Anonymous writes...

Will you tell me who Roy Harper's biological parents were? Also when they die?

Sentel writes...

In the earth 16 universe, is it safe to assume that Greta Hayes "crossed over" after the capture of her brother in the episode Secrets. Or does she still haunt the earth?

Anonymous writes...

Was Artemis considered or voted on for League membership in Agendas? Red Arrow, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin, Superboy, Miss Martian, Zatanna and Rocket all came up during the conversation, but not Artemis, and I couldn't find her hologram in the voting scene.

Marcus writes...

Hi, Greg! I have a few YJ questions.
1 - How does Mr. freeze sleep at night? Does he put a pillow in his dome? Does he freeze one in out of ice? Does he have a special freezer cell?
2 - When did Killer Frost become a villain?
3 - Did the Kroloteans Miss Martian blanked ever get better? The one Martian Manhunter was interrogating seemed decent enough.
4 - What is the nature of the Greek gods on Earth-16? Its been established they exist, but are they actual gods or 'just' powerful entities, like the New Gods?
5 - How did Doctor Fate react to Wally's death? Kent Nelson stuck around.

Anonymous writes...

If wally did not believe in magic prior to his experience with Fate's helmet, thant what did he think of Zatara, a well known magic-based hero and teamate of his mentor? Did he assume Zatara was a fake and a liar?
Did he and Barry never have a conversation about magic, and how Barry saw it with his own eyes being a teamate of Zatara's? And if Barry did tell him it was real, why wouldnt Wally believe him?

Alexia writes...

1. Can Atlanteans perspire underwater?
2. How do Atlanteans keep themselves clean underwater if it's hard to take a shower when you're essentially... already in the water? Do they use seaweed scrubs or other special grooming products?
3. Did Aqualad take showers when he was on the surface or was he not used to it? I imagine the Team doing team building exercises in the cave during their spare time and then breaking off to take showers after their work out before re-grouping in the kitchen area for snacks.

hmmaster writes...

Hey, Greg, what an amazing show in Young Justice. I have a couple of questions for you.

1) I was hoping you could comment on this, because you've answered variations of this question at different times, but never this specific one. I thought of an idea that would make a lot of sense for where a certain character's situation would go after the events of Summit and Endgame, but I won't share it with you to avoid getting a spoiler. You've talked in interviews/answers before about Roy and Jade having to get married off-screen in order for CN to approve Lian being born. Were there any story-lines of similar controversial topics that you and Brandon had planned that could have created tensions between you and the network?

2) I recently rewatched JLU, specifically JLU's season 1, and I noticed a striking similarity in the way the format works there and the masterfully-crafted interwoven network of plot-lines of YJ. It seemed like you may have been inspired by that format where there were several stories being told all at the same time, as opposed to other shows that have a more episodic nature (like the first JL cartoon, before JLU). Was it a conscious decision to draw heavily from that idea, or was it something that just happened independently?

Thank you for a wonderful show.

Agent P writes...

Have any of the heroes fall into depression because of how great of a threat their enemies seem to be for him, becoming too much from them to handle, asking themselves if they could ever truly "beat" them?

Or what if they ever pondered whether or not a villain deserved to be killed for doing such unspeakably horrible acts, some which they've failed to prevent, and the villain will likely never reform?

For example, the Light has been around for a long time, has the League or the Team ever worried or dwelled on the possibility that they may not live to see The Light stopped for good?

B writes...

I was watching the Justice League Unlimited episode "Fearful Symmetry aka Galatea" recently, and Martian Manhunter told Supergirl that he doesn't dream, which made me wonder: do Martians dream in Earth-16? I know they do in at least some versions of the comics continuity, since Morpheus appears to Martian Manhunter as the Martian god of dreams in The Sandman, and J'onn discusses weird dreams with Batman and Superman at Morpheus's wake.

Ben writes...

I just have a quick question about Rain of the Ghosts. I was wondering if there are currently any plans to release it in a hardbound version or if that is currently not an option? I for one would really like to have it in that format. While we're at it getting the Gargoyles and Young Justice graphic novels released in hardbound form would be great too, but I understand that would probably be a bit more problematic. At any rate thanks for the entertaining stories and please keep up the good work.

A Flash Fan writes...

Hi Greg,

On a slightly different note...

1. Do you watch/like the TV series "The Big Bang Theory"?

2. As you may know (if you've seen or heard about the show) some scenes in some episodes take place in a comic book store. Now I am not that much of a regular viewer but one time in an episode in the comic book store in the background on the racks was a copy of one of the Young Justice comic books! It must have been from a while back because I believe it was either issue #0 or #2. So I'm sorry I don't know the exactness but if I find out I'd let you know (or do you already know?)

3. I ask because I wonder if you are in some entitled to something because your comic book appeared on a TV show. Do you know if there should be some sort of payment or recognition for people whose work appears in such a manner due to copyright material?

4. Do you know or would you know someplace I could be directed about copyright issues? Like say I want to use the Flash in a comic strip; some people would say it's fine, but does credit need to be given to DC Comics or do I have to get permission from DC to use him? Or say I want to take a clip of the Flash from one of the YJ episodes; again should DC be consulted? Do you think the same thing would go for stores?

5. What's been your experience with issues like these? Say you might have wanted in one of your shows for characters to enter a Starbucks; do you have to ask permission from said company first?

Thanks a lot Greg!

Singlesynapsetheory writes...

Greg,

Hello from Australia. I have been eagerly waiting for questions to open again.

I'm a 26 year old female, who has been an avid fan of DC comics for a long time now. I've read all of Teen Titans, The Flash (Wally west run), Justice league, and basically any tie in I could find that included Wally West.

I was really saddened when finding out West was no longer part of DC (although, looks like I don't have to suffer any longer). Your show was the perfect way for me to revisit the reasons I love DC so much.

I think my favourite part of the show is it's incredible maturity. I have read people complain about the way Wally and Dick have dealt with things (particularly, their argument) but, honestly, I saw it as a very adult conversation. Adult, obviously doesn't mean mature (what adults can say they are always logical and mature?), but what I mean is, I could see this as a real conversation that people would have. I love the complexity of the characters and just how real everything is. This was a show I could watch, analyse and really enjoy.

I also think it was so great that you didn't follow the pairings of the comics. Again, people have complained about this, but honestly, who wants to watch something, knowing already what's going to happen? Why would I bother reading a novel, watching a movie, or a tv show, if I already knew half of what was going to eventuate? I also thought the pairings made sense, and the complexities of them brought real issues of identity and what a relationship means, to the table.

I think kids these days need shows like this that are real and mature and don't treat kids as stupid.

Anyway, no questions for you this time! I really see nothing from the show that needs questioning! Just praise!

Hope you had a nice start to the new year.

Kind Regards,
Jessica from Australia

simone writes...

Do you think if I call cartoon network on a regular and complain about how unfair they are for taking down YJ before we was able to have a 3rd/4th/5th season but yet they have all these other shows like bakugan still coming on.? Im not trying to down play them but seriously. ?! Why that play all the time but yet there is never a rerun of YJ .?? It came on on Saturday and Sunday morning. ..that's it.! I wouldn't blame the ratings if its so low.. who really wakes up at 8 or 9 to watch that show (could have came on at 10, not sure since it been so long) unless they know it was going to play that time.?

And that's another thing.. how is anybody suppose to know is there was gonna be another season if y'all don't advertise it.? I realized that y'all didn't do that for the 2nd season or if you was gonna have one (unless I looked it up on Google or something). There was times were I didn't know if a show was coming on that Saturday morning and I would have woke up for nothing ... just upset and sad.. I think that's another reason why y'all did not have that many ratings... we never really knew when it would come on unless we look it up. Please answer ... I really wanna know

Anonymous writes...

hi greg quick question ive just watched justice league war and I noticed some of the characters (T.O. Morrow Dr. Serling Roquette) have a striking resemblance to your own in young justice designs, his has also happened in the past in flashpoint paradox with kaldur, garath and tula.

so my question is

1) Do Dc just take your staffs work/designs since they own the characters or is it stored on some archive other projects can have access to.

2) also do you get some say in the matter? or compensation for the use of your work?

3) since dc seems to like copying your work so much why are they so reluctant to do a direct to dvd film to finish of young justice?

I hope you are allowed to answer and thank you in advance if you do

fallenlegend writes...

Hello Greg!

Just a quick question this time. The other time I asked you something about gargoyles and you said that you wouldn't write it for free... wich came as a bit of a shock to me as you have said before that it is your baby proyect.

It's understandable as this is your job and main source of income... But I have to wonder if you would ever have or if you have a personal proyect wich you would do for free.

You deserve every cent you get paid but.. Many (amateur/fanfic) writters write stories for fun and I wonder if this is the case with you. thank you!

Anonymous writes...

Hey, there! Big "Young Justice" fan here, but there are some things that I would like to better understand about it.

1. You mentioned out of all of M'gann's siblings, she had one brother who was a White Martian. Just out of curiosity, is he her older brother, younger brother, or her twin brother?

2. One question that has bugged me for a while is what exactly motivated Superman to start talking to Superboy at the end of "Auld Acquaintance"? Now I understand that he had begun to at least try to get to know Conner at least since the events of "Players" (in Team Year Zero), but "Auld Acquaintance" was the first time we really saw him open up to him and it kind of seemed out of nowhere. So what I would like to know is what exactly gave him that push to finally start reaching out to Conner?

Jack Johnson writes...

Hi Greg,

I actually have two questions. First, since Wally and Artemis were living together at the start of season 2, can it be implied that they were in a sexual relationship or were they just saving money by doing something that, in the 21st century, makes a fairly good deal of economic sense for two intimate friends to do? Second, when Dick and Zatanna broke up, was it a consensual decision that they just didn't romantically like each other anymore, or was it more serious?

Uehara writes...

Have you watched Neon Genesis Evangelion? I was just struck by a lot of similarities Superboy had to the Clone Rei Ayanami, the white outfit, the alien/human hybrid, labeled inferior by others because of his clone status, the manipulation by a equivalent of a father figure to further his goals and the moon motif. But I'm pretty sure Lex still is a better father figure than Gendo Ikari.

A writes...

Hey Greg! I was wondering:

1) How does parental consent work with underage members of the Team/League (I know it was briefly mentioned in the tie-in comics)?

2) Now that the Team is lead by its senior members, is it their job to recruit new members (and do things like getting parental consent, doing background checks, ect...), or is that the league's responsibility? Or is it kind of a mutual consent thing between the Team leader and League leader?

Thanks for taking your time to answer these questions, really appriciate it!

Lorisa214 writes...

Hello Greg!
1) Does the light still have Roy's arm?
2) Why can't the JL grow Roy a new arm?
3) Why did the light keep Original Roy alive after 5+ years? I mean, why not dispose of him?
4) Was Roy taken because opportunity presented itself, so The Light took him? Could it have just as easily been Wally, or Dick?
5) Which Roy had to gets a new SIN?

