Atop the Fourth Wall

"Atop the Fourth Wall" was always a fairly gimmicky, but still unique, concept: the Nostalgia Critic, but with comic books. And like the Nostalgia Critic, AT4W experienced a slow, withering decline over the years as it's haphazardly tried and failed to keep up with the times.

Akin to most of the Channel Awesome Criticsphere shows, you can look back on an early AT4W video then look at a more recent one and not discern much meaningful change in the way the main content is presented. Lewis Lovhaug, in his fictitious persona Linkara, basically sits in his basement and commentates over scans of bad comic books, makes jokes and one-liners here and there in a gratingly nasal voice, before declaring his final opinion. Although, there is one thing you will definitely notice has changed for the worse...

Those obnoxious storylines! In another uncanny reflection of the Nostalgia Critic's fall from grace due to an overreliance on cutaway gags, AT4W has basically been ruined by Lovhaug's insistence that each video has to tie in to some ridiculous, nonsensical sci-fi storyline that usually has absolutely nothing to do with the comic review at hand. I find it funny how Linkara can have the gall to mock bad writing in his comic books, but is completely un-self-aware to the atrocious quality of his own little storylines.

Worse, Lewis always portrays the Linkara character as an awesome gun-toting Marty Stu who goes around defeating supervillains in a spaceship with a quirky cast of robot sidekicks and whatnot. You can really tell that Lewis regards these narrative segments as a big draw to his videos, but they're really not -- most people just skip to the actual review, because that's understandably what they'd rather be watching. They're just too embarrassing to sit through, and I'm sure Lewis will feel the same way in many years time (not that he learned from his attempts to write a superhero webcomic and Pokemon fanfiction). While I applaud his efforts to experiment, I think he should either try something else or just stick to the original thing.

What I will say in the show's favour is that there's at least a great variety of comics reviewed -- it's not just the standard Marvel/DC fare, and Lewis manages to get hold of some really obscure and interesting titles. Not only that, but AT4W is one of the only notable Criticsphere review (they're more like overviews, really) shows that showcases both good and bad media. A break from the whinging and nitpicking is refreshing. Some of Lewis's diary insights that accompany his videos in the descriptions are also quite fun to read through. So overall, AT4W isn't bad, as I'll still stick on a video when I feel in the mood, but the flaws are increasingly hard to ignore.

I understand that what I think of is subjective and against the grain of the norm, but I love and (still love) Atop the Fourth Wall. Unlike his contemporaries during the Channel Awesome era which focused on tearing down movies of specific criteria, medium or genre, Linkara takes a more analytical approach towards comic books and the media associated with it. While the earlier episodes are a bit harder to watch due to his amateur acting and fake anger, Linkara is at his best when he mellows out and provide genuine emotion in his work when the emotions are justified. As someone who is trying to create comics, Lewis feels inspiring for me to watch so I can better understand how to work with this complex medium.

He's not without criticism though. I don't care much for his melodramatic storylines but he is aware enough nowadays to make those optional to follow. They're not nostalgia Critic levels of bad, but, again, I don't care much for them. I do wish that he could focus more on third-party and indie-published comics and less on the mainstream giants like DC or Marvel. I understand that he was raised on both companies (DC in particular), but I feel like there's untapped potential being wasted here.

But all in all, Linkara always was my favorite from Channel Not-Awesome and still is.

As an avid fan of comic books and superheroes; any show that reviews them is an instant favorite of mine. atop the fourth wall is easily my favorite comic book reviewing show. it is funny, insightful, and action packed. lewis lovhaug is a true genius and I hope he continues into the future. if you read this review lewis; good job dude.

Atop the Fourth Wall is a comic book review/comedy series and despite some enjoyable episodes, it's quite a flawed one. The main problem lies in the fact that, although the show is essentially a Rifftrax of a comic book, Mr. Lovhaug himself isn't a comedian, or particularly skilled at writing jokes. He is a comic book fan, and if the show were in a more straight forward reviewing style (as opposed to the MST3K/Nostalgia Critic format) it would work really well. When Linkara (the character portrayed by Lewis Lovhaug in the series) gives insight into the comic book of the week and its themes, flaws, artwork, and other aspects, it's quite interesting. However, mostly we're stuck with a very hit or miss sarcastic commentary which rips apart the comic book on a shallow, unfair level, with embarrassingly easy-to-make and unfunny jokes. Also there are his abysmal "story-lines", which are very stupid and pointless (not to mention taken far too seriously by Mr. Lovhaug and some of his viewers), and sometimes will overshadow videos for weeks on end. That said, there are quite a few entertaining episodes. For instance, certain comic books that feature on the show are so bad (entertainingly so) that the review practically writes itself and the end result is quite funny (example: Brain Drain; I don't want to spoil it; just watch for yourself). Other fun episodes include his crossovers with Spoony (The Ultimate Warrior reviews) and The Cinema Snob (Bimbos BC and Manimal), the episodes featuring Harvey Finevoice, and some interesting top 10s. Overall, I'd say check out the series for its better episodes, but be wary of the terrible jokes and inane plots that are worked into it at times.

I find the character Linkara to me extremely entertaining, and very funny. He is one of the most talented reviewers I've seen. He hooked me, someone who reads one or two comics per year, into a show all about comics that suck. His reviews tend to be more analytic than comedy. The show laughs at the bad qualities of the comics, while Linkara also talks about why this comic doesn't work for him. He gets worked up about the particularly bad ones, but to me that's part of the comedy, seeing a guy get angry over a stupid comic. But, part of the anger is real. He really enjoys comics, so, understandably, it annoys him when bad comics are made.

The story lines of the show itself are rather awesome. Lewis has to spend a lot of time thinking thinking them up. They always are a nice addition to a review, such as my favorite storyline (which extended from "Kamandi At Earth" to "Pokemon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu"). The story had a Halloween-mystery theme to it that I enjoyed. The AT4W plots are not necessary to enjoy the individual reviews, but they are an interesting and fun extra.

All in all, it's a great show. Of course there's a few episodes that I don't like, but I enjoy an overwhelming majority of the episodes. Personally, I find the episodes reviewing PSA comics the best. If you're interested, I recommend the month of May 2012 reviews, since he devoted it completely to PSA comics.