"Well I'm back from being imprisoned onboard Lord Vyce's ship and I'm ready to review again! That's why today we're digging into Cable #2! *realizes what he just said* ...I quit!"
Rapid-Fire "No": His review of "Mr. T Comics #2" had two rather impressive examples when he finds that Mr. T gets knocked out by "Stare Roy," a man pumped up on steroids.
"So Superman...you know what, I'm not gonna call him that. Bearded Idiot flies off with the remaining kids to fight the mutant hordes of the twin Hitlers. Dear God in Heaven, I can't believe that this comic makes that sentence possible!"
Real Life Writes the Plot: According to Lewis, Linksano was introduced so he would not have to keep asking Spoony to do segments for him and adding to his own workload.
Part of the reason for Pollo's abduction by the Entity was because Lewis wished to retire the Pollo prop and build a new one.
The in-show explanation for there being no 11/07/11 episode is that Linkara needed a break after the past few weeks with the Entity and Silent Hill, though the actual reason was because Lewis was at Youma Con for the week before, so he couldn't produce and write the following week's episode.
Rearrange the Song: Starting with Maximum Clonage, his theme song was given a fuller orchestration and better production.
Linkara: And we directly see (Superboy-Prime) vaporise a pregnant woman. My God, it's like the worst parts of the '90s all over again!
'90s Kid: *Nirvana plays* Duuuuuude, I- wait. *Record Needle Scratch* Did you just vaporize a pregnant chick? Dude, that- that's not cool, man. That's not cool.
In the ending to his Silent Hill review, to hilarious ends.
Reed Richards Is Useless: In his commentary for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace he expresses his annoyance that superhero comics, for how often they delve into this, always end up saying the superheroes cannot change the world. In Superman IV he mentions the short-sightedness of Supe's belief that removing nukes from the world will solve everything wrong with Earth.
Rule of Cool: He really don't care about physics if something really awesome is happening, like two giant robots fighting each other.
Rule of Funny: During "Secret Origins Month", he says repeatedly that he is judging these decades-old comics based on modern standards just because it is funny, and they were good for their time. This is also why he does the entire last fourth of his New Kids on the Block review in rhyme.
Linkara: I'll continue the summary in rhyme since it's funny. If you prefer something else, "Hey look at the pretty bunny."
Youngblood's Disease: The curious disease that plagues superheroes where their musculature becomes implausibly disproportionate and their eyes dissolve into featureless white voids.
Sometimes when a character does something stupid, he has Patton say "...you Magnificent Bastard, I read your book!"
Issues of the Image series Objective Five appears constantly in the Title Sequence as well as several 'comic pile' scenes throughout the series, yet Linkara did not get to review an issue yet.
Batman's hatred of rock music.
"Only a science major could *insert activity here*!"
In some of the earlier episodes, Linkara used "Combine Harvester" by The Wurzels this way. The song itself is not about someone going insane, but it plays whenever Linkara's sanity starts to slip, such as at the end of the Doom's IV and Amazons Attack reviews. Up until Ultimatum #3-4, however, it hadn't been used since Maximum Clonage.
Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: 90's Kid did this during his review of Freak Force. He actually read the sound effects out loud and even summarized the battle using nothing but sound effects.
Schedule Slip: Linkara has made a Running Gag out of the continued delays in writing and publishing issue 2 of Revolution of the Mask. His actual reviews avert this and he manages to turn out new ones very consistently, updating once per week since Godzilla vs. Barkley (his ninth episode), almost always on Monday. So much so that Lee from Still Gaming pointed out that Linkara was the only That Guy With The Glasses contributor who wasn't incredibly sick from MAGFest 9. The closest thing to missing a week since then was on 7th November 2011, and he still had a live episode from Youmacon to show that week, and he decided to air that week's properly scheduled episode in a double-bill with the following week's.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Attempts this in The Dark Knight Strikes Again Part 3. He attempts this in text form in his text review [1] of Web of Spider-Man #122.
Speaking of running... *Tries to run away but is forced back by his promise to recap the three comics.*
He attempts to leave his review of Superman At Earth's End, but he comes back, concluding...