Abby writes...

Thanks for taking questions! Young Justice is great.
1. Given that Wally knows Dick's secret identity, does the Flash know? How many members of the League know who Batman is?
2. Who else on the team knows the dynamic duo's identities?
3. Did Dick have permission to tell Wally his secret identity?

Anonymous writes...

Hi Greg! Just finished YJ:L and collected all the Roy Journal entries. Very heartfelt. It's so much easier to read, though, knowing how thing turned out for him. Anyway, just have a few questions regarding him and/or Cheshire. Sorry if some of these are better left up to interpretation, but I'd really like an answer if you can.
1. Did Cheshire immediately accept Roy after he decided to "throw the fight"? Roy mentions working together in the next entry, but I was just wondering if he had to do much to gain her trust, or if she was already able to trust him.
2. Did Cheshire plan to betray the League of Shadows, or did she have to decide on the spur of the moment?
3. Were they officially dating before they "tied the knot" or did they rush into marriage?
4. Do you regret not showing any of their adventures, or do you think they're better left up to the imagination?
5. Do you regret not giving the two a reciprocated on-screen kiss?

Darksuperboy writes...

Hi greg big fan of the show

did you know YOUNG JUSTICE just placed 5th in tvs.com Best "Kid" Animated Series of 2013. if yes how do you feel about it? if not then congratulations you and your team managed to beat star wars clone wars and legend of korra. and if it wasn't for some hacking from MLP fans you might of placed higher. How do you feel about that?

I hope this helps with getting support for season 3 or at least a dvd film to finish the story, since it was such an amazing show.

keep up the great work

Anon writes...

Were there any Young Justice scenes that were ever cut out for time?

Zer0C00l writes...

Greg! What's going on, man? Happy New Year and all that good stuff. Before I say what I say... please let it be known that I'm not trying to offend you or anyone in any kind of way.

Cool?

So I hear you got a new gig. Congrats! I knew you would. Now here's the thing, bro. I'm a bit worried about Rebels and I need you to set my fears aside. Can you do that? Can you promise the same Weisman QUALITY? Will YOU be leading the ship of Rebels? I know you have partners. You always had team mates from past shows. But YOU were always the head writer. The one with the series bible. The million index cards all over. That was YOU. Everyone else worked under you.

I ask this mainly because of a recent show that totally turned me OFF in a big way. The show was HORRIBLE. What show? That would be "Ultimate Spider-Man". Have you seen this? Greg, I tell ya, I was looking forward to this. I was. Why? Because of the name Paul Dini. Paul Dini! OK?.

Dini is an incredible writer. A huge force that most of his credibility came from working on the DCAU aka the Timmverse. Namely... "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker". Just incredible stuff all around. So when I heard he was apart of this show, I was like, wow, I need to check this out. I knew he had partners but why would that matter when he's writing tons of scripts and is part of the writers room?

Yeahhhh. Basically, Greg, it's clear as day that he's not in charge of anything there. He's there in name only. His partners (Man of Action) are obviously running things. Every episode that I watched (stopped after episode 7 or so) was so over the top and ridiculous. A true insult to even little kids who watch it. The show is SO dumbed down and tries too hard to be funny. There's nothing worse than forced "humor".

My point? IF the talented writer isn't leading the pack then the show will never be what it could be. I just want to make sure that's not going to be the case for "Star Wars: Rebels". I'm about to invest a whole bunch of money to get into the Star Wars universe. Believe it or not, growing up, I never really got into the Star Wars craze. I didn't. I've seen the movies when I was little but don't really remember much. I went to the movies to see Episode One and that was all right. I just never really gave it a proper chance. I feel I can get a better enjoyment out of it today, though. I'm actually looking forward to it.

Just know, I'm mainly doing this for YOU. To fully get myself well versed in the Star Wars universe and prepared for Rebels. I'm going to buy the complete saga of Star Wars on Blu-ray and then I will pick up the CGI Clone Wars animated series as well. I want to be ready for this.

That's why I need to know, Greg, will Rebels be another "Ultimate Spider-Man"? or will it be the QUALITY of a "Young Justice"? Who's truly in charge? Who's the head booker? I hope it's you and I hope Rebels will be everything it can be and should be.

May the force be with you, man.

-ZC

Anon writes...

I just noticed it seems like every team member has a really friend on the team besides Superboy. Wonder Girl and Batgirl, Artemis and M'gann, Roy and Kaldur, Dick and KidFlash, Impulse and Blue B.

How come Superboy doesn't seem to have anyone in this role?

Soraya writes...

Hi! Hope all is well and that Rain of Ghosts is selling well (I'm reading it on my tablet and it's awesome so far!) anyways a question I've wanted to ask for a while now was is the title for The Usual Suspects in season one of Young Justice in reference to the movie?

Thank you!

btgr writes...

Something I just want to let you know:

Ever since I've watched the Disney movie Frozen, I can never take any DC Comics ice villains seriously anymore. It's all because of the constant use of ice puns.

GoldenAgeTeen writes...

Hello! I have a question about Earth-16
1. What is the time difference between Qurac and America?
Thanks again!

Anonymous writes...

In "Beneath", Nightwing said that Psimon had been in a coma since his last encounter with Miss Martian. Was he referring to the events of "Image", or a battle that happened sometime during the 5 year gap?

Gray Dickson writes...

What was your reason for having Dicks character be such a womanizer?

Ryan writes...

1.) What part of Europe was Vandal Savage born in (Cave bears were largely confined to Europe (more specially romania hungary and croatia, as well as northern italy, southern german and north spain although there were cases when they were in the caucuses as well, and even iran)? I'm not asking specific coordinates, just general region.

2.) Does the Light have a central HQ akin to the Watchtower?

3.) Which historical figures has Vandal been throughout history?

4.) Are the members of the Light planning to double cross each other?

Writes writes...

1).So here something I have been wondering. What exactly was Secret? I mean I do take she was a ghost, so maybe I should rephrase the question. How exactly did she come to be as she was? Was it her meta gene? If so how come it activated upon her death? Or was it some form of magic related to harm or the sword?
2). Black manta was under the assumption that kaldur and tigress were lovers. Did he come to this assumption by himself or did kaldur and/or artemis deliberately imply that they were in order to help their cover?
3). Does anyone in the light hold black manta responbile for kaldur's actions?

Kwesi Brako writes...

Hi, Greg, just following up from what you said on twitter. Did you hear the comments Paul Dini made about why shows like Young Justice were not renewed?

Here's a link to the specific clip
http://helpsaveourheroes.tumblr.com/post/69925938596/i-thought-id-post-the-part-of-the-kevin

And a link to the full podcast in case anyone else wants it
http://smodcast.com/episodes/paul-dini-shadow-of-the-shadow-of-the-bat/

What are your thoughts on this?

Anonymous writes...

Shortly after Ask Greg Live, you revealed that Donna Troy had been a leading candidate for Team membership at a very early stage in the development of the show - I was wondering if you could please list a few others who were serious contenders for a spot on the season 1 main cast but didn't make the cut?

Paul writes...

I liked the use of snapshots from the episode to come in the opening titles for season 1, with a different flurry of shots from each episode right before the Team's pose and the title coming onscreen. I was just wondering what the source of your inspiration was when you made the decision to incorporate clips from the episode during the opening theme. Did JLU (I know it used episode-specific clips in the opening theme for the early episodes) inspire you to do this? Or did you get the idea from somewhere else?

Kevin writes...

I was wondering why the White Martians are treated so badly on Mars? If they have telepathy Green and Red Martians must be aware of White Martians feelings to a degree how can beings with telepathy be cruel to one another when they can literally feel their pain? Maybe telepathy does not create empathy but it is hard to believe that the majority of them would enjoy feeling how others are suffering, indifference perhaps but I do not think you can rationalize lets discriminate against others when again you can read their thoughts. I obviously do not know their history, culture, or if their telepathy works differently on each other so if it is not a massive spoiler and this writing does not seem imposing could you provide some context?

Lorisa214 writes...

Where Artemis's parents married? I know I saw a wedding pic at the house when Paula got out from jail, but it looked too happy to be them (Vol 2, couple pages in)...Did they kill the original occupants and take their house or something?

Lorisa214 writes...

Hey Greg! Love this show so hard! :)
K, after Kent Nelson's death, the JL, got a call saying there was a 'death in the family' I'm guessing family means someone from the hero club since Dr. Fate/Kent wasn't on the JL yet(at all?) . I was just wondering out of everyone at the funeral beside Wally, Kaldur'ahm, & Zatanna, has any of them actually met Kent? I understand they would all show up out of respect regardless though.
2) Would Flash (Jay) have ever worked with Dr.Fate/Kent?
3) Why wasn't Superman at the funeral?
4) Did Red Tornado & Flash/Jay work together originally/at all?

Louise writes...

Hello Greg!
I am a huge fan of Young Justice and as everybody, the cancellation of the show left me a bitter taste. Recently, a petition appeared on change.org and I really want you to see that people support you into making another season of Young Justice. That show was one of the best things I ever watched and definitely the best DC show ever made. I really wish the CN decided to start producing a new season of YJ.
Thank you for creating the show!
https://www.change.org/petitions/cartoon-network-stop-marginalizing-female-viewers this is the petition

Devin writes...

Are the number designations of the Light based on when they joined(ex. did Ra's al Ghul join second)?

Devin writes...

Was the parallel between there being seven founding members of the Justice League and Light having seven members intentional?

JCF (TW: SUICIDE) writes...

If it hadn't been for Young Justice, I would have committed suicide before I left high school.

I'm in community college now. Thank you for creating this.

J writes...

I once asked:
"Does your version of  Despro  have telepathic powers like in the comics, or can he do anything other than paralize with his third-eye? If he does have telepathic powers, why didn't he "hear" the conversation between Miss Martian and Guardian? Was it because he didn't have his third-eye open at the time?"

And you responded:
"You're assuming that his paralytic power isn't telepathic in nature. You're assuming that all telepaths operate on the exact same frequency. Neither of those are safe assumptions."

Actually I did assume his paralizing others was a mental ability...maby I should have stated my question more clearly.
What I meant to ask is:
Does he have any mental powers other than paralization, specifically communicating telepathically?

I guess I was kind of assuming that all telepathy would opperatin on the same "frequency."
Can you elaborate on this?

1) Psimon has no problem knowing when Ms. Martian is using her powers or getting into her mind. Do they operate on the same frequency, then?

2) Can telepaths change frequencies?

3) Do all martians operate on the same frequency?

4) Is the frequency the telepath operates on related to how powerful they are? (ie do more powerful telepaths operate on higher frequencies?)

Anonymous writes...

In the scene where Dudley disappeared before Billy's eyes at the start of "Misplaced", was the girl playing on the street outside (the girl whose mother disappeared) Mary Bromfield?

Paul writes...

