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GREG-SPONSES 2010-10 (Oct)

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Anonymous writes...

So sorry if you've answered this, but I just had a question. Black Canary is going to be on the show, correct?

Wikipedia says something about her playing a sizable role on the show, but the article it references for the statement is a 15 minute long interview with you, so I haven't heard the whole thing.

So will Black Canary have a speaking role, or will she be just one of the wallpaper heroes you mentioned, like Captain Atom?

Greg responds...

I don't believe I ever used the phrase "wallpaper heroes" even for Captain Atom.

And I have to say, the fact that you don't have the patience to listen to a fifteen minute interview, but have no problem taking time out of my day to answer a question you could easily find the answer to by EITHER finishing the interview or checking the ASK GREG archives makes me half inclined to blow off your question entirely.

But the answer is easy, so...

Yes - as has been stated many times and in many places -- Black Canary has a significant (speaking) role in the series, as she is responsible for the Team's training and also acts as a something of a councillor to them.

Now, if someone wonders why it takes me so long to get through the backlog of questions here at ASK GREG, I can point to this as one of the reasons...

Response recorded on October 22, 2010

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Jess writes...

Heya Greg! I have a quick question RE a fairly obscure adaption of the Arthurian mythos and your knowledge there-of.

Have you ever seen the episode of the '80s Twilight Zone series called "The Last Defender of Camelot"? If you haven't, to give an explanation without spoiling too much, it involves Lancelot, Morgan La Fay, Merlin and a modern boy named Tom *cough cough*. I was a little surprised to see many of the key themes that show up in Gargoyles, such as immortality, and how power and good intentions can lead one astray.

If you haven't seen it, and it wasn't an influence, I'd recommend checking it out if you should get the chance. Despite a certain cheestasticness and pretty bad special effects, there's some really solid and interesting writing.

It just struck me as an odd coincidence how the tone reminded me so much of Gargoyles at times (in the best possible way. It brought a smile to my face.) Though working from the same source material, not to mention pretty universal themes, some similarities would be inevitable. I guess I'm just curious as to whether it was kismet, or a case of one work having an influence, however small, on the other.

I wish you all the best and am waiting with bated breath for Young Justice's premiere!

Greg responds...

I have seen the episode... or at least a chunk of it... but only recently. It didn't influence Gargoyles, though I'm sure both had common influences.

Response recorded on October 22, 2010

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ananymous writes...

hey greg let me say im very excited for young justice i currently have one question you said the show takes place in earth 16 in the dc multiverse
i did a searched on the internet and it said that earth 16 is home to the "super sons"which is not connected to young justice. so im wondering they you know this before or did you ignored it.

Greg responds...

We asked DC for one of their unused 52 Earths, and they assigned us Earth-16. I wasn't aware at the time that pieces of it had been explored already. So we're ignoring that stuff...

Response recorded on October 22, 2010

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Grant writes...

Did you have Darth Vader in mind when you made Manta, the father of Aqualad?

Greg responds...

You'd have to ask Geoff Johns. That was his idea. (Though I LOVE it!)

Response recorded on October 22, 2010

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Steven D. writes...

Hello again, Mr. Weisman.

I've had a question in the back of my mind for some time, and now seems like a good time to ask it.
Recently, you released the writer's rotation for the first 24 episodes of YJ.
I've always been fascinated with television writing,as there seems to be no one way to do it, so I wanted to ask a few questions on how you approach it.

1. Back when i first wanted to ask this, I checked the SpecSpiderman archives to see what you mentioned about writing for that show. When going over writing duties, you mentioned that some of the episodes that you "reserved" some of the episodes you wrote. Since Young Justice finds you in a similar position of being both a producer and staff writer, I'm curious to know, what factors do you use when picking episodes to reserve for yourself (and confirming that reserve wasn't just a metaphor you were using)?

2. While I'm here, I was hoping you could also shed some light on how much freedom your freelance writers are given. Do they ever get the chance to write an episode completely from scratch, or because the shows you work on are so arc based, are they always given a firm foundation to start with, and if so, how rigid is this foundation (generally)?

Thanks!

Greg responds...

1. Sometimes I end up writing an episode for pragmatic reasons... or a combination of the creative and the pragmatic. For example, I wrote the two-part pilot of Young Justice (i.e. episodes 1 and 2). Of course, I had a creative desire to write these episodes, but it also would not have been pragmatic for anyone else to write them. I needed to set the tone of the series for the other writers to be able to get it.

