BonnieB21:-) writes...

Young Justice Question Time!

I maybe the first one to mention this, but The Light seems to be very similar to The Venture Brothers' Guild of Calamitous Intent's Council Of Thirteen. The Council is also a secret group of supervillians who meet their underlings in a dark room and hide their identities behind screens (and officially assign heroes supervillians).

1. Did you know about The Council Of Thirteen when developing YJ? Or is it a coincidence? Parody? Or a homage to your channel mate's show on Adult Swim?

I was just struck by this idea the other day:

2. Did/Does Miss. Martian have a crush on Superman? Does she really like the boy or just the "Super"? It only makes sense that she would have a crush on the "Original" as well as the "Imitiation".

When Miss. Martian first meets Superboy she compliments him on his shirt, and then in YJ#0, SB runs out a buys a dozen more just like it.

3. Does Superboy only wear the "S" T-shirt for himself, Superman, AND Miss. Martian?

I've been wondering this for a while and had to force myself to wait until Artemis' debut to ask but.

4. Why make both minority characters blond and have light colored eyes?
4.a. Do Aqualad and Artemis dye their hair?

You had to tell us that Artemis is half Vietnamese instead of it being obvious from looking at her. You have to tell us, instead of showing us. I get that Aqualad is from Atlantis and therefore should be "exotic" looking. He looks like a cross between Sisquo the rapper who's biggest hit was "The Thong Song" and Spyke Storm's nephew from X-Men: Evolution. But Artemis is blond, blue eyed, and has no accent. Nothing that sets her apart from Wally, Dick, & Speedy. Nothing that says 'I'm Asian American". I'm sure this isn't a case of let's have ethnic characters, but not TOO ethnic..........

I'm kind of underwhelmed by the opening theme for YJ. I was really hoping for a catchy opening theme (with original animation) like W.I.T.C.H., Spectacular Spiderman, or Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes'. It took me a while to realize that you all but fresh clips of the current episode in the opening, but it's still really short.

5. Is there a reason why the theme is so short?
5. a. Do you have any say in how long the theme is or is it just up to Cartoon Network?
5. b. Does a shorter theme mean you get more time for actual story telling?

I was kind of hoping to hear Jesse McCartney sing the YJ theme. Which brings me to this, since Batman: The Brave & The Bold's "Mayhem Of The Music Meister" has established that Black Canary can sing. And Robin's voice actor is a singer....

6. Why not have the Birds duet? And the rest of the cast sing?

7. Any chance of Ace: The Dark Canine and Krypto: The Super Pooch showing up?

I watched "Infiltrator" last night and being from Miami....Whooo!!! Thanks for the shout out! But there's no such thing as "Miami Beach University"...

8. Is Miami Beach University supposed to stand in for the University of Miami? And did the League of Shadows destroy it as a test? To get valuable information? Or revenge?

This brings me to the character that most irks me in the series: Speedy. He's such a stuck up jerk, I can't stand him. He thinks he's all that but hasn't really proved himself. He really doesn't play well with others. Speedy goes in and rescues the doctor and she tells him not to leave the weapon behind. He leaves it anyway instead of using the explosives he had with him to blow it up. Next he dumps the woman on the YJL and leaves them to clean up his mess. To do what exactly? Run home and blog about how he's a Lone Wolf now and no one understands him? He doesn't even see through his own mission, that being rescue the kidnapped scientist and neutralize the threat to her life. Next, he makes a big show of "changing his name and distancing himself" from Green Arrow, by becoming Red Arrow. Really, picking another color word and your mentor's last name, does not a separate identity make. Finally, at the end we're supposed to believe he really cares about someone other than himself, just cause he threatens Artemis a teenage girl? Where were you when the real battles were being fought? Jerk!

9. Had Speedy not quit, would he have been a good leader for the team?

I don't think so, he'd have pushed for leadership since's he's the oldest, while Batman would've wanted Robin. But no way 18 year old Speedy would take orders from 13 year old Robin. Plus, I'm sure the first time the other kids didn't listen to him, he'd throw a prima donna tantrum and abandon them. Aqualad is much better suited for the job.