1) When exactly were the founding members of the Team given their designations? The first time we heard the computer announce any Team designations was at the beginning of "Welcome to Happy Harbour", but all 5 founding members were seen in the Cave at the end of "Fireworks" - had designations B01-05 already been programmed into the computer at that stage (I'm assuming so, otherwise surely the Cave's security system would detect intruders)?

2) Were designations B01-05 ranked in the order that the character in question became active as a superhero (so Robin first, Miss Martian last)?

DanM writes...

Hey Greg... DanM again...
No stories just questions now.
1 - In Rebels is the Producer title of yours a Glorified Title once more or are this the real deal?
2 - In developing characters. Do YOU ever consider how a character name would sound in another lenguage, when you are in the process of naming them? (I ask this because of Count Dooku. Here in Brasil he was renamed Count Dookan, 'cause phonetically speaking it sounds to us as "From a**h*le").
3 - About the toyline. Do the show producers have any say in the development of the toy line? (Like approve or not the design, number of articulations, etc.. That kinda stuff...)
4 - Have you ever considered making a podcast about the show production, while producin it (now, that would be Rebels)?
Thats it for now.. Thanks again for your time
Later

Anonymous writes...

What's your opinion on the allegation that CN cancelled YJ because too many girls watched it?

Erebus1994 writes...

1. How physically strong/durable are the New Gods on Earth-16 compared to other races? Are they around the range of normal humans or in the range of say, kryptonians and martians?

Marvelman writes...

Let's say I suddenly come into a fortune. Could I fund the production of a third season of Young Justice, or is life just not that simple?

J writes...

First I'd like to say that I love Wolf in Young Justice, but I'm curious as to why it was nesissary to create him in the first place. I read somewhere that he was loosly based on Rex the Wonder Dog...and their origions seem to parrallel as much as, or even closer to than, any other character in the show...so my question is, why not just name him Rex?
Was it a lisencing issue? You just didnt like the name?

Anonymous writes...

I think the problem that quite a few people have, myself included, with Wally's character/story on Young Justice might stem from the fact that he was the 'normal' one amongst the members of the original team. And on a show that at it's core is built around angst and drama, the normal characters tend to get lost in the shuffle since they don't come with built-in storylines like a character with a criminal family/background (Artemis and Kaldur), leadership issues (Kaldur and Dick), an inferior clone made by the enemy (Superboy), or a Martian used to discrimination living on Earth. They're just harder to fit into the story of the show. So it's much more important to their characters for the show to create an emotional connection to the audience and develop some meaningful relationships for that character to make them relevant to the show at large. And that's where I think the show failed as far as Wally was concerned.

For instance, you've said that Wally was a very insecure person during the first season and one of the big reasons why you paired him with Artemis. But out of all the members of the team, he always struck me as being the only one that wasn't insecure about who he was, or his role on the team. He was never shown to be bothered by his inferiority to Barry in season one, and even a good portion of the fandom didn't even know Barry was faster until BLOODLINES in season two. In fact, it was Conner who got the inferiority to the mentor storyline fleshed out in season one. And it was never said that Barry didn't originally want him to be his sidekick on the show. Plus the only insecurity he showed with girls was with Artemis. But that was more of a by product of him thinking she hated him because he was a jerk to her when she joined the team, not because he was insecure about who he was. So the show never really established him as an insecure character during the first season. He just came across as an idiot and an occasional selfish jerk simply because he was an idiot and an occasional selfish jerk; not because he was trying to overcompensate for his insecurity because of that.

And it's more of the same in the second season. Wally had became a completely different character between seasons and the only explanation the show gives is basically time-skip happened. I mean, Wally nearly killed himself just to become a hero and absolutely loved being one throughout the first season despite everything that happened. He also was pretty much supportive of his friends no matter what during that season, too. But during season two, Wally wanted absolutely nothing to do with being a hero and was accusing friends of being traitors and blaming them for trying to stop an alien invasion that he couldn't care less about for the majority of the season. It's like the show tossed away whatever previous characterization he had to justify his retirement and get him out of the way before reverting him back to something much closer to his previous characterization in the final two episodes. Which is why I found it a little hard to use Wally's previous characterization during the first season to defend his character in season two when he's not even close to being the same character. And I don't mean to say it's impossible that he could change that much over the gap, but it's such a drastic change that I think it deserved some sort of in-universe explanation.

Another thing I'd like to mention is that you said that Wally's 'humanity' was what you liked most about his character, but I'd say that that was the biggest flaw that this version of Wally West had. I mean, one of the things I've always loved about Wally in the comics and on other shows is that he would normally do the right thing simply because it was the right thing to do. That was missing with the Wally on Young Justice to me. Everything was always about him and what he wanted. Sure, he'd say some nice things to his friends on occasion, but he was the guy that would basically throw an inner-fit at the thought of saving a little girl's life instead of working on another mission with the League. And whatever development he was suppose to get from COLDHEARTED didn't seem to stick or didn't happen as he was practically thrilled that someone got kidnapped simply because he was bored at the beginning of the Young Justice video game. And Wally sitting out the majority of an alien invasion where things get worse and worse goes against everything I've ever loved about him over the years, and the scene at the end of DARKEST pretty much destroyed the character for me. The only times he was shown to help out was when the situation suited his interest, such as retrieving Artemis in SUMMIT, or helping out his family in BLOODLINES and ENDGAME. If the situation didn't have something directly to do with him, he couldn't be bothered to help and that's just not Wally West in my opinion.

As for his relationships, I think the issue for me was how unbalanced they seemed to be. I mean, I can appreciate the slow build and subtlety the show did with building up Artemis' side of their relationship; though I did think the show relied a little too heavily on telling us that they were going to get together in an effort to make her small moments such as asking about his parents in MISPLACED or making the sling for his arm to mean more than they really did. The problem is that the show basically punched me in the face with Wally's side of the relationship in contrast. The show pretty much shouted that he should get together with Artemis in DENIAL, he had an entire episode in FAILSAFE where she's almost all he could think about, was basically her number one fan for the majority of INSECURITY, and was shown to do nothing but worry about her in season two. Artemis never had anything remotely close to those type of things during the two seasons while he was alive. That's because Artemis had a lot going on besides Wally, as she had her family/trust issues, being a mole suspect, and the undercover mission. Where as with Wally being the normal one, the show made Artemis his thing and smashed us over the head with it. That's why I always preferred the M'gann/Conner relationship despite never being big fans of their characters since neither side dominated their relationship. It was balanced. It never felt like one of them was way more committed to the other like it did with Wally and Artemis. And like a previous poster before me mentioned, I think his friendship with Dick was handled in a similar way. It's why their reactions to his death fell completely flat and contrived to me because Wally wasn't really ever shown to be as important to them as they made him out to be after he died. And as a character, Wally got very little out of those relationships himself.

And like most of the 'normal' characters, Wally was killed off because there's only so much a show feels they can do with them. You guys milked about as much drama/angst you could get out of his relationship with Artemis over the two seasons and because of that, Wally was no longer useful to the show because he didn't bring any drama/angst as his own character. In essence, as a standalone character he had no real story of his own and that made him an expendable character.

Unfortunately, it just seemed like the majority of the things that made Wally tick and were important to his character would seem to have been left out of the show for the most part. And I'd say that he's the only one out of the main cast of either season that was handled that way. It's why while I normally enjoy Wally in the comics and other shows (I loved him and Jay/Barry in the episode "Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster!" that you wrote for Batman: The Brave and the Bold, by the way), I had a hard time getting invested into his character on Young Justice. And the Wally you talk about here and the Wally that was on the show just seem like two completely different characters to me.

Anonymous writes...

The last time i asked this question, i was one of the unlucky ones to happen to get their questions mocked and ridiculed on April foos day...i hope this reaches you on a better day, as i realy think it is a valid question, so here goes:

if Shayara were to have a child, would she give live birth or lay an egg?

SBlueMonkey writes...

Hello Mr. Weisman,

You've shared some of the pitches for Gargoyles spin offs such as Dark Ages and 2198 without potentially spoiling anything if they ever get a shot at being made. Would you ever do the same with the bibles for Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice? That would make for fun reading, but if they contain anything you wouldn't want judged out of context it's understandable why not.

YJFan writes...

I'm sure you've heard of the rumors that CW is developing a Young Justice live action show. I have to admit, I had been hoping for a season 3, but I think this (if it's true) could have potential. So of course, I have a few questions.
1. What do you think about this possibility? Is there anything you'd like to see?
2. Since it's only a rumor of development so far, would you like to have a hand in the production of this show?
3. Any advice for CW should this rumor be true?

Nate Elias writes...

Hey Greg, longtime Fan here. I watched "Gargoyles" as a Kid. And me and my Brother loved both "Spectacular Spider-Man" & "Young Justice"! I'm so pissed that they both got cancelled before they could get Third Seasons, I have no doubt they would've gotten even better. Nevertheless my most sincere thanks goes out to you and all the very talented people that brought us these shows. Here are a few "Young Justice" Related things that I wanted to bring up.

1. Deathstroke was AWESOME!!! His Design and Wentworth Miller's Performance were both Great.

2. Have you checked out the Game "Injustice: Gods Among Us"? I applaud their decision to hire several Actors from "YJ" to reprise their Roles. Hearing Alan Tudyk and Mark Rolston as Green Arrow & Luthor again, and in a Fighting Game no less, is just great.

3. Keith David as Mongul? Total WIN! I knew you would work him in somehow.

4. I just noticed that "Denial" is a partial "Gargoyles" Reunion! It had Ed Asner(Kent Nelson/Hudson), Jeff Bennett(Brooklyn/Abra Kadabra) & Thom Adcox-Hernandez(Lexington/Klarion)!!! It reminded me I should watch Gargoyles more often nowadays.

5. Last one. Me & my Brother LOVED Guy Gardner's Design in the Show. As usual yall guys tried something new and different and it turned out "Spectacular"!!!(I know, I forced that joke)

P.S. Loved Josh Keaton's Cameo as "Black Spider", brought back great memories!

IF writes...

In "Schooled":
1.When was Amazo created?
In "Denial":
2. How old was Inza Nelson when she dead?
3. How old is Teekl? Is he ageless as Klarion?

J writes...

Hello,
a while ago I asked how Superman kept his identity as Clark Kent a secret if the only "disguise" is a pair of glasses, to which you conceeded did in fact provide the minor disguise of subduing his eye color, but your main reasoning was that few people know both Superman and Clark Kent, so that there was little chance of the general public realizing they look identical...but, to me, and maby I am way over-thinking this, there seems to be a flaw in this logic.
Ill explain...youve said before that superheroes were Earth-16's version of super-star celebrities...now, im not a fan of Tom Cruise in thr least, but ive seen his face enough to recognize him at the local store if the only thing he did to disguse himself was put on glasses and slick his hair back. Addionaly, since Clark Kent is (im assuming) well known journalist, whose pictures regularly appear next to articals, at least in a lot of newspapers ive read, it seems to me there is a HUGE portion of Metropolis, if not all America, that could put 2 & 2 together at any time without ever having met either Superman or Clark Kent.
I appologize if Im being nit-pickey, but this has always kind of bugged me about Superman (and I hate explainations like "super hypnotism") so sinve you tend to write stories with a sence of realism, I was just wondering if you have any further thoughts on this.

