In anticipation to the upcoming anniversary, I think it’s fair to give a shout-out to the inspirations for my style of reviews.
Some of which are no longer active, some I no longer follow, and some don’t even have anything to do with comics.
I will try my best to order them based on when I started following them.
Avengers Assemble!
Platform: independent site
Link: formerly www.avengersassemble.us, now archived
Active: 1995-2008
Status: defunct
Subject: Avengers comics
General influence: this was one of the first sites I ever followed. While a great general resource in general, what still inspires me were the amazing retrospectives on Ultron (17 parts) and Kang (39 parts), going through chronological order for all their early appearances, examining their evolution and making sense of their continuity… not an easy task for Kang.
Direct influence: The Doctor Doom retrospective owes A LOT to this approach. And there are a couple of villain-specific retrospectives that I have in mind that will be directly inspired by this.
Unca Cheeks Silver Age Comics Site
Platform: Geocities
Link: the original Geocities site is long dead, but some of it has been archived
Active: circa 2000 to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Status: defunct
Subject: comics
General influence: where I discovered most of the Silver Age insanity, especially for DC Comics. To this day I consider these review some of the funniest things I have ever read in my entire life, and I credit them for most of my passion for the craziest side of the Silver Age. I’m very saddened by its disappearance and the fact that most of it has not been preserved.
Direct influence: a big reason for the existence of the Lois Lane, Dial H and especially Metal Men retrospectives, since this site was where I discovered all of them.
Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog
Platform: blog
Link: The site I used to follow was the-isb.blogspot.com/ which is still around but not updated anymore; the new version is at www.the-isb.com/
Status: the original version was from 2005 to 2007. The new version is still running.
Subject: comics
General influence: made me discover a lot of Silver Age insanity, and Chris’s sense of humor is similar enough to mine that I might have stolen a couple of jokes without realizing it.
Also a major factor in helping me define what Silver-Ageness is comes from one of his reviews. Specifically from reviewing an all-ages book featuring Krypto facing the dogs of General Zod and his henchmen… and appropriately, the dog of his mute henchman Nod was the only one who didn’t speak.
Chris defined the Silver Age as “When you ask yourself, why isn’t the dog talking?”. ‘Nuff Said.
(I can’t identify what issue it was, though)
He’s still active on other platforms but I haven’t followed him in quite a while.
You might have seen his work on ComicsAlliance and he’s had appearances as “the World’s Foremost Batmanologist” on the Daily Show and CNN, plus he’s written a few comics too.
Direct influence: the OTHER half of why I did the Jimmy Olsen retrospective, plus a big reason for the Lois Lane one.
Superdickery 
Platform: independent site
Link: superdickery.com is no longer active. There is an archive version though, as well as some history of the site.
Active: 2004-2019
Status: no longer updating
Subject: comic panels & covers
General influence: probably the most well-known site of its kind, when it was at the height of its popularity. To the point that I believe most of the mainstream Internet knowledge of Silver Age silliness comes from this, directly or not. When I discovered it, I had already read MOST of the Silver Age moments covered, but not all.
While Superdickery does have a lot of funny moments, it kind of inspired me to do the OPPOSITE of what they did. Most of its humor derived from showing silly Silver Age covers and panels without giving the context for it, on the assumption that it makes them funnier. And while it’s sometimes true, I truly believe that knowing the context mostly makes them MORE insane… so I decided to give a fair review of these moments AND making fun of them.
Direct influence: the Pink Kryptonite deep dive attempts to undo some of the damages caused by Superdickery.
Atop The Fourth Wall
Platform: YouTube
Link: https://www.youtube.com/@AT4W/videos
Active: 2008-today
Status: active
Subject: comic reviews
General influence: Linkara is one of the oldest comic book video reviewers still around. Definitely more DC oriented than Marvel; I have disagreements about some of his tastes, but the passion for comics is undeniable, as well as the consistent schedule. With the exceptions of his occasional deep dives that tend to be VERY detailed, a lot of the one-off reviews don’t really go in the specifics of continuity. So the inspiration was to do something similar but really go in the details, sort of an “inside baseball” version of his (generally) more mainstream look at comics.
Direct influence: he was kind enough to retweet some of my earliest reviews, so it’s possible someone discovered me through him.
The “Sure glad I don’t look stupid” meme from MST3K that I sometimes use is also a reference to this show, as it’s one of Linkara’s recurrent memes. The Hero Origins retrospective is partially inspired by his annual Secret Origins Month, and the Supergirl retrospective is heavily inspired by his review of her first appearance.
SFDebris
Platform: independent site
Link: https://sfdebris.com/
Active: 2008-today
Status: active
Subject: science fiction reviews; only occasionally comics
General influence: if you’re into science fiction series and movies, especially Star Trek, Chuck’s SFDebris should be your gold standard for how to do reviews.
He occasionally reviews comic books as well; while they’re not really as influential to me as his Star Trek reviews, I highly recommend his masterpiece “Rise and fall of the comic empire” examining the 90s comic book crash, and his ongoing “Incredible” series recapping the history of the Hulk.
