Tupka writes...

I've been thinking over a lot of questions; these are the only good ones I could come up with. If it's already asked, it must have happened yesterday, my apoligies.

1. I've noticed you give out plot teases for future comics, but not episodes. Is this a tactic to get more people buy the comic?
2a. In Young Justice #9 and #10, the Pentagon is said to be in Washington. Shouldn't it be Arlington County?
2b. Also about that first DC timestamp in #9... it says 23:03, but it's light as day. Coloring mistake or timestamp mistake?
3a. I think it's safe to say that Captain Atom is close to you. Was Kevin Hopps acquainted with the original story or did you give him homework? Was adapting the story difficult?
3b. Do he and Brandon Vietti have favorite characters that they like to give screentime?
4. Issue #11... Why was there a tanker truck so close to the launch pad? It's not like it has to fuel the rocket, and it would blow up from the heat of the launch.
5a. Concerning the guests at Kent's funeral... It was nice to see Wildcat still alive. Is he still active, or has he retired like Jay and just dressed up for the occasion?
5b. I couldn't recognize the woman with Barry. Was that Iris?
6a. In #7, Paula exits the bus to Bludhaven. Christopher Jones mentioned on his blog that he added the Bludhaven because he likes adding those details. Have you at this point thought out where Bludhaven is, or is it just "a busride away from Gotham"?
6b. Did you ever have to call him back to remove a reference?
7. In Welcome to Happy Harbor and later Schooled, Gotham is established in Connecticut. But in Downtime, the Gotham Academy had Artemis' address with the zip code 10510 - that's Westchester County, NY (coincidentally the location of a certain school in Marvel Comics). Shouldn't it have been an 06... code? Or has the Postal Service on Earth-16 come up with a new numbering?
8. In Downtime, the Daily Gotham in the Crock apartment [http://youngjustice.wikia.com/wiki/File:The_Daily_Gotham.png] had a picture from the 1992 Batman series [http://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/File:Poison_Clippings.jpg]. I looked if any of the people credited with prop design (Andy Chiang, Alexander Kubalsky and Eugene Mattos) had any history with the Batman series, but couldn't find a link. Do you know whose idea the photo was?
9. Issue #13 - how did Clayface know which teammember to "team up" with eachother to take them down? The Team hasn't really shown romantic tension or friendship in #12 and #13 (on-panel, at least).
10. Also in #13, Artemis mentions her "record and pedigree" will have her end up in Belle Reve. Does she actually have a record, or did she say that to fool Icicle?
11. People have asked about the NYPD police cars and why they're not blue and white. Closer inspection reveals they're the same as the Metropolis police car in "Revelation" and even the Taipei police cars in "Targets". My absurdly trained DC Animated Universe eye (see the newspapers question above) recognized them as the Metropolis PD cruisers from Superman: The Animated Series... which were reused on Justice League and Justice League Unlimited for Gotham PD and Central City PD. Were the designs reused to save time and money, or is there one car manufacturer (Lex?) that has completely cornered the world police cruiser market?

Anonymous writes...

Did you know that the DVD close captions reveal the identities of L-1, L-6 and L-5? How did this happen?

Also in the captions, when L-6 lists the interferences ran by the Team, he says "Monsieur Twister", but it sounds like he says "Mister". What does he say in fact?

Todd Jensen writes...

I've been waiting since December for this. I checked out the second "Young Justice" DVD from the library then, and here's my review of its episodes (almost three months old now, I'm afraid, not fresh).

SCHOOLED: You certainly opened this episode on a surprise. A school bus is in trouble (I noticed, incidentally, that you mentioned that the school bus turns up in other episodes as a running gag, and my immediate thought was "So now 'Young Justice' has its own counterpart to the yuppie couple!"), and the first person whom we see ready to change into super-hero gear and respond is Bruce Wayne! (Obviously he has to be there to see Superman's response to Superboy and talk to him about it later on - but I can't help think that part of the point might also have been to have some fun messing with the viewers' expectations!) Of course, Superman shows up before Bruce can don his bat-gear, but it's still a bit of a shake-up.

A lot of other people have no doubt already mentioned this, but I thought that Bruce and Clark's dessert orders were wonderfully appropriate.

I immediately thought of the Winged Monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz" when Professor Ivo's robot monkeys showed up, especially since they emerged from the cornfield (yes, I know that the cornfield and the winged monkeys are in different parts of "The Wizard of Oz", but it still somehow helped with the imagery). And I loved Professor Ivo's line about how long it took him to come up with the acronym for them.

I'd heard of Amazo before, if just the name (which, in print, looks like it's derived from "Amazon"; fortunately, when pronounced, as in this episode, it's clear that it's derived from "amaze" or "amazing"). Definitely a great idea for a challenging adversary - and I liked how you had the Team take him down, using his own skill against him.

One final delight: Kid Flash getting taken out by Black Canary after he hits on her.