Selective Obliviousness: Still appears to be baffled as to Dr. Insano's true identity. After stealing Neutro from Dr. Insano, he remarks offhandedly that Insano parked it behind Spoony's house, but seemed to be dismissing this as Dr. Insano just being careless.
Parodies his own Schedule Slip in his Superman vs. The Terminator review, where his self-published comic Revolution of the Mask has still not come out with a third issue 30 years from now.
The caption of his text review of New Guardians #2 [2]:
Narrator: We left the hospital. Stunned and silent. Until RAM said what the rest of us were thinking. Linkara: Wait a second, how come it takes three months to do a review of a 24-page comic?!
In Chain Gang War #1 Iron Liz reveals that the notes he left for her include a conspiracy theory that rambles for thirty pages about how One More Day is connected with Cry for Justice.
Linkara calls Sonic the Hedgehog's quips in Sonic Live #1 worse than his own.
He openly calls himself overweight in the Mightily Murdered Power Ringers review.
Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Linkara arrives 30 years into his own future and is horrified to discover that his future self still reviews bad comics, still lives in his parents' basement, and has lost his hat. Linkara proclaims that he will go back and change everything, and when he leaves the timeline does indeed change... but the only real change is that he has his hat back.
Shameless Self Promoter: Linkara occasionally does this in his reviews to promote his own comic, Revolution of the Mask. However, at Power Morphicon he was trying not to draw any attention away from the actual stars of the convention and when someone else in the crowd at the Time Force panel drew attention to him he was mortified.
Ship Tease: With Marz Gurl. A lot. Only between their characters, mind you; the possibility of such a pairing in Real Life has basically been sunk with the introduction of Iron Liz, since confirmed to be Linkara's girlfriend, in the Warrior #2 and #3 video.
Shoe Phone: Linkara parodies U.S. 1's silver dollar remote control by mentioning he will show us how to stick a TV remote inside of a quarter and a gun inside of a nickel. The James Bond Jr. review had some gadgets that stretched one's Willing Suspension of Disbelief, the most important of which was the gold detector, of which there are real-life variants, but nowhere near the fictional depiction.
Shown Their Work: Quite evident when discussing comic history, or when he points out an egregious error made by the writers of a certain issue. In his Captain Planet and the Planeteers #3 Review he notes that just launching a Nuclear Bomb into space just does not work, citing that there are several problems with this, mainly that in doing it it would cause an Inferred Holocaust. He has, in response to internet responses to the errors in some of his works, given lectures on Schrödinger's Cat and the effects of a vacuum environment on a liquid; capped by the admission that we are all nerds.
Linkara: When debating, solve your disagreements not with words, but by screaming 'I AM A MAN!!!' and punching them in the guts. Allow me to demonstrate... I AM A MAN!!!!*punch*
Linkara once flung a magnet at Cable to get him to stop his awful, ellipses-ridden self-narration.
Sincerity Mode: His sudden Mood Whiplash on Cry for Justice #5 through #7 (in response to Lian Harper getting offed for no good reason) drives the point home on just how serious he is.
Singing Voice Dissonance: Despite his somewhat high and nasal speaking voice (even out of character), Lewis has a rather smooth baritone singing voice.
Uncanny X-Men #423. "OH MY GOD! ANGELO IS DEAD! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHY, CRUEL WORLD, WHY DI- wait, who's Angelo?"
And in his very first review — (Adjective-less) Spider-Man #56 — when he realizes that the Gwen Stacy clone is going to dissolve into goop. In his later commentary about his early work (where he jokes about his terrible lighting and slow line delivery back then), he says that a slow-mo Big No is always funny.
Small Name, Big Ego: The character of Linkara has a fairly inflated ego, with his bitching at his fans for their requests and having an annoyed cameo when Diamanda Hagan said he was not sexy. (Out of character, of course, Lewis is a sweetie.)
Pollo: Do you ever light that cigarette? Harvey: Shut up!
So Bad It's Good: As Linkara says, Snowflame is either the worst villain ever created or the awesomest villain ever created. He seems to have a soft spot for this trope, treating these occasions as highlights of the comics he reviews. As far as Linkara is concerned, Brute Force is the "epitome" of So Bad It's Good.