Thank you for your time.

J.J. writes...

Hey Greg Got a few Young Justice questions:

1. When Beast Boy transforms into an animal, say an exact replica of Wolf(except green of course), is he able to communicate with the animal?

2. Basing it off that out of ALL the characters, especially in the Team, Superboy has had the most interactions and seems to have taken the most interest in Apokolipse tech throughout season 1 and 2, is it safe assume that he would have had a considerable role in season 3? just going by that logic.

3.Since Superboy is pretty darn indestructible is it safe to say that the best and simplest way to kill him is by drowning him?

4.Same with Superman?

5.In your continuity is it possible for a Green Lantern, whether Hal, John, or even Guy, to take down Superman if the situation called for it.

Much thanks for the opportunity and buying your book and planning to pre-order the second as soon as possible.

JSA Fan writes...

Hi Greg. In one of your rambles, you mentioned that you updated the Earth-16 timeline, which included some Golden Age information.
You have mentioned in past answers some of the characters that made up the JSA and All-Star Squadron, including when they joined and how long they remained in these groups.
Are the complete rosters included in your timeline, as well as all of the members' length of service and their final fates (who died in battle, who retired, and who is still living)?
Some characters that I remember from old issues are relatively obscure, like Tarantula and Johnny Thunder. How closely do the Earth-16 rosters match with the ones seen in the comics, and do they include such characters that are not as well-known?

Todd Jensen writes...

I kept forgetting to submit this one, but I've read the second and third trade paperback volumes of the "Young Justice" comic book, and it's time I posted my reviews of them.

TRAINING DAY: We start off with Artemis' perspective on the adventure involving Professor Ivo and Amazo. I particularly liked the "Alice in Wonderland" comparison (and it strengthened my suspicion that Professor Ivo's robot monkeys were indeed a hommage to the winged monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz".

The main thing that struck me about the Captain Atom story which came next: I recall that you said once that you worked on "Captain Atom" before you created "Gargoyles" for Disney and that General Eiling was a sort of forerunner to Xanatos. If his depiction in this story was anything like the way that he was portrayed in your old "Captain Atom" stories, I can readily believe that; the scene at the end in Eiling's office definitely felt like one of those Xanatos tag scenes in "Gargoyles".

I have to admit that in the Ra's Al Ghul story that came next, I kept hearing David Warner delivering Ra's Al Ghul's lines - no disrespect to Oded Fehr, who did a good job, but it was the "Batman: TAS" take that introduced me to this character, and Warner's performance has lodged itself inextricably in my consciousness. (And hearing him do Ra's helps me understand indeed why you brought the Archmage back in Season Two of "Gargoyles".) And I enjoyed the scene where Batman and Alfred are talking at the Batcave; Alfred's one of my favorite characters in the Batman mythos, as I mentioned here before.

I also liked the touch of showing more "off-stage" scenes from the cartoon (pity that you weren't able to do that all the way to the end of Season One) - such as Kent Nelson's funeral. (By the way, I recognized everyone else at the funeral, but who were: a) the guy in the blue suit between Zatara and the original Flash, and b) the blond person in red and black clothing standing between the original Flash and the current Flash?)

CREATURE FEATURES: I knew nothing about Prince Orm except what I'd seen of him in "Downtime", had never heard of him or Ocean Master before "Young Justice" came out, but I felt suspicious about him when I saw "Downtime". I'd seen enough cases of the younger brother of a king no longer next line in succession because the king now has a child who will be heir to the throne, who decides to deal with that by skullduggery and usurpation (ranging from Shakespeare's Richard III and Claudius to Miraz in "Prince Caspian" to Scar in "The Lion King") to wonder if Orm would take that same path. And he does indeed, even exploiting racial tensions in Atlantis to his own ends.

Orm/Ocean-Master echoes Castaway in his words "anonymity is the Purists' greatest weapon". Not surprising, since it's a natural strategy for a hate group; it can become all the more dangerous if you don't know who's in it and who's not.

And I liked the use of the Greek alphabet for Atlantean language. And the background scenes for the Red Tornado arc.

Kid Flash naturally would call the serpentized Kobra leader "Kobramort".

We end with the gorilla adventure - complete with Superboy once again thinking "I hate monkeys", and being corrected on that, since gorillas are apes, not monkeys.

I understand that there's a fourth volume (set during Season Two), but I haven't found a copy yet. When I do, I'll submit my review of it. All in all, I found these two trade paperbacks fun reading.

Anonymous writes...

I know you said before that the New 52 has no effect on what goes on with "Young Justice," and to be honest confuses me still. I mean if the events of "Flashpoint" changes the entire history of the mainstream DC universe, then wouldn't that create some kind of domino effect that affects all other parallel Earths (including Earth-16) in some way or another, no matter how big or small that change could be? I mean, isn't the DC multiverse considered to be like a pyramid or a tree and the mainstream DC universe (Prime Earth) is the one that hold it all together in place?

Lexiana writes...

Hi Greg!! Ok I am dying to know what is Artemis's eye colour?? Because in comics its blue but in the series its dark grey (almost black) so which one??

A fan from far away writes...

Hi Greg!
I'm a huge fan girl of YJ from Singapore. I really love your show and hope to see more seasons if possible.
My favorite character in the show is Artemis, she really struck me in season 1 and her tenure as Tigress in Season 2 was really impressive. So I would like to ask a few questions about her.
1) What served as your inspiration for creating her?
2) Are any of her character traits inspired by strong female characters from other sources? Cos I noticed that she was rather similar to some of my other favorite ladies, such as Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games, Eponine from Les Miserables, Mulan, Ravager (Deathstroke's daughter), to name a few.
3) How abusive was Sportsmaster? Cos I figured he had to be pretty bad to his girls for Jade to pack up and abandon her younger sister.
4) Unrelated but... Will YJ be translated into Chinese? I'm ethnic Chinese and I would love to know their Chinese names.
Thanks for looking through my queries, though they may have been answered. Thank you for giving us fans a really wonderful show while it lasted!

Anonymous writes...

1) While Troia was on the Team, was her personality at all similar to season 1 Miss Martian or season 1 Artemis?

2) While Sergeant Marvel was on the Team, was her personality at all similar to season 1 Miss Martian?

Paul writes...

1) Out of curiosity, if you could have included Troia and Sergeant Marvel in the crowd shot in "Endgame", who would you have paired each of them with in the subsequent scramble for the MFDs? I know that this would likely necessitate a 'reshuffle' of the pairings you came up with for the final episode, since say pairing Troia with Superboy would leave Wolf wanting a partner, but ignoring that, who would you have ideally paired with Donna and who would you have ideally paired with Mary for the team-ups?

2) When you and Brandon Vietti were developing Young Justice, were you 'for' the possibility of having an even number of male and female leads in season 1 or did you set out to have slightly more male leads than female leads? Basically, what I'm asking is whether you were at all interested in the prospect of having 3 male leads and 3 female leads instead of 4 male leads and 2 female leads.

3) Why did Nightwing and company allow Mal to join the Team as Guardian? I guess one could argue that it was because he proved his worth by helping against Despero, but since his sole contribution in that fight was to stall for time, I'm wondering why Nightwing and company felt he was Team material?

4) What was the in-universe reason for Donna not being available/ready to join the Team at the end of "Fireworks"? We know why Garth and Roy couldn't (since Kaldur took Garth's place as Aqualad and Roy was replaced by a certain angsty clone), but what about Donna?

5) I noticed Tempest in the crowd shot in "Endgame". What has he been up to since leaving the Team i.e. what's his occupation now?

NoOneSpecial writes...

1. In Bereft, was it phsimons intention to erase the teams memorays or was it purely by accident?
2.At what point did the light become aware of miss martians introduction into the team? They knew it already consisted of robin, speedy, conner and aqaulad after the events of Fireworks, so when did they learn about miss martian?
3.During the Reach/Light summit, why ra's give an excuse for klarion's absence?
4.How was wally meant to act during the whole artemis death story? I know he would pretend to be in mourning but would he really have been convincing for everyone else? In Darkest he seemed pretty angry at the idea that aretmis or the others could have been really killed. Would that have been a more geninue reaction for him to have? Did any one from the team talk to wally when aretmis died or did he intentionally avoid everyone?
5. Is devastation a clone of someone else?

Jarrod writes...

Hi Greg!

Thank you for all your amazing work on YJ, Gargoyles, SSM, and the many other series you have been a part of. All of them were beautifully animated and fantastically written.

I was excited that Season 2 part 2 of Gargoyles was finally released. I was hoping that we would get some more episode intros from you. They were a great boost to the season 2 part 1 dvds. I suppose Disney wasn't interested/didn't contact you about the possibility?

Anyways, My Boyfriend and I both loved YJ, he even went to NY Comic Con as your YJ Nightwing! He got many compliments and it was fun to Attend the informal YJ meet-up with Christopher Jones.

I recently heard that Cartoon Network has cancelled Beware the Batman, and that in order to keep the DC block going, they might bring back YJ? I know you probably don't have a say in such things, but we all hope for it.

Thank you again!

Anonymous writes...

What are the ages of the following Marvel Family members?
1.)Christopher "Kit" Freeman
2.)Freddy Freeman
3.) I'm assuming that Mary Bromfield is the same age as Billy Batson, am I right?

Anonymous writes...

I know you said you wouldn't confirm whether Alan Scott was alive or not, but at the very least can you tell us what his age was when he first put the ring on his finger and became a hero?

nygma619 writes...

Who'd you mentally cast as the following characters in the YJ comic:
-Alec Rois
-Rako
-Talia Al Ghul
-Solovar
-Gorilla Grodd

Anonymous writes...

Are Martians capable of reproducing with other species on Earth 16, like humans or any other species? Until I saw the episode Image my 1st instinct would've been to say no. But after seeing M'gann shapeshift her blood specifically to the point that it would match Gar's blood type (not without after effects of course, as Beast Boy shows us), I'm left feeling that it's a possibility.

Mags writes...

Dear Mr. Weisman,

Thanks for a wonderful show; I'm a big time travel nut, and one of the things I look forward to if there's a third season of some kind is seeing how that's wrapped up! :) The show is really amazing in the steps that it's taken to include people of all walks of life, and I don't think any of us can thank you enough for that.

