvii

    Yeah, I find that too many people get caught up in the boogieman portrayals of these sorts of taboos so much that they forget that there are lots of variants which are less visceral in appearance but just as horrid and a part of this crime. In doing so they dismiss insidious forms of racism or of coercive rhetoric between sexual partners as not being what they expected, and therefore not really racism nor a legitimate rape.
    Apparently it’s not blatantly evil enough for them to accept placing it in the category because only the worst things ever are allowed in.

    Breaking this unnuanced paradigm is a very good idea, and I think I’ll argue similarly. These ways of objectifying anyone are just plain not interesting beyond a brief exploitation of visually-activated sexuality in the audience and thus needs to actually forward/complement something in the plot/characterization in order to be anything better than a “oh hey remember sex? yeah sex is sexy, our story is sexy, you like our story don’tcha?! yea you do! cuz it’s sexy.” prompt.
    The more people are able to view this convention as the pop-up ad that it is, the more they’ll be able to demand that it either have a point or get out of the way the story. Leave these attention grabbing tactics for billboards, 24-hour news stations and stories which just plain don’t try. There’s scarcely any need for this naked prompting in stories that presumably have already hooked the audience with something more substantive.

    Oh and for those that somehow missed the context, this page’s visual representation of “the goods” actively forwards Alison’s characterization, and reinforces past impressions of Max as a character. Sexuality and its relationship to romance is an element of characterization after all (including characters that lack the experience of either).

    • Tylikcat

      I’m outright fascinated, so far, with how Max uses sexual innuendo and his own sexuality. It seems to be reinforced enough that I find it less likely that this is happenstance, and more that this is a character trait, and, um, one with a lot of potential for problems. (The dynamics where Alison was getting weirded out, asked for his number as a way of reasserting her own boundaries, and he took off his shirt – which both played up his sexuality and seemed to suggest vulnerability… darn.) So for the time being I’m seeing this as character development rather than audience aimed eye candy… and he’s bringing to mind some unfortunate associations. (I’m all for highly sexual men. But not for people who mess with you.)

      Going back to the media portrayals question, I think there’s a lot of room to explore intricacies of consent, and different types of rape… and having men being the victims of sexual assault and rape. I’ve written a number of vignettes (from various times I was ranting about this) – mostly because I really would like to break down the idea that women are somehow uniquely vulnerable to rape (and men uniquely immune) and that both these things are the natural order of the world. (And then there’s all the fetishizing of women’s supposed vulnerability, ugh.)

      • MrSing

        Of course men are afraid of being raped. Just ask a man what he fears that will happen to him if he ever winds up in prison.

        • Tylikcat

          It sure gets expressed in different ways. Prison rape is almost the only instance of adult male rape that gets discussed, and it usually is discussed in the context of jokes and/or discussion of supposed retribution for horrible acts (as if prisoners somehow choose who they rape based on their moral fiber, and were a more finely calibrated tool than our justice system as a whole*.) And male rape is often framed as being specifically emasculating – again, in the every narrow scope in which it is discussed at all. Which is a huge part of the problem.

          Of course, to a certain extent, actually being not afraid of being raped, or merely being obligated to pretend that you have no fear of being raped as a enactment of masculinity come down to pretty similar things. (I wonder how many of the men would admit to being afraid of being sent to prison? Though in that case, I suspect a racial and economic gradient would emerge.)

          * Not, I’ll grant you, that this is setting a very high bar, but that’s something of a digression.

          • MrSing

            Well, you seemed to argue that men don’t fear being raped and I believe I showed that many men do fear being raped, as they expres when they are send to or inside of jails.
            Just because there is a culture of denying that the rape of prisoners is a bad thing, doesn’t mean these men don’t fear it or deny the possibility of it happening.
            I didn’t even mention the infamous case of many men who stepped forward in recent years to admit that they had been molested by priests in the past.
            Man do fear being raped, they just don’t often think about it. Most people fear being murdered too, but they don’t spend a lot of their life contemplating it.
            It’s just one of those awful things that we like to think only happens to other people.

  • Adrian Fänger

    I realy hope he isn’t a crazy fanboy who set the building on fire to meet her

  • Ian Osmond

    Man, do I love Alison. Awkwardflirt.

  • MrSing

    Men “of color” are still men.