Welcome to Atop the Fourth Wall, where bad comics burn. In this episode, Linkara looks at the second issue of an awful Elseworlds story of Catwoman as Batman!
atopthefourthwa...
Originally uploaded August 27th, 2012.
ORIGINAL INFO: The dark, haunting tale of a woman and her improbable physique!
RUMINATIONS: This is one of the few times that the Previously On segment was scripted and I really like how it turned out - the idea that the Previously On segment, since it was already made up of nonsensical things that never happened on the show, could have reruns on it was a silly idea that I decided to go with it. I will say that I had people in mind that ended up not being used. For example, Nella’s bit was actually originally written for the Blockbuster Buster, but he didn’t get back to me in time for it. JesuOtaku’s bit was written for someone else, as well, although I can’t remember who. I think I was channeling Phelous a lot for the fourth-wall breaking, which is why it worked so well for him to show up like he did.
The idea for Linkara turning evil actually first came to me during the filming of Suburban Knights. We pointed out to each other while we were filming that our characters… well… were kind of assholes. I think part of that might be a weakness in Doug’s writing style - he believes all comedy derives from misery in one way or another, so it’s easy to write the characters as hurling insults at one another in order to make jokes, that mockery can be humorous. The thing is that that sort of thing needs to be done in moderation and if EVERYBODY’S a jerk, why should we care what happens to them? And thus once I dropped the “jealous girlfriend” idea of the storyline with the magic gun, I developed the “maybe Linkara is actually becoming a prick” thing. I deliberately put in him threatening people who irritated him with his spaceship to let power go to his head a bit, I let him become a bit more uncaring. I forgot to put in the violent threats he made against Insano, but the idea is there. Maybe him going overboard with 90s Kid was a bit too much, but you’d be pretty pissed about such a blatantly dumb thing to do, as well. It also helped explain his more dictatorial attitude in Kickassia and how boastful he was as the “liberator” of it. It’s okay to be boastful and have moments of triumph… but it’s also easy to let that sort of thing go to your head.
Many people have figured out contradictions in the idea of “magic can only be used for good,” and that’s a good thing - that means you’re paying attention. There’s more to the story, it’s just not something I felt needed to be explored at this time, but really the rule was just set up to explain why in this world you didn’t regularly see wizards and crap trying to take over the world.