1) First of all, I really want to thank you for M'gann: she's had a very strong impact on my life. I've been involved in the fandom for a really long time, and I'm sure you remember fan reaction to her and her "Hello, Megan," among other things. =P I also wasn't a fan of that phrase or even her in general, at first, but she /really/ made me think. I consider(ed) myself very media savvy and well-educated (we actually share an alma mater! I am a fellow fuzzy Stanford alum. My freshman-year RA got elected Tree by covering himself in baking soda and jumping into a kiddie pool of vinegar, haha) at the time. However, M'gann and the fan reaction to her made me take a step back, and I realized that some rather misogynistic ideas (girls definitely have them, too!) had seeped into my preconceptions about what "(strong) girls should be like." I think I've become a better person by reevaluating my ideas around "perky, feminine" girls and "strength/power" thanks to M'gann. Also, of course, the dynamic between "who M'gann knew she was" and what Martian /society/ expected her to be was /fantastic/. Really brilliant, and thank you so much for that. Female-fandom's relationship with women and media is super, super interesting (and occasionally scary. But mostly interesting).

2) As a sort of side note, looking at some of the previous questions about Wally, wow, I would have /never/ called my views on Wally West (good and bad) "middling," but it looks like they actually might be, and /I/--and maybe this isn't a good thing to admit, but whatever--I've run a blog for the last three years dedicated to Dick and Wally called Birdflash (don't ask, haha). All you need now is an essay from a Spitfire fan and a (different kind of) M'gann fan, and you'll have collected the entire rainbow of post-series Wally West "feels."

Anyway, here it goes. I've come in before: while Wally's /initial/ quitting didn't bother me that much, I invaded the comments a while ago to ask why Wally was staying away (I'm "Mags," the one with family in St. Louis--and I'm also sorry if I overstepped my bounds there). I was lucky enough to catch you that day, and while I thought that your response that Dick had ordered him away said some really sad things about the state of their "friendship," if that's what happened, that's what happened.

However, when one answer to a related question explained that Dick did it so that Wally would look like a "grieving boyfriend," someone else pointed out that Wally had reacted to what he thought was Artemis's real, /actual/ death in the exact opposite way in FAILSAFE, and I'm lost again.

Thinking about it, I'm a little surprised that M'gann and Conner didn't find his reaction /suspicious/, given FAILSAFE, and if Wally actually wanted to help out, I can't see any strategic, tactical, or (theoretically) personal reason for Dick to lock out one of the most experienced and powerful Team members. That Dick and Wally thought that the Team would think that "if Wally /did/ step out to help, it would somehow mean that Artemis was alive" (as if he would only bother to save the world if she were in it? I'm not sure) in the first place is also pretty confusing.

The Hall of Justice was leveled; the Earth got a second /moon/; the Reach /still/ had an (smaller-ish) armada (by the way, what an extremely clever way to get rid of most of the ships! That was really cool.), and these people had /nuked/ his /hometown/. All of this was on the news or in the sky.

Would the Team really have found it so shocking if Dick had asked for his help, that Wally would help? Even when Dick was completely alone, without League help, with a REAL rogue Team member, or even it was him and M'gann against the War World, he didn't want to "risk" telling Wally this and asking him to come to help save his kidnapped cousin? Wally wouldn't have even had to "pretend" to be furious with Dick but willing to help out anyway.

That Dick (and even Wally) would think that the Team thought that about Wally--or that he'd just be too broken to get out of bed for anyone else after three months--is heart-breaking, especially when it wasn't even /true/.

It's just so sad that Wally couldn't even get Dick to /let/ him help over a period of six weeks, or maybe stopped trying even though things were so crazy after DARKEST. Even that fight in DARKEST felt like it came to nothing: Dick didn't even /LISTEN/ to him. Nothing changed in the "extreme" plan, and as far as the /plan/ went it "worked out"--(I /also/ think that Conner bore some serious responsibility for his secret-keeping, maybe even more so than Dick, in the disaster that was M'gann's willingness to brainwipe Kaldur)--and the things that Wally said about Kaldur were proven false fifteen minutes into the next episode.

Wally was never the most observant person when it came to M'gann, but I like to think that he'd matured beyond that, and that if there had been another pair of eyes who knew her and Conner for the last five years, a pair of eyes that wasn't also running a Team without a safety net of the League and dealing with clones and kids from the future and disaster after disaster, he might have noticed something was wrong.

I know this is just a story, and that if TPTB wanted Wally dead, he would have died, no matter what.

It just … it feels like in the end, Dick didn't ask Wally for help--even given Wally's reaction in FAILSAFE and the fact that he /was/ willing to help--ignored what advice Wally DID show up to give, and then ... nothing. That says some really sad things about their "closeness" and "friendship," to me (particularly since they didn't even bother to say "hi" to each other in the game). That Dick didn't think it was safe to rely on Wally, to let him in on their problems--not even for /advice/--when he was completely and totally alone--

--that that's the legacy of PERFORMANCE is crushing.

And if Wally just changed so much that /no one/ even questioned that he'd react to a s1 defining moment in the exact opposite way, I'm not really sure why /we'd/ know what--if anything--still applied to him from s1, much less "everything." :(

Man, I didn't mean to end on such a depressing note; please know that--if the ~2500 people who follow the blog are any indication--the two of them are dearly loved and dearly missed, and that's what's really important.

Thank you for an engaging and--perhaps even more than is healthy for me (haha)--life-changing show. I've learned so much about so many things watching it, met incredible people, and I really appreciate it.

It seems that the game sold out in several places (including Best Buy /online/ and I think Amazon), and I hope that there's a third season or sequel! Best of luck on your book; I have my copy pre-ordered!

Sincerely,
Maggie

P.S. Thank you that when Wally finally found out about M'gann and Conner, he at least dropped it and was perfectly nice to her. All too often, guys complain about being "friendzoned" and mock girls or call them names because the guys were nice to/came onto a girl and she had the gall not to sleep with them. Some of us were worried it would go that route, and how truly nice it was that it didn't.

Anonymous writes...

Helo,

recently I posted a question about the powers of Wonder Woman's lasso (it was actually seperated into 2 posts) & they were deleted. I was just wondering, why?
Are the powers of her lasso a spoiler? I did not include any story ideas, or otherwise break any of the rules (unless they are in fact spoiler requests, in the case of which I apologize, but I honestly dont see how).
It seems that a lot of questions get past your moderators that clearly break the rules...especially asking questons that have been asked & answered about a billion times, or blatantly asking for spoilers, & even a few that clearly try to pass story ideas as questions.
So I wont ask my question again, but I was just wondering, why Wonder Woman's lasso is such a sensitive topic?
Do you have plans for it that would spoil a revilation in a story if people knew what it could do?

Riyan writes...

Hi Greg,
I'm happy the question block is open again.
Congratulations on YJ:Legacy.
I bought the PS3 version game and completed it.
It's quite hurt to learn the story when Aqualad know who his father is and then Tula's death. Though we know what happened already, but when seeing the details, still heart breaking and it almost make me cry.
Do you know, I just can't help thinking that you may be too cruel to Kaldur.
Since the end of season 1, it seems only terrible things happened to him. Especially on the screen time. and we cannot see the off screen time so we don't know if he had met anything happy and smiled. (Maybe I should watch through season 2 again to say this, but as far as I remember, I never saw him smile in season 2.)
And without season 3, we don't know if he would became happy again, but with defeating his father and with great loss in the team, I doubt.
It's good to see your answer about he sure would re-new his friend ship with Red Arrow. I think this is one thing may give him a relief.
And I'd like to ask if there is anything good and happy happened to Kaldur. But I'm quite sure I'd got a "SPOILER REQUEST" answer. So, I'm just hoping YJ came back and you can treat him well.
The above is not complaining, or maybe kind of...
But what I really want to say is: it's a great ability to create and develop characters to let people love them and cry for them. I love Kaldur even more in season2, because he sacrificed a lot of himself and go through miseries to do justice. This makes him a greater hero.
It feels sad and hurt to see what he suffered, but it's also the reason I love this character, not for his appearance or powers or ability, just the greatness in his spirit.
I just want to thank you for creating such a great character.
And here I got some questions about the Young justice after the ask section is closed. And also some for YJ:Legacy.
1. I saw several times you said among the first 4 sidekicks, Aqualad is close to Speedy, and Robin is close to Kid Flash. Is there some reasons like:
a) Aqualad met Speedy first and Robin met Kid Flash first so they are close to the one they met first.
b) Aqualad and Speedy spend more time with each other in their mentors' missions, so did Robin and Kid Flash.
c) Personality. Speedy is the oldest and Aqualad is more mature than the other two, so their personality get along easier and better than with Robin and Kid Flash?
d) Maybe all above?
2. This is one question I got when I re-watch the end of S1. When Ra's said that the real Roy Harper "might still prove useful,as well".
So... was he 'useful' to the Lights in S2?
Or he wasn't because Red Arrow and Cheshire rescued him before Ra's can plan anything?
If Ra's already made a plan, and the rescue was also a part of the plan, what exactly did he want?
I didn't see anything like plan happened on Arsenal. Though he messed up a mission in Lex Farm, and also messed up Reach's plan to abduct all the young heroes. But both looks like accidents, not like a plan.
And League and Team surely would do a thoroughly check on Arsenal before he join the Team, so the Lights couldn't plant any program in his brain.
I guess the question "what exactly did Ra's want" would get an "Spoiler" answer.
So I just want to know, is his plan worked in S2 or not because Red Arrow and Cheshire's rescue.
Or... did Ra's totally forgot he had frozen a young hero in one of his base?
3. This question is for YJ: Legacy.
I looking forward to this game so much before it came. But as a game player and also a YJ fans, honestly, the game is terrible.
Not criticize the plot. I think the plot is good.
But the game system and cut scenes performance is far away from good. No need to mention so many bugs.
It's like some half developed project. Many improvement can be made and it would be a better game. We all know it's been delayed once, and now still lot's of problem remain in the game.
Do you know if there are some issues in the developing period?
Is it because the budget is limited or Little Orbit hasn't developed this kind of game before?
If the budget is not enough to make a good performance game, would it be enough to make an one episode or 2 to tell the same story? I think the plot of this game could be tell in one or two episode.
I would rather see a short animation of YJ rather than a terrible game. I don't know if you played this game or not, but as a normal gamer, it's not a game I'd willing to play. Not like LEGO Batman or Batman Arkham, even my friend who don't know batman, she also enjoyed the game itself.
4. Still for YJ: Legacy. No more criticism. Let's talk about some other things.
It's great for the idea of Red Arrow Journal. I think this is one great motive to play the game.
I haven't collect all the Red Arrow Journals yet but I've saw other's collection. so I read them all.
That's the 2nd heartbreaking things in this game other than Kaldur's suffering.
And then I got a question, when Jade leave Roy, she's already pregnant. And later in the mission, we met her and fight with her.
Is that okay to fight a pregnant woman? I mean, wouldn't we accidentally kill Lian? I think I would never go play this fight again.ad
And also, did Jade know she's pregnant when she left Roy?
5. Have you watch the "Justice League Flash Point Paradox"? Did you see Kaldur's cameo in it? Though no one said it's Kaldur but we all know it's Kaldur and Tula and Garth. Cheers for them!
Do you know the team of Paradox would use Kaldur as a cameo?
What do you think of it?
I mean, Kaldur is an original character you created in Young Justice, right? It's like your own child.
When he is used in other DC works, would it make you proud or a bit complicated?
I think I'd be most happy to see him in YJ season3, but if not, it's also happy to see him in some other animation works. But I'm not sure if I would be happy to see him became not Kaldur in other works. I love what he is in YJ, but in other works without your writing? I'm not sure.
okay. I think that's all I got now.
I'm looking forward to your novels and Star Wars Rebels.