"We now interrupt our regularly scheduled piece of crap comic to show a bit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. You'll thank me later!" (From his Bimbos in Time review)
Harvey Finevoice and 90s Kid are definitely not the easily-frustrated analytical comic book nerd type, as you could probably tell from their guest reviews of Anita Blake: The Laughing Corpse #1 and #2 and Freak Force #1. Liz, while a lot closer in reviewing style to Linkara, is still definitely not "Linkara with boobs".
Space Is Cold: In his review for the Kool-Aid comic Linkara commented that the Kool-Aid Man, as a glass container filled with liquid, would freeze in space. After the somewhat insistant comments from his fans he admitted in his "Top 15 Mistakes" video that this was an error, and then went on to give a scientific explanation for the sublimation of liquids to gas in a vacuum.
Special Edition Title: The review for Star Trek #2 has a Mirror Universe version of the title sequence, with the mirror universe theme music from Enterprise in place of the usual song.
His review of the Game Boy comic has an 8-bit version of the theme.
In the Action Comics #593 review, the villain and the porn producer are talking about the possibility of making a Superman exploitation porn film - Linkara reacts by saying that The Cinema Snob should be reviewing this if that is where the comic is going. Cut to The Cinema Snob - "My Snob Senses are tingling!"
Squick: Linkara's in-universe reaction in Ultimates 3 #1 and #2 about how Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are officially a couple... who are also still Twincestbrother and sister.
"No, Wasp. It's still incredibly creepy. You don't see Superman shacking up with his mom.... BECAUSE IT'S CREEPY!"
In Amazons Attack when Artemis and Phillipus are constantly debating on what to do about an obviously insane Hippolyta: "Here's an idea: Stab your crazy queen in the head, assume command and act like Amazons!!!!!!"
Inverted in his ASBAR review, Linkara wonders they they did shoot Dick Grayson Age 12's parents rather than make it look like an accident, especially since they are so determined afterwards to pass it off as an accident.
Brought up multiple times in his review of James Bond Jr. #3 in that the villain would rather use a probably difficult to use laser to kill whoever is being threatened than a simple gun, on two occasions even. Of course, he is a James BondVillain.
Linkara notes that outside of damaging a copy of The Children's Story, the gun-carrying ninjas in Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos never fire once.
Iron Liz wonders why the chain gang in Chain Gang War #1 does not just kill the mob bosses, rather than just imprisoning them.
Linkara also wonders why Prometheus from Cry for Justice goes through a ludicrously convoluted Gambit Roulette to get his revenge on the Justice League instead of just killing their loved ones.
In his review of Sonic Live, he wonders why Robotnik didn't off Tails, Rotor, and Sally, when he just vaporized Sonic earlier in the comic.
Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard: Some variant on this phrase has been uttered several times, especially when discussing X-Men's "Holy War" storyline:
"This is quite possibly the dumbest plan I've ever heard in my life, and I've seen someone deciding to make twin clones of Hitler!"
"Holy War" is then topped by the goal of the villain in Future Five, whose goal is essentially to stop kids from going to college by planting agents to stay stuff about how college is not necessary, making himself the smartest man in the world.
Even that is eventually topped in Brain Drain, in which Dr. Doom's plan is to enhance his intelligence with stolen knowledge... taken from high schoolers.
And then Doom again tops it in Ultimates 3 / Ultimatum: He had the Scarlet Witch murdered and started a robot war that would also kill Quicksilver but not Magneto so Magneto would declare a war on humans that Doom would somehow would come out on top of in the end. And then that was topped in Return of the Asthma Monster with the monster's plan to infect everyone in the world with asthma.
Just when I think I'm done with stupid plans for world domination, they pile on another one!
Subverted Catchphrase: He's basically made it a running gag to subvert "Because poor literacy is kewl!" by swapping "kewl" for another word or phrase.
In several reviews, including Robocop vs Terminator #1, The Electric Tale of Pikachu, The Amazing Spider-Man on Bullying Prevention and The New Teen Titans Anti-Drug Giveaway, he's subverted "This comic sucks!" because said comics did not suck.
Superhero Packing Heat: Parodied with 90s Kid thinking a superhero made of guns would be awesome.
