SCI-Spy #5 - Atop the Fourth Wall

Welcome to Atop the Fourth Wall, where bad comics burn. In this episode, Linkara looks at the fifth issue of SCI-Spy!
atopthefourthwa...
Originally uploaded April 7th, 2014.
ORIGINAL INFO: Remember when SCI-Spy was about spy stuff? Yeah, I don’t either.
RUMINATIONS: This episode was a bit of a harsh lesson for me on two fronts. I probably should have seen it coming on both, but it was a huge example of the problems I face with this job when trying to keep doing something for so long. The first issue was that, due to an error in scheduling the video on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses, it didn’t appear until Tuesday. Why was that an issue? Well, the sad fact is that the majority of my video traffic comes from TGWTG (or rather now Channel Awesome), so when a video doesn’t go up there, I get a significantly less amount of views on a new video. And if it’s not where it should be for people, not seen at its regular time… people don’t stick around to see if it’s there the next day. And that’s what happened - it got posted on Tuesday, instead… and the numbers were not where they should have been for a new episode. If I don’t get my video out every week, when it’s supposed to be, it breaks people’s routines. This reinforced more than ever that I needed to get videos on my own site. People weren’t going to Blip to see if the video was there, so I needed a place where I could control when and where a video went up (it helps a little, but not all THAT much, sadly).
The second front was that, even assuming people did come back the next day… they weren’t really into SCI-Spy. Or, well, any bizarre little independent thing. Viewership for episodes like this is always less than, say, for All-Star Batman and Robin. It’s a sad fact that disappoints me considerably, since it’s not like I put in less effort on any episode - I’m always trying my damndest to put out funny videos for people, to try to wring as much humor out of the material as I can. While there are episodes that can be skipped for lacking plot, I don’t think I’ve produced a single bad episode of the show ever. Sure, there are less watchable ones (especially earlier ones, since the timing is a bit off and the quality isn’t where it should be), but when it comes to episodes with bad scripts or unfunny episodes? Hardly. I want people to watch every episode - not just because of money or the like, but because I’m always trying to entertain, and I wouldn’t keep coming back to the well for episodes like the SCI-Spy reviews if I didn’t think there was entertainment value.

[@shadowspider9]

This is actually part of why I hate Man of Steel. It acts like Superman has some kind of deep bond to Krypton because it's where he was born, but since he never actually lived there he should have no emotional connection to it what so ever, beyond feeling bad that it was destroyed at all.

[@Alex-fn2hl]

Steven Universe does that right!

[@ollien3598]

How do you screw up "James Bond in Space"?

[@calvinallen3424]

Olive N Moonraker did it.

[@Grim_Sister]

This comics found a way

[@kylesmith1065]

Sebastian star-child is the perfect combination of super-man and bat-man so we should call him man-man

[@MTdaBlacking]

"Why didn't Man-Man formulate a plan to beat the aliens? Is he stupid?"

[@arbiter11171]

Why didn't they send more tesseract robots with more people and droids and ammo?? In fact, why didn't their ship at the beginning have even more guns?? They could have had a thousand antimatter missiles stashed in starchild's rectum!!! (to get past alien TSA of course).

[@SpeedyEric1]

2:16 to 2:25- "Under My Skin" was later used in the opening scene of "Batman: Arkham Knight."

[@SuperSonicHillZone]

Well, that explains the lady from the front cover. At around the 17:00 mark she's part of the army inside the Nile android and right next to Starchild shooting the aliens. There, oddity explained.

[@cpcoultertweedles7216]

My big question with the whole Agent Niles twist is why they went to the effort of making it look and act like Agent Niles. Sure, if the aliens were expecting Agent Niles to be one of the people trying to take them down, it would work very well. But they had no clue who Agent Niles was. Which means that the technicians went to the effort of making an android that looked and acted exactly like their agent and who had TARDIS space inside, which must have been rather time consuming and expensive, only to send it on a mission where it would most likely get destroyed, for no reason at all.

[@MyMagnificentOctopus]

Did the aliens borrow their flying things from the New Gods? What is it with comic book writers that they imagine some sort of foot pad and handle bar flying machine is better than say a small plane? Or a jet pack?

[@OnDavidsBrain]

Well, I was right SCI-Spy is nowhere near as bad as Avengers #200. But that doesn't mean this isn't garbage. Thankfully we only have one more issue of this tripe and like Marville we will never have to see this crap again.

[@eugenideddis]

Well the problem with Avengers #200 is it's insulting to characters we respect, people in general, and as a special issue. This is just stupid, and on issue 5, we already have no standards for this.

[@xavier8951]

+Eugenideddis You mean expectations, right? Not standards.