Direct influence: the structure of a recap first and scoring/commentary at the end, but more importantly my “Historical significance” score is partially based on his “Recommended” score. He’s also the direct inspiration of the “Stupid Jimmy Olsen moment” and “Stupid Lois Lane moment”, which are directly ripped off his “Stupid Neelix moment” from his Star Trek Voyager reviews. He has series-specific “awards” (like “Burn baby burn” when a shuttle is destroyed or “Brahma of the week” when a character miraculously creates life), which are the inspiration for my series-specific counters. Although SFDebris just counts the awards and doesn’t keep track of how many times it’s been given, since most series are not reviewed in chronological order.
SuperMegaMonkey’s Comics Chronology
Platform: independent site
Link: https://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/
Active: 2013-2021
Status: no longer updating
Subject: comic reviews
General influence: the site had the goal of figuring out the chronological placement of EVERY Marvel story, and it evolved into including reviews. Sadly it stopped after reaching 1997.
In addition to being a great resource for the chronological placement of many stories, and a great read in general, it also showed me that there WAS a market for a deep dive of comic book minutiae.
Direct influence: my scoring system is mostly based on how SuperMegaMonkey does it, although the used an A to D scale. Plus there’s the Dazzler retrospective: I read their reviews of the series before I had read it, and both the “Go for it!” and “underwear shot” counters are based on him highlighting how many times the catchphrase and the fanservice happen. Also, I think I’ve recognized among my readers some of the people that used to comment on his site.
The above were influences when I started the site. But there are a couple that I discovered only AFTER I started, but who nevertheless had enough impact to deserve a mention.
Casually Comics
Platform: YouTube
Link: https://www.youtube.com/@CasuallyComics
Active: 2019-today
Status: active
Subject: comic books
General influence: Sasha covers a wide range of comics, some of which I’ve reviewed; her Lois Lane and Supergirl reviews are especially hilarious, and she brings up some points and jokes I hadn’t thought of when reviewing them myself. She has an interesting perspective: unlike most other reviewers that tend to look through the lens of a specific period (typically most reviewers are either “Old comics suck” or “Comics nowadays suck”), she has a refreshingly balanced view of all eras.
She’s also one of the most accurate ones when it comes to old stories: she’s the ONLY reviewer I have seen that took the time to get the real story behind Pink Kryptonite.
Direct influence: I don’t think she has directly influenced a specific review, but her channel is my way of keeping an eye of what’s going on at DC Comics since I barely follow anything. And I also try to keep a balanced look at both old and new comics, and I like to see I’m not the only one.
Quinton Reviews
Platform: YouTube
Link: https://www.youtube.com/@QuintonReviews
Active: 2013-today
Status: active
Subject: various
General influence: this is a real wildcard for me. I picked up his channel as background noise when working from home, mostly because of the insanely long analysis on ICarly and adjacent sitcoms. And despite the fact that A) I have never watched any of the series he talks about B) I don’t even find them interesting… he’s just too funny and captivating to stop listening.
Direct influence: the use of “Intermissions” to break up the pace was inspired by him placing these segments in his videos. He also goes WAY into the details and nitpicks of EVERYTHING, making him one of the most thorough reviewers I’ve ever come across. And even if what he reviews doesn’t intersect with my interests at all, that’s really inspiring!
Comic Tropes
Platform: YouTube
Link: https://www.youtube.com/@ComicTropes
Active: 2016-today
Status: active
Subject: comics
General influence: in my opinion Chris is the best YouTuber that covers comics, even if he’s not as prolific as I wish he was. Whether he’s talking about the history of a character or of a creator, or he’s analyzing the themes or artwork or layout of a specific issue, he gives some of the most professional insight I’ve found while also being very funny when the moment calls for it. He’s even been a “real life superhero” at one point.
Direct influence: he provides some of the best analysis of obscure Golden Age characters, so he’s been an inspiration for the Hero Origins retrospective.
“Doom’s Day Has Come!” by Roarian
Platform: thread on the Sufficient Velocity forum
Link: “Doom’s Day Has Come!
Active: 2018-today
Status: active
Subject: Doctor Doom retrospective
General influence: exactly like I do, he reviews every single Doctor Doom story. He goes WAY deeper than me in the summary, but he keeps similar scores and he’s already covered several alternate versions I haven’t done yet. He’s also done April Fools reviews covering things that SOUND related to Doom but aren’t. If you’re a fan of my Doom retrospective, chances are you’ll like his too.
Direct influence: at least once I’ve had to retroactively cover a Doom story that I had skipped because I saw HIM do it! He’s way behind me right now, so in the future expect me to return to a story I skipped because of him.
RetroMarvelMan
Platform: YouTube
Link: https://www.youtube.com/@retromarvelman
Active: 2020-today
Status: active
Subject: comic reviews
General influence: he deserves way more attention. A British reviewer, he’s done a deep retrospective on the history of Captain Britain as well as looking through series like Marvel Team-Up. I really hope he grows his audience because he’s very informative, funny and wholesome.
Direct influence: his explanation of how American comics were reprinted in the UK was a partial inspiration for the Anniversary Countdown. Plus his work will really help me once I get to Captain Britain in the Hero Origins!
Should you end up following any of these creators, don’t forget to comment that I sent you!