Take Our Word for It: Used word-for-word at the start of the Manimal comic review; he says he bought the comic off some guy he met in the elevator, then adds this trope because the hotel won't let them film outside their rooms.
In Sultry Teenage Super-Foxes #1 he suggests that an alchemy machine could make Hardee's into edible food.
In the Act of God review, he brings up Bill's speech about Superman from Kill Bill Vol. 2, then dismisses it with "Well, that's a load of crap."
He actually invoked this trope towards himself at Youmacon 2009. Though he was 90's Kid at the time.
In his Silent Hill: Dead/Alive review, he makes one towards L.A.
In Spider-Man: The Greatest Responsibility, a scientist mentions setting off "the world's first Virtual Reality Bomb" to which Linkara responds:
"Oh come on, we all know the world's first virtual reality bomb was the Virtual Boy! OOH ZING!"
"New Genesis is idyllic, peaceful, and good. Apokolips is basically New Jersey." (He did add a "Just kidding, New Jersey" caption afterward, but at least one NJ resident commented that the zinger was perfectly acceptable.)
The third part of his April Fools' triple feature, where Linkara did a rather thorough parody of The Irate Gamer that basically summed up every single complaint that's been made about the IG.
In Sonic: Live, when Robotnik is gloating about how sick and twisted he is, Linkara suggests that he's going to force his hostages to play |Sonic the Hedgehog 2006.
From the Silent Hill: Dying Inside review: "What has two heads, one mouth and no brains?" "Ooh! Michael Moore!"
Linkara(as Sonic): Hmmm? Oh, sorry; while you were talking about how evil you were, I rescued everybody, got something to drink, and gave you a wedgie. Linkara(as Robotnik): *shifts uncomfortably* ...so you have.
Techno Babble: Willing to call comics out for it, but also willing to use it in his videos, especially when spoken by Dr. Insano or Linksano.
—Answer, by Lord Vyce showing up and kicking his ass.
Also, his "Top 15 Comics I'll Never Review" is helmed by "Sonic the Hedgehog comics". Then he's warned that for his 100th episode, he'll have to review... a Sonic comic!
Theme Initials: How awesome a coincidence is it that a Big Name Fan comic book reviewer happens to have the initials "L.L", which are so famously associated with Superman? (Bonus: He's also a big Superman fan.)
Theme Tune Cameo: Ever since getting his own theme song he is prone to humming or singing a few lines behind the scenes.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Pointed out in his review of Spider-Man, Storm, and Cage. We already have Spider-Man and Luke Cage working to get the track star to stop smoking, and Spider-Man decides that they need a mega powerful member of the X-Men who can bring a massive storm down on your head to help them out too. As he pointed out, "Geez, overkill much, Spidey?!"
Linkara gets steadily more enraged by the Kool-Aid Man's apparent need to destroy a barrier every time he enters the scene in Adventures of the Kool-Aid Man.
Linkara: I can't wait to see the PTA meeting where they explain they have to cut funding on art and music to replace that scoreboard.
In a crossover review of the Alone in the Dark movie with Spoony and Nostalgia Critic, Jesse Ventura's character kicks a door down and then crashes through a window.
Linkara: What is with this guy and his fear of doors? Did a door kill his family?
They Changed It, Now It Sucks: While many criticized the Watchmenmovie for being too close to the source material, Linkara initially panned it in-universe for the few things they changed, like Ozymandias' plan changing from an "alien invasion" to blowing up energy reactors and framing Dr. Manhattan and his belief that the ending was more upbeat than ambiguous. However, he eventually did acknowledge that the movie was still very good despite the changes and mentions that he made the first review too soon after having seen the movie. Whenever Linkara does complain about something being changed he gives a good reason about why it sucks other than "it's different", or "they changed the status quo".
Linkara provides the page quote in reference to Bearded Idiot: At Earth's End, which is a story about how Superman fought clones of Adolf Hitler in the future. Despite the interesting conflict that this idea presented the final result was the first comic to actually be burned on the show.
In his review of JLA: Act of God Linkara remarks that the underlying plot of the story, namely every superhero in the DC universe losing their powers, is actually a very good idea and showed great promise as a story premise. However, the execution of the idea was so atrocious that this three-part series became one of the comics he decided to actually destroy on the show, shooting it with his magic gun after he finished the review.
