David Blyth writes...

Hi Mr. Wiesman

A question related to "The Batman", it was a very different kind of Batman series, fresh off the gridiron and airing alongside the final seasons of JLU, I'm not sure if it had a chance to really "define itself" in light of such a strong legacy, but part of what gave it it's own identity was the hard work of Duane Capizzi, Alan Burnett, a great voice cast (Mitch Pillegi!), and your own scripts.

"The Everywhere Man" featured the voice acting of "Superman Returns" leading man Brandon Rough, who played the main antagonist, his co-star was Allison Mack, aka Chole Sullivan from long-lasting Superman series "Smallville", so all in all, it felt like a big Hollywood atmosphere

1. Do you have any memories of this beyond just the scripting process?

2. Were you told to write characters that "complimented" Brandon and Allison or did you know they were coming in?

mike p. writes...

I think spectacular spider-man is great and probably one of the best animated series in the past 5 years. The only other series that I can think of that have equally strong plotlines, acting, and sense of continuity are those in the DCAU (DC Animated Universe) created by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini. That whole shebang spun off of what was originally the standalone Batman: The Animated Series because of the commercial and critical success of that show. I already know that you're considering doing DVD movies after Spectacular Spider-Man ends it's run, but would you ever consider doing other shows set in the same self-contained Marvel Universe like that of the DCAU? Just wondering b/c I see how strong a series Spectacular Spider-Man is and can only imagine the potential for adapting other characters.

Wesley Nichols writes...

I read on one of youre answers that you are a huge batman fan. Did you see the Dark Knight and what did you think of the Joker? I feel that the Joker blew all the other characters away, but apparently some people don't like the interpretation. One person said that the Dark Knights's Joker is the best film version to date, but didn't approve of the interpreation, because of how sloppy he was and he considered Joker to be a neat freak.

Nelio writes...

While this isn't Gargoyles related, I did have a question about one of your other works. Today when I was researching the episode of "The Batman" titled "Artifacts", I was surprised to find out that you were the story writer. I checked some more and found that you actually worked on 7 episodes of "The Batman"; The Big Chill, The Rubber Face of Comedy Part 1, The Clayface of Tragedy Part 2, Meltdown, Strange Minds, The Everywhere Man, and Artifacts.

Coincidently, I've noticed that the episodes you worked on happy to be the higher ranking episodes for me in this show. Besides that, my question to you is how deeply interested / have you been in the Batman world? Did you read it a lot when you were a kid? Are you a big fan of Batman? Were these seven episodes just offered to you, or did you strive to get them?

I'm mostly curious, and look forward to your response.

kyle tonarella writes...

well i actually have seen the joker episodes you've written and they are tureley works of art a shame that they could not make joker like that through the rrst of the series oh well anyone on to a new question i've heard molten man will be in the show and we he actaully have connections to Liz Allen like the comics is he part of the firs or second arc of season 2

kyle tonarella writes...

i noticed you wrote a couple episodes of The Batman i wass wondering if you did a batman show how would you play the characters particularly joker

Antiyonder writes...

Some questions about The Batman I've been meaning to ask recently:

1. Which would you say is your favorite story that you produced for the show?
1a. Which episodes outside of the ones you've worked on did you enjoy if any?

2. Are you writing any episodes for the upcoming season?
2a. Have you been approached or had any interest in writing an issue of The Batman Strikes?

3. Concerning all of the episodes that you have written, have they remained intact or have any of them went through any major changes storywise?

4. Have managed to view The Batman VS Dracula yet? If so, did you like it?

5. What's your opinion on the appearance of the Justice League in The Batman? I myself find that it works for this version of Batman since it isn't as grounded in reality as the previous show.

A-Fan writes...

What are the chances of a crossover between Spider-Man and Batman for the two cartoons?

Todd Jensen writes...

This is also a comment, rather than a question.

I saw, not too long ago, the episode "Artifacts" that you wrote for "The Batman", and very much enjoyed it. My favorite part of it was the scenes where the archaeologists in the future are speculating about Batman's history and come to several wrong conclusions (such as that Thomas Wayne was the Batman and Bruce was Robin, or that the wheelchair that they found in the Batcave belonged to Alfred). It reminded me, incidentally, of my favorite part of Stoppard's "Arcadia" (which I read after you spoke highly of it in the Station 8 comment room some years ago): the part where the modern-day professor was convinced that the events in the Regency period of the play were connected to a scandal involving Lord Byron, and was deliberately ignoring all the evidence that didn't fit his theory!