Kelsey writes...

1. You said you pitched the idea of direct to dvd YJ movies and it was turned down. If you had the opportunity to produce a movie(s) do you already have plots in mind? Not asking for specifics, just wondering how seriously you've thought about it.

2. At the risk of crossing spoiler territory, does Tim know how Jason died?

3. Does the rest of the team?

GoldenAgeTeen writes...

Hi greg! First off , Young justice and W.I.T.C.H are some of my favorite tv shows ever. While watching young justice i couldn't help but notice that Rocket had the same voice as taranee! my questions are:
1. Was Asami's concept at all inspired by Hay Lin?
2. Was the Tye/Asami pairing inspired by Eric/hay lin?
3. How old is Rumaan Harjavti?
4. How old is Sumaan Harjavti?
And I wanted to say thanks for having this forum where fans can ask questions, Happy holidays!

Laura 'as astra' Sack writes...

And now for something completely different...
You mentioned you wrote a few episodes of Octonauts. My daughter loves that show. (Catchy tune… and who would have thought there was such a thing as a blob fish?) As far as I noticed the credits only list the head writer.

1. Which episodes did you pen?
2. Did they by chance explain what exactly Turnip and kitchen crew are?
3. On a less frivolous note-
I was thinking about shows like Octonauts or Doc McStuffins or Dora or Little Einsteins or etc, the shows aimed young, as opposed to the shows my kids think are on screen for them but are really for Mommy, like the action plot shows, or the crazy clever ones like Phinias and Ferb. Ironically, a lot of the little kid shows are in a way more realistic because they center on smaller things- "3 simple steps to tying your shoe" or being worried how your old and new friends will get along at your first big sleepover party. The fact that a panda is teaching you to tie that shoe, or you are now a princess in a castle and that's why you have old and new friends to invite to the castle is not something that needs particular explanation. And without having to explain those things you can leave the world gentle.

As you get older you require a setting to make the fantastic events explainable. You can cling to a wall? Radioactive spider! You put on a suit and fight crime from the shadows? You're a rich orphan with a mission to protect the world from suffering as you did! You're a giant scary looking flying 'monster' with the soul of a poet wandering around Manhattan? You a magically time lost nearly lone survivor of a horrible betrayal of a near extinct species! (And you can only glide, not fly!) In order to explain why your heroes act as they do, whole worlds are dreamt up in which the hero's action is logical. The fantastical setting makes the actions in them realistic or at least self-consistent. A side effect of that is to introduce a dark element into the world- parental units are murdered, crime or war is at the door, etc

Which leads me to the dilemma: When, in your opinion, do you begin to transition a small child from the world of Octonauts to the world of Young Justice? (Transition isn't the best word, since you can go on watching the old stuff.) It's not a question of comprehension. Kids can understand an awful lot. The question is; when do you make your child's world less gentle? When my eldest saw the TiVo grabbed an episode of Batman she wanted to watch it. With my luck it's the episode with the amnesia girl who turns out to have started out as a piece of Clayface. Great episode. It ends when she rescues Robin and gets reabsorbed. The show explicitly calls it a murder. Then I got to explain how it is murder, what is murder, to a 3 or 4 year old. What fun! I look forward to watching Gargoyles with her, but not it being her introduction to what a massacre is. ("Well it's just like what happened to your great grandparents...") It's not that you plan on sheltering forever, but small children deserve to be sheltered, and sometimes parents are better as the zone of shelter rather than source of disturbing imagery.

Yes, there is another set of cartoons that avoid the dilemma- she loves Tom & Jerry. But frankly, I can say- 'Wow you could really hurt someone if you did that in real life- but isn't it funny when it's fake? Isn't it funny how everyone overreacts!" And then I'm done. Watching Tom getting hit in the face by a rake doesn't make her life less gentle. Explaining why Tye Longfeather left home would.

There are parallels as kids get older. Harry Potter is age appropriate to whatever age Harry is in the book. So you give an 11 year old book 1. If your 11 year old is a reader he or she will want to tear through the series and might be at the last book before turning 12. The last book is appropriate for a 17 year old. Or as my friend complained that it is frustrating to have so many comics she can't share with her 13 year old - it's not that he isn't going to be reading things with mild sexual imagery, (or not so mild; she was considering starting reading Saga), but maybe it's best he not get it directly from mom. She knows he'd love Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, but he doesn't want to start the series only to stop before the 4th book with the aerial sex scene.

At least I only have to worry about it once : The younger one will see everything too early over her sister's shoulder :}

I guess this isn't so much a question as a ramble, but I was wondering your thoughts on the matter.

Laura 'as astra' Sack writes...

Now that I've posted all my episode thoughts...(in theory I still plan on doing the same on the comics, but...) I want to say thank you for the series in general. (I'd go into details, but it seems redundant after posting all those responses.) I've thoroughly enjoyed it in all its parts. Well, by the time you read this the video game will be out. [Yep!] I probably will have to sit it out. Pathetic as it is, I have to admit to some motion sickness from a lot of video games. I'm assuming I'll be able to get some pretty detailed descriptions from the good folks here. I hope that there will be other continuations as well. (Also good luck on your new Star Wars series.)

I have to admit to more than a little annoyance that another show I enjoy is canceled, but also some confusion. If I understand correctly one of the major factors, if not the major factor in the cancellation is that the merchandise didn't sell as well as they companies had hoped. Good viewership numbers are almost inconsequential. If this is true, (big if, I admit), I don't understand the business model. Why continue making cartoons targeting the older demographic at all? I know the show aimed for a broad audience, but it aimed for each part directly. A lot of cartoons aim themselves at kids directly, and place bonus references and jokes for the older viewers. I've loved many shows like that. But the complexity of characters and plots in shows like Young Justice is not a bonus for older viewers, it is integral. (IMHO) A relationship like, for example, Guardian and Bumblebee is more relateable to a college or adult viewer than a kid. (I would have gone to Babs and Dick, but that was mainly expanded upon in the comics.) A kid would gravitate to the first season romances, or the M'gan/L'gan/Conner triangle. All the relationships were interesting and important to the show, and none were simple, it's just different parts resonant (from experience or at least plot type familiarity) better to different age sets. (Or for out of YJ examples- In Green Lantern- the complexity of Razor and Ia's relationship- given his past lost love, her resemblance, his survivor guilt and rage issues and her ultimate sacrifice is not something that targets the younger viewers of the show. They'll just accept the two are a couple and enjoy the fight scenes. It was perhaps more integral to the show than any Hal based plot. In Tron the entire looks of the show was aimed older, high teens and 20s would be my guess, and not particularly conducive to action figures to my eye.)

Older fans are less likely to buy toys, (or have toys bought for them), but they also have control over their own finances to buy what is actually advertised during broadcast. Between the 24 hour cable tv cycle and dvrs, grown ups will be watching when kids can't, allowing for targeted ads of the none happy meal/stompies/pillow pet variety. (For the record, my 4.5 year old adores her stompies. ~she's 5 now~) I get that a franchise like DC or Marvel or Star Wars can expect some cross product sales, and even a show not squarely aimed at a small kid can have a cool iconic action figure that sells well. But no one expects Smallville or Arrow to survive on toy and apparel sales, they stays on air based on the number and demographics of viewers, just like Birds of Prey did not last for the same reason. Have cartoons, or at least the beautifully animated ones, become loss leaders for merchandise like comics have become loss leaders for movies? And is that a reasonable burden to place on a show that does not squarely target the audience that will buy those toys? Is a high level video game an attempt to tap into an action figure equivalent of older viewers?

I don't want to turn this into a rant about how annoyed I am that YJ was canceled....er, not renewed. I will admit to being mightily confused why DC Nation isn't aiming to expand into more than an hour of programming. I just assumed it was planned to become a 2 or 3 hour block like the old Disney Afternoon, with perhaps a rotating stable of shows. But I am interested on your more insider insight on what the none creative aims are when a new cartoon is unleashed upon the world nowadays and whether they are reasonable. Thanks,

Reiena writes...

I am curious about something with young Justice Legacy.

I was wondering how the Team Years went, is it from July 4th to July 4th each year, or is it from january 1st to january 1st each year.

Got young Justice Legacy for the 3DS and I have to say, was not seeing this storyline coming. The trailers did not give anything away, and I'm happy with the story so far.

Alexia writes...

When The Team heads to other countries for missions, do they leave their passports behind and skip customs as they Zeta straightaway to a location inside the country? So that would mean they cannot get caught by the authorities since they'll be technically illegal immigrants, right? The thought of that is really cool.

meksters writes...

Hi Greg! I'm such a huge fan of the show! I have a few questions that I hope you can answer.

1) In an early interview you and Brandon did before the show's release there were a few posters of the characters saying things like "Sweet Sixteen" and "First Date". Who was Wally carrying in the "first date" poster?
2) Will the unaired pilot episode ever be released?
3)If Brandon hadn't suggested Wally and Artemis being together, would Wally have had a different love interest or not at all? Perhaps the one in the poster?

Thank you for answering my questions and again, I'm a huge fan of the show!

Todd Jensen writes...

This is a sort of late review of the latter fourteen episodes of the first season of "Young Justice" (which I saw several months ago, but had to wait until now to comment on). Since you've already read lots of reviews, I'll stick to the moments that most won my attention, rather than overall comments.

ALPHA MALE: The opening reminded me of an English teacher I had in college who used to joke that he believed in "the right to arm bears" - give the animals the opportunity to shoot back at the hunters.

I liked Captain Marvel's depiction of a ten-year-old boy in an adult super-powered body (and it explained so beautifully why he was so eager to hang out with the Team).

Among my favorite moments: "One word - souvenir." "Two words - gorilla lice." And Brain telling Captain Marvel that he'd have been better off with the invulnerability of Achilles than his courage. (Good point - you'd have a hard time extracting his brain through a hole in his heel.)

REVELATION: One of the highlights, Joker saying "Retributionable! That last one might not be a word, so sue me!" (Both Batman's protege and his arch-enemy engage in word coining.)

HUMANITY: I understand that the Red Tornado arc in this season was based on a mini-series comic you were going to write, but which DC Comics cancelled - and I'm glad that you were able to salvage it for "Young Justice". I thought it was effective, with Red Tornado persuading his two fellow robots to help.

FAILSAFE: I knew already (coming to this part of the series late) that this one was an illusion - sort of the "Young Justice" counterpart to "Future Tense", but still found it good watching. I spotted a monument in Central City getting blown up by the aliens that looked a lot like the Gateway Arch here in St. Louis. (More on that when I get to "Young Justice: Invasion".)