Another example: staff writer Kevin Hopps and I were set to write the last two episodes (25 and 26) of the first season. Though we know the basics of what takes place in them, based on meetings that Kevin, producer Brandon Vietti and I had over a year ago, we hadn't broken those episodes yet, and creatively I hadn't decided which of the two I wanted to write. But scheduling realities last week made it apparent that Kevin would HAVE to write 25, meaning I was writing 26. All of which is just as well. I started the season; I might as well finish it. But the decision wasn't creative; it was purely pragmatic. The creative decision might have been no different. But the creative decision became moot for pragmatic reasons.

On the other hand, I've also written three other episodes. In those cases, the pragmatic need was for me to write one episode each between 6-11, between 12-17 and between 18-24. Within those parameters, I chose 11, 15 and 19 for purely creative reasons. Those were the ones I felt a special affinity for (based on reasons I can't reveal now without spoilers). So going into the three writers' meetings for each of those three "sets" of episodes, there was SOME flexibility as to which writer took which episode (keeping scheduling pragmatism in mind), but I had "reserved" for myself the one I wanted to write in each case.

2. My freelancers have, for better or worse, very little freedom when it comes to WHAT stories we are telling. The premises were all approved long before the freelancers came aboard. If a specific writer feels no affinity for a specific story, then he or she doesn't have to take that episode. I always try to give each writer an episode that jazzes him or her. But the basics of the stories are set. Now, the writers are very involved in the execution of those stories. That's where their freedom comes in. But they still have quite a gauntlet to wade through... beat outlines, outlines, scripts (and notes from many sources). Ultimately, I take responsibility for every episode, and I'm the guy doing the final pass on every beat outline, outline and script. But I couldn't do this job without stellar writers providing me with great stuff. And on this series, I couldn't do it without Brandon and Kevin actively participating in the inception and breaking of every single story.

Response recorded on October 22, 2010

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Anonymous writes...

Not a question but...THAT GREEN ARROW SHORT WAS F***ING AMAZING!!! Hard to believe a ten minute dvd short is better than half the crap superhero movies hollywood is putting out. Thank you and everybody else who worked on it for this.

Greg responds...

Glad you liked it!!

Response recorded on October 19, 2010

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Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello Greg,

Following (far) behind my long-overdue reaction to Bad Guys, here's my first question about it:

Why does Yama ask which specific gargoyle and human Sevarius used for the mutate DNA he was planning to use on Robyn and Yama? Why does Yama care? Is some human DNA more undesirable than others, or is he just curious?

Thank you.

Greg responds...

I'll leave that for your interpretation for now.

Response recorded on October 19, 2010

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Charisma82 writes...

Did Matt ever tell Elisa that he was a member of the Illuminate? I ask because in the episode Revelations Matt says that it didn’t pay to keep Elisa in the dark about things (speaking about the incident with the Dracons in The Silver Falcon). After going on and on about how they should trust each other in the episode Revelations, it would seem contradictory of what Matt had just been through to not tell Elisa. But then, maybe he has his reasons to keep it a secret. Care to shed some light on the subject?

Thank you for your time and all that you do,

-Charisma82

Greg responds...

I do not care to shed light on the subject.

Response recorded on October 19, 2010

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Anonymous writes...

In High Noon, why could Elisa see Coldstone, Demona, Macbeth, and the gargoyles at the park when no one else could due to the spell that Demona had cast on them?

Thank you for your time and all that you do,

-Charisma82

Greg responds...

It was a condition of the spell that bystanders wouldn't notice, but "players" would.

Response recorded on October 19, 2010

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Charisma82 writes...

Does Talon have a second in command down in the Labyrinth?

If so, who? Neither Maggie nor Claw seem like leader material to me, but then I could be wrong. I figure one of the clones might work, maybe. If not one of the clones, does Talon have someone else in mind to lead in his place, maybe someone we haven’t seen who lives down in the Labyrinth (a human)?

If not, why doesn’t Talon have an official second in command? Wouldn’t he know that (if something happened to him) without a leader the Labyrinth could turn to chaos trying to get a new one (worst case scenario)?

Thank you for your time and all that you do,

-Charisma82

Greg responds...

Talon isn't a gargoyle, and hasn't particularly structured the Labyrinth after a clan. He's more or less been elected leader. I guess he figures - if he thinks about it at all -- if he goes down, someone else will get elected.

There are people down there he trusts, like Thug and Maggie and Claw... and I'd guess Delilah.

But nothing official.

Response recorded on October 19, 2010


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