Aldrius writes...

All right. Hi. I already posted a question, but it was kinda sucky, and I wanted to ask one of a more intellectual/character-oriented nature. Demona's character in "Awakening" reminds me much of the character Andrea from Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. (Which is my favourite movie ever, by the way.) Both were love interests to the hero in the past, indepentant, intelligent and strong-willed love interests to be sure... but still love interests.

At a certain point, the hero and the love interest part ways. (With the hero being mis-led in terms of the love interests' parting.) And continue on their lives seperately. Leading very different lives. Eventually, the hero and his love meet up again, and the woman is now a very different person than she was before. Leading the hero to believe nothing's changed, she eventually reveals her true colours at the climax of the series of episodes/movie. (Both hiding themselves from their lovers, knowing that they would never accept what they've become.)

I was just wondering if this was intentional in your thought process, or just a comparison I've dreamed up. As I am a big fan of both of the aformentioned characters.

(P.S. As a side-question, what were your thoughts on the character of Andrea, and the performance of her Actress Dana Delany?)

DrNick writes...

Batman

1) Why weren't you allowed to use the Scarecrow in the new animated Batman series?
2) In regards to the Batman cartoon were the plethora of mechanical gadgets such as the jet pack, batman exosuit and the anti-freeze suit for the specific purpose of marketing batman toys towards younger viewers?
3) What did you think of the Batman Begins movie by Goyer and Nolan? Did you think it succeeded in translating and telling the origin story onto the screen?

Todd Jensen writes...

Your use of the Batman analogy to explain Canmore's actions in "City of Stone Part Four" reminded me that I still hadn't commented on your Mr. Freeze episode ("The Big Chill") for "The Batman", even though I'd seen it a few months ago. Very remiss of me, so I thought that I'd give my thoughts on it here.

I'll start off by confessing that, since my previous knowledge of Mr. Freeze came entirely from his portrayal in "Batman: TAS", I had a little trouble accepting the new version of him in "The Batman". In "Batman: TAS", Mr. Freeze was a very poignant figure on account of his wife Nora; the Mr. Freeze of "The Batman", on the other hand, was a simple super-powered jewel thief with almost no complexity or depth to him. For an analogy, it'd be as if somebody else were to do a remake of "Gargoyles" and portray Demona as a simple Hyena-style psychopath without any mention of the thousand years of human persecution that she'd undergone or her suppressed guilt over the Wyvern Massacre. Of course, I suspect that it was the higher-ups who'd decided how the series would portray Mr. Freeze, and you weren't given much say in the matter.

The bit that I liked, on the other hand (and which does counter the characterization of Mr. Freeze) was the impact that the discovery of Freeze's origins had on Batman, making him wonder if he was making things worse for Gotham if his actions had led to the upgrading of a regular jewel-thief into a super-powered jewel thief. The especial highlight of it was his nightmare about the murder of his parents where Mr. Freeze became their murderer.

(I still feel a little spooked by how much Detective Yin physically resembles Elisa. I'd certainly like to ask the people in charge of character design on "The Batman" about it, and whether it was a deliberate hommage to "Gargoyles" or just a strange coincidence.)

Fllay Allster hater AND Kira Yamato hater writes...

Just a comment: I couldn't help to notice that detective Ellen Yin from "The Batman" has the same the color schemes as Elisa Maza.

Frank White writes...

i am a great fan of your work. i know that gargoyles finished along time ago, but i was wondering if there was anything you will be working on in 2003 for disney or anybody else. also could you please give a brief description

Todd Jensen writes...

Here's my ramble on "Shadows of the Past".

First off, of course, this is where the Avalon World Tour begins (if you don't count the "Avalon" triptych), which makes it a biggie. I agree with you that the reruns in between the three instalments of it (which aired, as I recall, in November-December 1995, February 1996, and May 1996 - more or less) make the World Tour seem longer than it really was. (Incidentally, you're right that you were able to bring out more than 18 episodes of "Gargoyles" in the September-December period; I remembered that the "fall run" ended with "Grief", and so worked out that it was 30 new episodes during that period).

As I mentioned before, I enjoyed the Avalon World Tour, and agree with you that something like that was necessary for the series at some point (especially in bringing in enough other gargoyles to make it feasible for the species to survive and recover - as I've mentioned here before, something along the lines of the World Tour was probably the only realistic way for Goliath to discover that there were gargoyles left in other parts of the world, given that he couldn't simply hop on board the next flight from New York to London or Japan).