I'm enjoying the show a lot, especially the more grounded in reality approach. Batman's not going to be punching out Darkseid and Robin won't be fighting 10 feet tall villians made of cinder block. Nothing out of the realm of what a normal human can handle.

10. Will we see the kids go on patrol and handle regular street level crime?

11. How come there are no previews for next week's episode during the credits?

Thanks again for answering my questions.

Anonymous writes...

big time fan, love so much about the show. its like the next generation of cartoons. except for one gripe.

the dialogue, after watching spectacular spider-man, where one could actually envision a real person speaking those lines, i saw how a correct balance of realism and fantasy could be blended. Peter Parker would be going through spider-man situations with banter and conversations that outdid the Motion Pictures.

while young justice on the other hand, loses this major component that drew so many to spectacular spider-man, i know its unfair to compare that to anything considering how stand alone it was in the quality department but, i wouldn't if the dialogue in young justice, by consensus, wasn't so noticeable off than your previous efforts.

aqualad, and superboy MIGHT get away with a few natural sounding lines, but everyone recording voices in the main cast BLEW it when establishing their character's voice tone and delivery.

kid flash sounds like a father trying to imitate his son.

miss martian really does sound like an alien, in the sense that the voice actor speaks like she has never heard the English language. that's not a good thing.

robin... i can deal with the pre-puberty angle but for his actor being one of the most high profile on the show... what material are you guys giving him for real. when it comes to robins dialogue, the people who test and feedback on these lines obviously have too much respect for this writing team to break the bad news to them,

The grand scope of this storyline is incredible, the animation is bar none, again, huge fan. But with all of the blood, sweat, and tears that i know have been put into this work of art, how on earth did anyone approve "hello megan?", or robin's 13 year old S.A.T. word of the day (terbed? yall set your self up for all the backlash/insults from that gimic.)

I wish it was just my opinion but you know, the internet these days Greg, if everyone's saying it its fact. I'll watch regardless, please believe that, but just know i'm a die hard, your losing others fast.

Grant writes...

Infiltrator

Was it your intention or that of the episode writer to put in so many obscure 80s Batman or Denny O Neil references? You have got Infinity Island, Ojo, Sensei, Hook from the Deadman stories and Black Spider, someone has to be a big fan of this material to remember all of this stuff from 30 years ago.

nacnud writes...

Dear Greg,

In a question long back by a different poster, you said that in Season 2 of The private Spectacular Spider-Man, Charles Xavier was just a professor of a private school. If the X-Men portion of your "Spectacular" universe are as well dedicated to the comics as Spider-Man's show was, does this mean the X-Men in your universe are currently:
Cyclops
Beast
Marvel Girl
Angel
and Ice Man?
Or would there be a different line-up?

Mike P. writes...

Really enjoying Young Justice so far!
1. One of the things I like most about the show is the attention to detail you've given to the characters and the world. How exactly did you plan out which characters/locations(even peripheral ones) you were going to use for the show? Was it something where you made a list of people/places you wanted to use and how they relate to one another prior to the beginning of production in a "series bible" or does it grow and change from episode to episode?
2. Seeing as how Superman is apparently the first superhero in this universe and has only been active for about 10 years at the start of the series where does that put groups like the JSA or heroes such as Spy Smasher or the Crimson Avenger?

jj writes...

Dear Greg,

I am wondering how many seasons you have planned for "Young Justice"?

DC Hero writes...

In episode 7, Denial, I noticed at the beginning Artemis and Miss M were talking about who should go with who. It seemed like they were trying to dump each other with their other teammates. Do they both haave a flair for Superboy ?

Anonymous writes...

where is kid flash going to keep all the souvenirs he finds at the end of each episode?

If he gets one each episode are we going to see them again?

DC Hero writes...

hey Greg, loving Young justice right now. All the twist and turns are really confusing me.
I got to ask you from watching episode 6 does Artemis have some kind of crush on superboy and Miss Martian is getting jealous or was it a one time thing.

Gonman writes...

Will Artemis's Backstory Be On The Show? After Seeing Episode 6 I Think Artemis Has Some Connections To Cheshire And The Light.