[@kpopninja]

First Nova Girls, then Avengers #200, now this?! Quick! We need 10 cc of Titans stat! This man is suffocating in printed crap!

[@sesfilmsllc]

It's like a sexier version of a clown car.

[@DanteSolablood]

The only issue I have is that the soldiers could have exited the Nile-TARDIS much like the Master has done when disguising his TARDIS as something small (Classic Who). While from our perspective the soldiers are walking out a small hole in Nile's' chest - from their perspective they are probably walking out a large doorway. In fact the Doctor traps the Master out of his TARDIS at one point by sabotaging the device which allows this dissonance. Either way, as usual you're spot on with your criticisms Linkara, now I'm going out for a Subway sandwich. EDIT: Watches the video a second time & notices the curly headed girl holding the "hole" in Nile-TARDIS' chest open with her hand. "-facepalm-*

[@bwminich]

The future really is dumb.

[@Merit2397]

What I find so damn funny about Linkara's rant about not reviewing good comics and how he claims that plenty of people already do that to promote them, is that the very next year he would start doing patron sponsored reviews that WOULD actually lead to reviews about good comics. Add on his retrospectives about underrated Marvel and DC characters and, yeah, I'd say he's doing plenty to promote good comics these days.

[@New3DSLuigi364]

@5:45-5:48 Patton: YOU MAGNIFICENT B@$7@rD, I read your BOOK!!!!!!!!!

[@FNGLHR]

Tomorrow closes out creepy fetish week with Starfire: The Nymphomania Alien Goldfish... or Red Hood and the Outlaws, whatever. By the way, I'm now starting to realize why you hated this year. Everything just kept going wrong behind the scenes. At least the quality never suffered. Rest assured though, I always checked up on your blog or blip site first, just in case it went up early. So whatever revenue you lost from the first day of uploading with this one it wasn't from me.

[@andreworders7305]

The ship looks more like it’s built from a forest than a city

[@jeremyneill227]

Nobody knows how to write spy fiction anymore...

[@bloodstoneore4630]

hey, you keep your stuff on earth too?!

[@psychonaut1502]

Does anyone notice that the girl's hair keeps changing? Sometimes it's blonde, sometimes it's white.

[@fireruby544]

I can attest (I don't actually know how to spell that word, sorry if I got it wrong) to having Star child leave at about 3 or 4 instead because that's pretty much what happened to me. My father is from Canada, my mother is from Australia. They met on an internet forum in the late 90's, developed a close relationship and eventually my dad came to Australia to see my mom in person, they got married a short time later, and I was born a less than a year later. My brother was also born in Australia, He was born in 2002 and I was born in 1999. In 2004, we left and I've been growing up in Canada ever since. I was 4 years old when we left Australia and my brother was almost 2. The difference between our attachments to Australia is clear. It works if Star child was me in that scenario, but instead, he's my brother. I have a couple of reasons to miss it. My brother, or rather, Starchild, does not.

[@Tareltonlives]

Please tell me Moench isn't writing anymore

[@prime__name5715]

Review Diesel! The JoJo-est comic ever made! One might even say it is a ripoff! ...which it is!

[@Necrikus]

I doubt he knows anything about JoJo though so it'd just be a disappointment when he knows nothing about the source material Diesel is ripping off. He can't compare and contrast, make jokes based on the fact that it is plagiarism, or just show off any basic knowledge of JoJo or the jokes related to it. I say he actually reviews Stardust Crusaders and then goes onto Diesel.

[@KyanbuXM]

Well... Ok then... That was kind of clever?

[@gilbertotabares8196]

Louie, why do ya put yerself through this kid? comics of this quality can't be good for ya

[@1rhpsfan]

No we have gone past plaid, it's like having EDM Strobe Lights flashing right in front of your face, blinding you with stupid.

[@anomyn2249]

Please review Avengers Arena!!

[@MrEmpoleon2010]

This comic is totally kleenex

[@islamroks11]

Sewing machine!

[@shadowspider9]

I disagree. I think it's very possible to feel sad as well as mad about the destruction of the place you know you where born and lived in, even if you only lived there for a short time. Sure you wouldn't have any memories of it but it still has some symbolic meaning that that was were you your life started. Hell. You could just make it that Starchild is pissed at the aliens for destroying earth in general and killing millions.

[@nvfury13]

As to the jump rant "subway thighs", watch some people doing scateboard jumps...*whistles while waiting* Welcome back! Notice that thier bodies do *that exact thing* her body did?

[@henrygvidonas9573]

She's falling, not jumping. Nobody falls like that.

[@nathanthompson4613]

Starchild is an awesome character because he’s in a comic book. What more could you possibly want?

[@butchdeadlift10]

This makes more sense after seeing Barberrella............I take that back, but do see Baberella