In his review of "Law and Order he mentioned that, upon hearing the title, he thought it should have been about "Zombie Lenny Briscoe and Detective Goren. They Fight Crime!"
A staple of his reviews, but the funniest is probably when he silently raises his gun to his head after he says that the character Troll in Extreme Super Christmas Special #1 is a member of Youngblood.
In his Yu-Gi-Oh! duel with Iron Liz, he reacts this way when Iron Liz draws twoBalloon Lizards.
Film Brain: Did he just break the fourth wall? Linkara: Don't worry - we're atop it! Audience: [[[Collective Groan]]] Caption: Channel Awesome would like to apologise for that pun. The writer has been flogged for his sins
Title Sequence: Atop the Fourth Wall has an opening sequence composed of assorted clips from previous reviews combined with video of Linkara putting on his signature clothing and preparing for the review. There have been three montages created for the sequence, with the replacement using updated and newer clips that were created in the time since the first montage was produced. The sequence includes a theme-tune composed specifically for the series by Vincent E.L. and background graphics by NagyMarci. Throughout the sequence numerous comics are visible, primarily bad comics that are reviewed and featured on the show, but occasionally it will feature portions of Linkara's house that are not normally seen in the show, including his personal collection of comics (Presumably good comics). The three series displayed cover-to-camera and easily identifiable are Infinite Crisis, The Avengers and Booster Gold (Presumably the collection of Booster Gold's first series that Linkara mentioned in his Act of God review).
Too Soon: The explosion on the top of the World Trade Center in Cable #1 left Linkara with a horrified face, and whatever joke he would make was clearly skipped.
Trekkie: Has a large collection of various Starfleet uniforms, which he wears whenever he reviews something Star Trek-related (as well as in Kickassia).
However, by picking Sonic Live! as his target, he did the only thing that could please them: Tear apart one of the few things in the franchise that gets universal hatred.
Unsound Effect: Notes the "Run" sound effect in Archie Meets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Unstoppable Rage: Linkara becomes so frustrated with the video game Wolverine: Adamantium Rage that he starts shouting "Adamantium Rage!" and punching various objects including Spoony, a Kirby doll, a pillow and a can of soda...but ends up getting punched himself by The Angry Video Game Nerd.
Viewers Are Geniuses: The Star Trek: The Motion Picture review has a very subtle running gag that he decided to explain in the credits: he switches between various Trek uniforms throughout the video, all to point out how much better they all are than the ones in TMP.
Villain Sue: Calls Prometheus this during Cry for Justice, pointing that that he has a ridiculous amount of counters to every super hero he comes across, like a magic bullet for Supergirl, his bombs have the absurd ability to counter the powers of any superhero from the respective cities, even the Shade, despite Prometheus supposedly not knowing who he is because he didn't keep a database on villains/antiheroes (which Linkara points he would if he was as much of a genius as the comic makes him out to be), and easily taking the Shade down after earlier comics had raised him to "Mega badass status." As he puts it, Prometheus was made too powerful for there to be any believable way for him to be defeated, and this turns out to be true as he's defeated by Green Arrow breaking into his hideout and shooting him the head.
Vocal Evolution: His voice was a lot calmer in earlier episodes. The difference is notable even when looking at his first two episodes; in his review of Adjectiveless Spider-Man #56, he almost sounds like he is whispering so as to not disturb the neighbours. Compare that to his reaction to the letters column of Doom's IV #2 just eight days later.
The Voiceless: Ninja Style Dancer. Except in Linkara's Silent Hill-induced hallucinations.
Wangst: Played for Laughs. After his date with Telsia is abruptly cut short during Elite Force, Linkara spends several minutes drunkenly staggering around Voyager, wailing to himself and trying to get Häagen-Dazs out of the replicators.
Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma: He has pointed out several times the annoying nature of weird emphasis on words and improper use of punctuation marks, particularly in the beginning of his Secret Defenders #9 review and the Spoony Crossover Warrior #1 video, as well as his reviews of Zero Patrol and The Dark Knight Strikes Again.