DISORDERED: The team's sessions with Black Canary were great, but my favorite was Wally's - eating popcorn, apparently undisturbed until she mentioned Artemis's "death" in the scenario.

And I shared Superboy's astonishment that Sphere was a she. (I never even thought of it having a gender.)

SECRETS: I'm tempted to wonder what particular sword the Sword of Beowulf was. The best candidate in the poem was the ancient sword, forged by giants, that he found in Grendel's lair, except the blade dissolved when he used it to behead Grendel. Of course, I'm probably overthinking it. I liked the notion of its scabbard being (apparently) Grendel's arm - and the notion that "pure of heart" didn't have to mean "pure good".

Marvin tries pulling a Martian landing prank on Halloween, around 75 years after Orson Welles - and Miss Martian gives him a dose of his own medicine (complete with an impersonation of the Martian from "Loony Tunes").

MISPLACED: Another of my favorite parts: the allusions to the Pied Piper and Roanoke in the spell that splits the world in two.

Artemis mangling all those nursery rhymes was hilarious (though I read a comment that it might suggest, underneath, some dark hints about the kind of childhood she'd had).

Captain Marvel's alter ego being a small boy comes in handy (I liked the bit about Billy Batson having the courage of Billy Batson - though he quickly showed that that could be impressive).

I know it's from the source material, but still - when I heard Captain Marvel cry "Speed of Mercury! Power of Zeus!", I thought "Shouldn't that be 'Speed of Hermes! Power of Zeus!' or 'Speed of Mercury! Power of Jupiter!'" (This must say a lot about me - I'm reviewing a cartoon based on DC Comics, and I focus more on the mythological references than on the DC elements. Stems from growing up reading a lot more Greek and Norse mythology than super-hero comics. I remember also thinking that Wotan's name ought to be pronounced with a v rather than a w, like his Wagnerian namesake - but of course, I don't know if the character actually was named after the Wotan of the Ring Cycle and Germanic myth.)

And some ingenious scheming by the Light - splitting the two worlds to create the perfect diversion by which to steal that starfish piece (with Commissioner Gordon even calling the mob protest a distraction, without realizing how right he was). And with Zatara paying the permanent price to become Doctor Fate for good.

COLDHEARTED: One of Wally's finest moments (and I was delighted to see him choose the pouch he carried Perdita's heart in for the souvenir, over the swordstick, at the end).

I did wonder whether the schools would have been closed anyway on November 11, even without the continent-wide blizzard, because of Veterans' Day.

I was amused to notice the Space Needle in the background in the "establishing shot" for the hospital in Seattle - following the unwritten rule in television that if you're setting part of the story in a city with a famous landmark, to get a shot of the landmark somewhere (as in a few shots of the Statue of Liberty in New York in "Gargoyles" - not to mention the Houses of Parliament in the visits to London, the Eiffel Tower in the visits to Paris, the Sydney Opera House in the Sydney scene in "Bad Guys", etc.).

IMAGE: Got a big smile over the names of the producers of "Hello, Megan" (which does indeed sound like a likely sit-com for the 1980's).

AGENDAS: When you had Aquaman coming to fetch Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman to start the meeting, was that intended as a "Superfriends" allusion?

I got a kick out of Captain Marvel's nervousness once the Justice League started talking about the questionability of children as members.

And the Thanksgiving scene at Mount Justice. I enjoyed the shift through the year in the two seasons, from Fourth of July to the New Year - and vice versa in the second season. I hope that you'll get to do more such seasonal cycles in future projects (though, in light of the setting, I doubt we'll see much of that in the "Star Wars" project coming up - "Rain of the Ghosts" is more likely, though I doubt we'll see too many seasonal changes in *its* setting).

INSECURITY: For me, the big highlight of this episode was the police box serving as a Zeta-tube entrance. (Kind of funny this was in the same episode as the revelation that Red Tornado's civilian identity is named "John Smith", the alias most often used by the Doctor in "Doctor Who" when he needs something more than "the Doctor" - though I suspect that was just a coincidence.)

I laughed at Wolf curling up and taking a nap instead of staying on sentry duty.

PERFORMANCE: Made a good "calm before the storm" story. I liked Robin's reference to "The War of the Worlds".

USUAL SUSPECTS and AULD ACQUAINTANCE: A good two-parter season finale. The Light were certainly ingenious in handling their mole - who better than the person most zealously searching for the mole?

I'd suspected from the portrayal of the Light that its goals had an ideological slant, and Vandal Savage didn't disappoint me, in his belief that super-heroes were a bad thing for the human race since they made things too easy for everyone else, prevented humanity from moving forward properly and growing up. I liked the touch that he had to call Klarion off because he was too powerful, and might have wiped out the Justice League prematurely if he'd exerted his full strength.

And I smiled again at Red Tornado's response to the team members' New Year's kisses.

The "Young Justice: Invasion" commentary/review will come later this week.

Jordan Wade writes...

1. Did members of the All-Star Squadron have actual military ranks?

2. Did Ra's Al Ghul or Klarion faced the J.S.A or All Star Squadron?

3. Did the All-Star Squadron ever fight in Europe or Asia during World War 2?

4. Who were all the members of the All Star Squadron?

Donna writes...

Hey Greg,

I was, and still am, a huge fan of Gargoyles, the Spectacular Spider-man, and numerous other shows you've worked on in the past. So to say that I was excited beyond belief when I found out you were not only going to be involved in a DC animated series, but that my favorite DC character, Wally West, was going to be on it as well would have been an understatement. But unfortunately for me, Wally's inclusion on Young Justice actually lessened my enjoyment of the show quite a bit. And I know it's almost impossible to juggle all the characters on team shows like Young Justice, so I didn't really have much expectations outside of Wally being portrayed in a respectable manner with whatever role he was given. And I'm sure it wasn't your intentions and that I'm probably in the minority, but I don't feel that was the case. There honestly wasn't one aspect of his involvement on this show that I took away as a positive when it came to his character as it felt his role in everything he was involved in centered around how bad he was.

First off, the main storyline line he had throughout the two seasons was his relationship with Artemis and the majority of that seemed to revolve around how much of a burden Wally was for her in both seasons. In Season One, it was him making her life harder than it had to be and being the biggest reason she wouldn't tell the team about her family ("DISORDERED") because he was a complete jerk to her for no reason when she showed up in "INFILTRATOR" and she didn't want to listen to him run his mouth again. That would have been okay if Wally would have played a significant role in her overcoming that, but he only ended up making things even worse after his one attempt to make things better in "INSECURITY". It also didn't help that I never got the feeling Artemis liked Wally all that much during that first season. She showed no romantic interest in Wally, outside of the show flat-out saying they were going to get together, that led me to believe that her constant belittling and hitting of him was anything more than her genuinely thinking he's a complete idiot and was constantly annoyed by his antics (which falls in line with all the other characters perceptions of him as they thought Wally was a complete idiot outside of situations that required science knowledge, too). The only time she was shown to even be able to tolerate him was when he was propping her up ("BEREFT" and most of "INSECURITY"), and that had more to do with her own insecurity than her actually liking Wally for Wally (while the show was clear there's quite a bit about him that she didn't like). She just liked having the attention and a glorified cheerleader. And she was shown to like/respect the other male members of the team more than Wally and they were supportive of her from the get go, so why would Wally's words matter more than theirs? I also assume Artemis crushing on Conner was suppose to mirror Wally's crush on M'gann, but the big difference is that the show was clear where Wally's real feelings lied ("FAILSAFE" and he admitted attraction in "BEREFT") before he found out about Conner & M'gann. Where as I mentioned earlier, Artemis didn't show much interest in Wally before finding out about them (Artemis giving him her spare breather so he doesn't drown ,the only other member in danger of that at that moment, and making a sling for his arm is no different than how she interacted with any of her other teammates). So I took it as Wally being her consolation prize after missing out on the guy she actually liked and was attracted to.

Plus with the way the events went down in "DENIAL", I took Kent Nelson's "find your own little spitfire; one who won't let you get away with nothin'" line to mean that Wally needed to date Artemis so she could keep him in line because he was incapable of doing it himself. I mean, the episode started out with Artemis and M'gann laughing at how much of a joke he was after the latter couldn't think of one positive quality that Wally possessed to sale Artemis on the idea of dating him. Then Wally nearly got the team killed just trying to impress M'gann. And all of Wally's interactions with Artemis in the episode either had her rolling her eyes at his antics, mocking him for constantly being wrong, or elbowing him for being rude. Honestly, I don't know why Artemis would've even been interested in a guy that the show basically said she'd have to babysit.

Then is Season Two, Season Two, it was pretty clear that Artemis wanted to return to the hero life and that Wally was holding her back from something she loved due to his own selfish fear. And I got the feeling she just used the undercover mission as an escape from their life/relationship and justified it by saying she was needed, which is also true, but it doesn't change the fact that she wanted out. And the only time she even thinks about Wally while she's undercover is when she said what they had was "special" in "THE FIX", but that's when she was trapped behind enemy lines with a comatose Kaldur (after blowing up the Cave and kidnapping teenage kids for torture) and no clear way out of that situation at that moment. So of course the normal life with Wally looked special compared to that, but later she basically rebuffed Wally on the idea of returning to Paris after they saved the world in "ENDGAME". It's like they were only still "together" in an attempt to force the idea that his death was more meaningful than it really was. I actually rolled my eyes when the show tried to pass off that Wally was important to her after he died because she was already done with him long before that. So I felt that Artemis got exactly what she wanted and what was best for her character. Wally is no longer around to hold her back and she got to avoid any possible guilt about hurting him since he's dead. He wasn't so much portrayed as her "partner" but as a roadblock that she just had to constantly get around. And a roadblock she wasn't even shown to like all that much at that.

Then there's his friendship with Dick, which is something I was always fond of in the comics and was really looking forward to seeing it on the show. But outside of Dick's one line at the end of "COLDHEARTED", all Dick really ever did was constantly make fun of Wally and put him down throughout the two seasons. A few superficial scenes of them high-fiving and fist bumping doesn't offset Dick constantly telling Wally how dumb he is and treating him like he's a joke. I know he supposedly told Wally his secret identity before the series started, but nothing that was shown on the show made me believe that Dick had much respect for Wally as a person. And I know that friends tease each other, but that was pretty much all Dick did (and some things like using Wally's inferiority to Barry to embarrass him in front of M'gann in "WELCOME TO HAPPY HARBOR", or letting an all too eager Artemis crush him with the news about M'gann & Conner at his birthday party of all times were just beyond cruel). So while Wally was far from a perfect friend, I honestly got the feeling that he cared about Dick and was incredibly loyal to him (especially in Season One). And watching Dick constantly use Wally as nothing more than a punchline was tough to watch. Plus, Dick telling Wally that he only cared about his souvenirs getting blown up in "DARKEST" just confirmed to me how little Dick thought of him. And for the record, I really do like Dick but he was beyond terrible as a friend to Wally on this show.