INFILTRATION: Red Arrow's choice for a new name over "Speedy" seemed well-advised to me (apart from his desire to be his own person rather than standing in someone else's shadow). As I mentioned in my review of the first "Young Justice" DVD (and as someone commented in the opening episode), "Speedy" sounds more appropriate for a super-fast super-hero like Kid Flash rather than an archer; with a name like "Red Arrow", it's clear what his skills are. (Artemis likewise chose her super-hero moniker well, a name that also makes it clear - at least, to anyone familiar with Greek mythology - what her skills are.)

The scene where the Team are in telepathic conversation with each other - and soon regret it (as does Dr. Roquette even more) was another hilarious moment. So was Wally suffering through his first day in the new term at his high school while everyone else is having a great time at the beach (is it just me, or is he the natural target for comical humiliation)?

This is a minor issue, but Robin's interest in word-play invites it; when he said that the Fog had decimated Star Labs, I thought that the word "decimated" would have been more appropriate if it had only wiped out 10 percent of the building, rather than the whole thing.

DENIAL: Kent Nelson's voice sounded familiar to me when I watched this, and although I usually don't give too much thought to who voices whom, I decided to pause during the ending credits to check - and, yep, voiced by Ed Asner. Who did a fine job on him, too.

Kent established himself as a great character from the start, first when he tells the phony fortune-teller that if his wife really was trying to contact him from beyond the grave, she'd be telling him off for wasting good money on a fraud rather than uttering the usual "I miss you" cliches (which also establishes her as a great character), and then exposing her tricks.

I'd only seen Klarion before in an episode of "The New Batman/Superman Adventures" (which got my attention because of its Arthurian content; Klarion seized control of an old demon that had served Merlin once through a branding-iron belonging to Morgan le Fay); there he was just a spoiled brat with access to magic. This Klarion, as a Lord of Chaos, is a lot more deadly, outranking the Klarion of "The New Batman/Superman Adventures" the way Voldemort would outrank Draco Malfoy.

And I smiled (if not laughed) when the big action took place in Salem. (Well, where else would a magic-themed super-hero keep his tower?)

Can't help but suspect that Dr. Fate was drawing on Kid Flash's style when his way of defeating Klarion's henchman was to make his outer garments vanish, leaving him in his underwear.

DOWNTIME: I immediately thought when I saw the opening scene, with its gloomy architecture and gargoyles, "Must be Gotham City" - and then a moment later, the caption confirms it.

Another good episode, with its glimpses of the Team's civilian life. I liked Alfred's cameo (he's one of my favorite characters in the "Batman" universe). The scene with Superboy and Miss Martian was funny (particularly Red Tornado's brief visit), though a bit creepy when I began to wonder whether Superboy's watching a blank screen had something to do with his upbringing at Cadmus Labs. And the scene with Wally was, as usual, funny - and also showed that super-speed apparently runs in his family (sorry, that one just slipped out), complete with the family patriarch apparently having been a super-speedster in Kent Nelson's generation.

Two bits in the Atlantis scenes got my attention. The first was when Aqualad and Aquaman were speaking to each other in Atlantean with subtitles; I knew already that their language was based on ancient Greek, and recognized one word from a high school course on Homeric Greek that I'd taken: "anax", meaning "king". It got me wondering whatever became of my textbook for that course (which included the full first book of the Iliad in the original Greek, complete with commentary).

The second was Prince Orm. He says that he doesn't mind not being first in line for the throne now that Aquaman's going to have a son, but I wondered if he meant it. I've seen enough cases of royal treachery from younger brothers who have a nephew standing in front of them in the line of succession (from John Lackland and Richard III down to Scar in "The Lion King") that I wondered if Orm was telling the truth. On the other hand, there've been some loyal "royal uncles" (such as John of Gaunt to Richard II), so I shouldn't be too quick to expect skullduggery from Orm. At any rate, if he shows up in any more episodes, I'm keeping a close eye on him.

So that's my review. I hope I can review episodes 9-12 soon.

Anonymous writes...

What happens to Robin's grappling guns when he leaves them behind?

Anonymous writes...

Congratulations on the video game. I'm talking about YJ: Legacy, of course. Will the story be canon?

Anonymous writes...

When was the android T.O. Morrow created?

Anonymous writes...

If Professor Ivo distributed the prison uniforms in the men's wing, who distributed them in the women's wing?
Who was the Black woman sharing a cell with Devastion?
Were all of the inmates at Belle Reve named characters, or were most of them just extras?

Anonymous writes...

I read somewhere here that the number 16 has some magical meaning on YJ. I know I've seen it in some timestamps and Red Tornado's number is 16. What's it significance? Can you list all its references so far?

Anonymous writes...

You said Superman doesn't have superbreath, but he used it to blow away some monqis in #2.

Anonymous writes...

Can you please rank the members of the Light by IQ?