Watsonian Versus Doylist: He falls under Doylist a lot of the time when justifications are poor.
With Peter Parker being married to Mary Jane, he calls on the writers for including pointless scenes of her since then, and making her say stupid things.
Waxing Lyrical: He does this a lot. Examples he has quoted include The Beatles' "I Am the Walrus", Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", Avril Lavigne's "Complicated," Eagle-Eye Cherry's "Save Tonight," The Bee Gees' "Staying Alive," Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)," and Nickelback's "How You Remind Me." In his final Silent Hill Dead/Alive review, the book from the Other World is full of quotes from Coldplay's "42" in a rather angsty use of this trope.
Dual-Wielding/Sword and Gun: He occasionally mixes things up by having the pistol in one hand and the Green Ranger's Dragon Dagger in the other; when using the dagger on its own he can play it like a flute, making it shoot green lightning. He later starts using Saba instead of the Dragon Dagger on occasion when fighting Silent Hill a second time.
"Meet Lian Harper... Or rather... Lian Harper's corpse."
What an Idiot!: Linkara points out in-universe that the best solution two scientists can think of to restrain an easily manipulable, Nigh Invulnerable super robot is to chain him up rather than disassembling him or fortifying him against enemy radio signals.
What Happened to the Mouse?: In the stinger for Superman and Wonder Woman: Tandy Computer Whiz Kids, he notes that the jumbotron and train derail in the comic's teaser has absolutely no bearing on the actual plot.
What the Hell, Hero?: Linkara gives one to Superman when he insults Big Barda for having heavy makeup after she has spent two days being mind-controlled and possibly raped.
He gives even more to the Man of Steel in Superman #701, particularly for making a little boy deliver a warning to a gang he just pissed off.
A Wizard Did It: "What part of 'it's magic' don't you understand?!?"
Also complained about in Superman: Distant Fires review. There's "Magic as a Wonderful Force", and "Narrative Magic." Linkara likes the former, hates the latter. As the latter is often just used for lazy writing.
Wolverine Publicity: Outside of the Brawl and even his "Previously On..." segments, Linkara has cameoed with the Nostalgia Critic, the Spoony One, Benzaie, Bennett the Sage, MarzGurl, Lee and so on. The Nostalgia Critic appears to be making a Running Gag out of reacting negatively to his appearances. Played with and lampshaded in the Sultry Teenage Super-Foxes #2 review with the appearance of Mechakara, despite said character having been defeated more than a month ago.
Linkara: Want me to do anything else? Phil: Nope. Now you can just promote this video on Twitter, post it on your blog, talk about it on the forums...your coattails have been rode.
Xtreme Kool Letterz: Linkara frequently bashes this practice in comics. "Because poor literacy is kewl!"
You Are Fat: This makes up roughly half of the (cursed) Mightily Murdered Power Ringers comic's insults toward Linkara. Linkara doesn't deny it, but he's not fazed by it, either.
You Are Not Alone: Used in the showdown with Mechakara when 90s Kid, The Ninja Style Dancer and Harvey Finevoice show up to help. Subverted when they are not much help and they run away.
You Bastard: The last Ultimates 3 review has a rant about how the audience is to blame for the comic being created...delivered by Mechakara.
Year Inside, Hour Outside: Lord Vyce's dimension goes through just three days during a month in our world.
Yet Another Christmas Carol: Defied Trope; Linkara refuses to do this, but he does a great parody of Dickens' classic for his Christmas special review. Complete with what looks like Mechakara as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and Pollo saying that the "Day of reckoning is at hand."
You do not need Linkara to tell you that "arrogance" gets thrown around a lot in Act of God, as well as references to the DC heroes being "gods" themselves.
He also consistently incorrectly uses the word "subsequently" where it does not really apply.
He quickly becomes annoyed at the poorly-defined overuse of the word "Justice" throughout the Cry for Justice miniseries. Early in the review he speculated that the fact they were blatantly just after revenge and calling it justice would be an obvious plot point, but it is never acknowledged in the comic.
You Need to Get Laid: Inverted Trope in his review of Ultimates 3, Linkara is convinced that things with the Ultimates would probably be going better if they STOPPED getting laid, as it never seems to go well for members of the team.