Also, I noticed how Wally was ultimately in the wrong when he got into conflicts with the others characters (Artemis in "INFILTRATOR", magic isn't real in "DENIAL", and Artemis again at the end of "INSECURITY"). The most notable time of Wally being wrong was his scene with Dick at the end of "DARKEST" in Season Two. I get it was just to add drama, but Wally ended up being (predictably) wrong about everything he said there and the entire scene turned out to be completely pointless as it didn't affect anything related to the plot. The only thing it really accomplished in the long run was damaging Wally's character. He was just used to make his best friend feel bad about trying to save the world and accuse Kaldur of being a traitor. Though Wally's rant would have been okay as long as he did something about it afterward but he didn't as he just went back to the sidelines. And given that most people view the characters actions in the context of it being a show about superheroes, Wally was already looking bad by sitting out while an alien invasion that almost everyone he claimed to care about was risking their lives to stop was going on. And I get that loyalty goes a long way, but Dick was in over his head and lost all control of the situation as Wally pointed out (Dick and Conner had almost died, three teenage kids, including his own cousin, was allowed to be captured for torture, and he wrongly believed Kaldur was a traitor). So how can Wally just go back to sitting on his couch thinking the woman he loved was in danger and knowing his best friend thought it was necessary that his little cousin was kidnapped for torture? It's not like Dick's never volunteered sending his friends/teammates to their death before as he did it with Conner in "FAILSAFE". Loyalty is fine, but not when it's given blindly to somebody who has shown repeatedly that they don't deserve it like Dick. Honestly, I never thought it was possible for me to hate/dislike Wally West, but I came pretty close after this because it wasn't Wally-like, as he essentially abandoned his friends and family (Bart). And what happened in "ENDGAME" doesn't erase that. In fact, I'd say it made Wally's mischaracterization (assuming Wally did actually care about the people he mentioned in the episode) after "DARKEST" worse.

Finally, there's Wally's story as a hero. In Season One, it appears that his arc was basically about maturing enough that he could become a suitable boyfriend option for Artemis. I already mentioned what I thought was highlighted in "DENIAL", and I think "COLDHEARTED" was just to make Wally slightly less of an idiot and a joke that she would consider dating him. Which isn't exactly the most flattering of character arcs. And I also felt he was portrayed as the weak link of the team. He was the character that would (comically) mess up the most on missions and with his powers (running into walls, tripping over marbles and rocks, blowing the team's cover, and nearly getting the team killed just by trying to impress a girl who doesn't even think he has one positive attribute). He was also the only member of the team that didn't land a single blow during the fight with the Injustice League in "REVELATIONS", but did manage to be the only one to suffer a significant injury. Honestly, Wally's competence in "COLDHEARTED" was hard for me to believe given how he was portrayed in all the previous episodes. He just seemed to be as much of a detriment to the team as a help unless science exposition was needed on the mission. And things like all the other characters constantly making fun of him, the running gag that Wally was so forgettable as a hero that the public could almost never remember his name, and the oblivious flirting with M'gann that made him look like even more of an idiot didn't help matters. Especially the last one as it lasted the majority of the season and there was no real payoff to it outside of "aw man!". Artemis, who only showed interest in Conner during her first two episodes, had a much more extreme reaction to finding out about M'gann and Conner being together. Not to mention Dick's over-the-top flirting worked with Zatanna in "HUMANITY", so it wasn't Wally's flirting that was bad, just that it was Wally that was doing it.

Then in Season Two, Wally's inferiority was used in "BLOODLINES" for some cheap laughs, and as a prop so you guys could show how much better Bart was than him in every single way. And I know you said you didn't think he showed Wally up at all, but I'd say four (completely obvious) different scenes where the show played it up for laughs at Wally's expense was a little much. As Wally said when he had to be carried away from Neutron's blast by Bart and Barry because he wasn't fast enough, he was being humiliated. And I don't think him assisting Jay at the end to help save Barry/Bart offsets that considering Barry promptly interrupted Wally lecturing Bart on his recklessness and gave Bart all the credit for saving him. The episode spent twenty minutes slamming home the point that Wally wasn't worthy of being named in the same sentence with Bart and Barry, and a scene that is pretty much glossed over hardly made up for it to me. Then Wally ends up dying in "ENDGAME" simply because he wasn't fast enough to live to further cement that he wasn't worthy of being part of the Flash legacy. His death wasn't so much a noble sacrifice to me (as I suspect it was meant to be) as it was him dying because he wasn't good enough to live. And being told your favorite character died because they weren't good enough isn't fun, especially when the show already had an episode where it made fun of that character for the same reason they died. Perhaps if the show would have dealt with Wally's inferiority and his thoughts/feelings about it before "BLOODLINES" or in a serious/respectful manner (much like it did with Conner's inferiority to Superman in the first season), then I'd be able to see his death in a different way. But as it is, his inferiority wasn't so much a part of his character and story as it was just used as a tool to build Bart up and serve as an excuse to kill him off.

And let me say again that I have absolutely no problem with the idea of Wally being slower than Barry/Bart or him dying. Those things could have been interesting and meaningful. But I felt with the way the show handled those things, they weren't. You tried to compare Dick not being as strong as Conner to Wally not being as fast as Bart/Barry, but there's two huge differences. The first is that Dick's one trick isn't being incredible strong and the other is that the show didn't pound home that fact over and over in a comedic fashion the way it did with Wally and the Allen's in "BLOODLINES". Wally being slower is only a big issue because you guys made it one with how you handled it. And I truly believe you don't think you guys implied that Wally was a lesser hero or not good enough because he's slower, but I do know my two kids (11 and 8) now think that Impulse/The Flash are awesome and that Kid Flash is "a loser" thanks to that episode (Young Justice was their first real experience with the DC universe). I also think simply leaving the Allen's out (or not having them be directly involved) of Wally's death scene would've been a more than satisfying conclusion for his character. That way you guys still would have gotten your death and made it about what Wally could do as a hero instead of what he couldn't (and help shed the selfish label the character had). But making it simply about his speed after his treatment in "BLOODLINES", you guys basically admitted that Wally no longer had a role in this universe because he's a second-rate speedster and therefore had to die. Which might actually be true as Wally couldn't be the Flash (not with Bart running circles around him), but I'm not sure that you guys had to be so on the head about it.

Having said all that, I did like Wally's personality on the show (well at least in Season One when his characterization was pretty consistent) and I did relatively enjoy the show on the whole. But feeling like the show was continually telling me over and over how bad Wally was throughout two seasons dragged it down for me at times. And I do get that quite a bit of the things I mentioned weren't entirely valid as Wally was just the comic relief character (they do start to add up, though). But even the important parts of Wally's story (his relationship with Artemis/conflicts with other characters/as a hero/his death) came across about how terrible and/or how much of a joke he was to me. It just seemed that outside of "COLDHEARTED", Wally's main purpose on the show was to look bad to make the others look good and enhance their story by either telling them how great they were (which they never did for him) or being the bad guy. And like I said, I don't think it was the show's intentions to do that and I think I have a pretty good idea what the show was trying to do. But what the narrative of the show wanted me to believe (that Artemis liked Wally/that he was good thing for her/that Dick thought of him as his best friend/etc) and what the show actually showed were two completely different things to me. And I just have a hard time blindly accepting things on a show when they aren't really backed up by what is shown and were even contradicted by what was at times.

So for me, Wally's story was just about how he wasn't good enough no matter how hard he tried. Not good enough for Artemis, not good enough to get any respect from his friends, and not good enough as a speedster to survive or to be worthy of being the Flash because that's simply how those things were handled and portrayed on the show itself. He did have his moments here and there (I loved "COLDHEARTED"), but what little positive the character had was overshadowed by the overwhelming negative in my opinion.

Anyway, I apologize for wasting your time with this and for feeling this way. I really, really wish I didn't. And good luck with your book, the Star Wars series, and whatever else you may work on in the future!

Anonymous writes...

Hey, Greg. I noticed another poster mentioned using YJ for educational purposes. I work as English/ESL teacher. I taught a TOEFL class for a period of time and one of the things I had to do was to introduce my class of Korean teenagers to the concept of an inference. So, I showed them "Infiltrator". "So weak!" and "So stupid!" were one girl's response to Aqualad. (Kaldur does get beat-up quite a bit in this episode.) Anyways, I asked them how Wally and Artemis feel about each other. They drew the conclusion that they don't like each other.

"Oh, really?" I said.

Then, I showed them "Bereft" in which Wally and Artemis meet again for the first time. Then, I showed them how Wally and Artemis's behavior in "Infiltrator" can be construed differently - in other words: it is possible to INFER certain things from their behavior that are not directly stated. Anyways, I think they got the concept of an inference.

More recently, I used "Denial" to demonstrate the hero's journey. Although I did point out that since Wally seems not to have learned anything at the end of the episode that his journey was comic variation of the archetypal hero's journey.

That's all for now.

Best,

Marvelman

Kay writes...

First of all, Thank you. Young Justice gave me hope that there are still quality "kid's shows" being created. Second, Gargoyles was one of my top five shows as a kid (And I just today learned that you're responsible for both, so thanks for that too).

Now for the main reason I'm questioning you: I've finishing up a Master's degree now and will hopefully be teaching come September. Would it bother you if I made it a goal of mine to use Young Justice in a classroom setting? I feel like the show has so much potential for talking about social justice and frankly teaching analytical skills, prediction, characterization...basically I want to use Young Justice as a teaching tool because it was such a richly created world. And the truth is, I would like your blessing to pursue this goal.

P.S. Your snark, it is amazing.

A Flash Fan writes...

Hello Greg,

Another Flash related question I have been pondering for a while now...

1. Why is Flash's (and Kid Flash's) lightning bolt insignia/logo/symbol different from the one in the original comics? In Young Justice it is only one line that switches back, but in the comics it is two (as I'm sure you know, being so knowledgeable in comics and such). I know Bruce Timm did it in the DCAU as well, and it was one of the reasons I had such a hard time (which in the long run I considered fun) finding out and realizing the differences between Flashes. I was just curious. Does it have anything to do with that the logo can't be the same due to copyright? Is it just easier to draw? Was it your preference?

2. Is there more cut material from episodes that you are willing to share?

3. I thought the Arsenal spin-off would have been a great idea! Along with the other items you pitched for Earth-16...here's hoping we'll see some soon!

Anonymous writes...

1. WHERE is the exact place that Vandal Savage was born on Earth-16?

2. Given Vandal Savage lived for over 50,000 years, would he actually be considered to be a Cro-Magnon (which is an informal name for the first early modern humans)?

3. Would Vandal Savage be comparable in some ways to the Marvel Comics villain known as Romulus (one of Wolverine's enemies)?

Steel_Goliath writes...

Hi Mr Weisman
i was wondering do you feel any anger towards the shows you work on get canceled before you can finish all the plot lines
also what do you plan to do now that young justice is cancelled