Angela's correct (from the original legends perspective) about it always being summer on Avalon; in fact, I remember that the old Welsh legends about Avalon (or, more accurately, its "literary predecessors") called it the Summer Country or the Region of the Summer Stars.

In hindsight from "Vendettas", I picked up on the significance of that axe that Goliath unearths - and agree with you now that Hakon's mace from the Wyvern Massacre would indeed have worked better. Too late for that now, though.

I also liked that line (which I considered very poetic) of Elisa's about "old wounds".

The Captain and Hakon's tormenting of Goliath was very effective - probably the creepiest part, in my opinion, was when Angela and Elisa appear in Goliath's eyes to be the Captain and Hakon - but then we hear Angela and Elisa's voices coming from the Captain and Hakon's mouths.

The Captain of the Guard's change of heart worked for me (again, I especially liked the bit that you mentioned where he's looking troubledly at his hands as he and Hakon solidify). In fact, it made sense in view of his role in "Awakening" - he'd never wanted the clan massacred, and was horrified as to how that had gone wrong. I might add that Hakon showed, again, just how creepy he is when he gets into the fight with Goliath and begins laughing as his fists pass through Goliath - the reason for that being now, not that Hakon's insubstantial and Goliath solid, but the other way around.

Incidentally, the Captain actually appears better-looking in the scene where he's giving Goliath his thanks, just before he ascends.

And I'll confess that I'm one of those who would have preferred Hakon to have remained trapped in the cave for all time - I felt, when "Vendettas" aired, that it destroyed some of the effectiveness, in retrospect, of Hakon's sentence: trapped alone for eternity, with nobody at hand for him to hate. (Also, "Vendettas" felt anticlimactic on the Hakon front; in "Shadows of the Past", he battles Goliath by skillfully undermining him with a lot of psychological subtlety; in "Vendettas", he's reduced to simply fighting him in a slugfest with a big dumb werewolf - though don't tell Wolf that I called him that. :) ). But I do think that you made a good point about how, ultimately, Hakon would have to be given more permanent resolution than just that.

Incidentally, your treatment of the megalith that the Captain and Hakon were using, and your comments on it, make me wonder now how you would have handled Stonehenge if you'd ever gotten to do an episode involving it (especially since you mentioned having had plans to send King Arthur and Griff there during their quest for Merlin) - a pity that we may never know the answer to that now.

Jacob writes...

Hi all. Hello Greg.

Nice to see you doing all these rambles, they make some forgotten memories come up to my mind again. I would do some, too, if I got a chance to watch the episodes again. But neither are their re-runs here (I've asked my way through: they want to spend the money on new things, though I always see "Doug", "Darkwing Duck" and so on), nor is my internet connection fast enough to download the episodes (if there are any to download) and a faster connection is by now too expensive. But after all the years without Gargoyles I do still remember some things that I liked or liked not that much.
First the things that I did not like: though there was a continuing plot, sometimes it was all too much the same. In short and very sarcastic: "It was a nice evening. The birds were singing and everyone liked each other. Then suddenly a dark cloud brought evil to our main characters. But after a short and hard fight the evil was defeated and everything got back to normal." That's why I like the "Awakening", "Avalon" or "City of stone" parts. These eps were so interesting because there was enough time to create a very interesting story and a really cool atmosphere - BTW City of stone was my first touch with Gargoyles. I saw the scene where the weird sisters speak as statues of children with Goliath and later crush as Brooklyn touches one of them (I hope I'm not mixing something up). My brother thought it was stupid and switched it off and I pretended that I thought it was stupid, too (Hey, I was just a child which did not want to argue). But I guess I liked the characters and the whole atmosphere. - Of course I don't want to say that the whole series should be one continuing show, but I had liked to see more five-parters.
But of course there are things that I liked very much. Most characters do change during the show and keeps being surprising. Everyone is part of a complex story (sometimes it was too complex for me, but after seeing it the second time I knew what was going on. But unfortunately some eps were mixed up so that suddenly we saw Angela, though the world tour was not even started). One of the things I like most are the fantasy elements (BTW Was the dragon we saw in "Pendragon"(?) a real dragon or just brought to life by magic??) Time travel, magicians, fae and of course the Gargoyles (clear why Fang said "I love this body"!!)
I just hope the new episodes will go on air someday. Maybe until then I can watch a few re-runs.

p.s.: some things might sound meaner than they are meant. I'm not good in being polite when I am writing in a language that I don't use often enough.
And sorry about any mistakes:)

p.p.s. Anything new about the real life movie?
What are you by now working on?