Jack-Pumpkinhead writes...

Dear Greg,
Down time was one of my top favorite episiodes. I mean, you manged to make every single Atlantean awesome, even Lagoon Boy was cool for his 5 seconds on screen. I loved the way you handled Garth, Kaldur, and Tula, very cool. I hope we see more Garth in the future. And that member of the Light Black Manta was talking to intrigues me; his head almost looks like he's wearing a crown. Please send my appreciation to the cast and crew!

W.C.Reaf writes...

Hey Greg

I just wanted to say that I loved the subtle little change to the voice credits in "Downtime" with almost the entire cast listed with their real names instead of codenames. I thought it was great and added to the theme of the episode showing the team's time off.

Are you planning on doing more stuff like that?

MacLeod writes...

Hey Greg,

I always thought that in "Future Tense" Goliath sent the Phoenix Gate to the distant past, thus closing the loop and the gate restarting its journey from scratch. Of course this was not the case, otherwise the "Timedancer" events couldn't/wouldn't have taken place. But can you at least give a hint of when did Goliath send the gate to at the end of "Future Tense"?

Anonymous writes...

Can the members of the Light be discerned by their voice actors? Especially if one known character has the same voice actor as one of the members?

Without getting into too many details, can you say anything about the selection of characters to be part of the Light? Were you looking for a broad overview of the different corners of the DC universe?

Thank you for the entertaining show!

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

Silly little question- Do you ever feel the urge, (or give into the urge), to slip something into a script purely because you know something about the actor? Like writing a song into a scene because you know the actor sings, (but maybe not telling them that they're going to be doing Sondheim or Gilbert & Sullivan till after they agree to sing 'some ditty'), or make them speak a foreign language because someone is fluent (but perhaps has a horrid accent)? Someone has a great cackle? Find a reason to have it come up. Someone is afraid of canaries? Put on on the character's shoulder for the whole episode. etc The only example I can think of now would be to have M'gan spout a long series of made up equations to see if Danica McKellar's head explodes in the face of nonsensical math. (Or replace of a series of made up equations with her own theorem at the last moment and wait for her to notice.)

Or does "Jalapeno!" qualify as such evil?

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

Oops- one other comment on Downtime- The "Hello Megan" was not annoying in this one. It seems to have shifted from a conscious verbal tic to an unconscious one.

Anonymous writes...

Why does it seem that Aqualad is the only Atlantean with gills?

Becky writes...

Will we be seeing any more of that hit tv show series "Hello Meg-" in YJ?

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

{Apologies if this is a double post}
Downtime: reactions/questions:
I enjoyed the recent episode. I can't say it was one of my favorites so far, but by definintion not every ep can be...

Main story-
1-I applaud the use of an Atlantian language, but Kal and Aquaman's speach seemed oddly stiff, almost robotic. Was this intentional to show the formalities of royalty?
2-The switch to English was nearly seemless. I didn't even notice it at first and then almost thought it was that Atlantian was used for formal situations like talking to royalty and spells. I jumped back and caught the flash in the pot switch over. (Added little meta moment of her asking if it worked and how would she know.)
3-I also liked the reverse of expectation that it seems the king's brother is loyal.
4-I did feel That Black Manta reporting to The Light was anticlimactic. All his taunting to Kal about it being lesser to serve seems hypocritical, and it wastes having a voice with the acting chops to pull a "If I can't have it no one can!" scream without sounding like a petulant child. Ironically I could have happily accepted all this as a great reversal of expectation, but after The Light being in just about every episode as the big bad behind the curtain I've got a little fatigue on them. I need to see the cast dealing with unrelated crimes too.

The rest of the story-
5-the animation continues to impress, I'd almost say it is a clear gemlike quality to it. Very expressive, very detailed (for animation) and still very clean. The interaction between Conner and Megan especially showcase it. {And also brings up a few questions; Did they kiss? How much does Red Toranado get? (I'd wager more than they'd guess if his wife and daughter come over from the print version) Why does Conner watch static? etc.}
6-Bruce continues to seem very intuned to people, including the ones closest to him. It takes me a while to get used to that, but I'm liking it. When it came to the basketball game, complete with smile, a thought had occured to me- is this an intentional reference to early Batman? I have not read the early Teen Titan stories, but I know the increasingly strained relationship beteen Dick and Bruce was an issue. But I also (again largely without reading) know that in the days before dark 'realism' took hold in comics they had a much easier relationship. Given how young Dick is in this series, it this an intentional connection to that stage of the relationship in the orignal form? And if so, (probably heading into No Comment territory), is the breakdown of that relationship the future in store?
7-Flash family was a hoot. I love seeing functional families getting equal playtime in fiction, and it reinforces they sense that we are in a fully functioning universe with history.
8-Artimas and her mom was intriging as well- Everytime you see a parent aware of that sort of extra-caricular activity you get curious, but the love is clear. Add to that that we know she has a past with the League of Assasins - seeing her actually having a home with a parent and a school life caught me by surprise.

Looking fwd to the next installment!

Matthew writes...

I just watched Downtime. I take it that the scene with subtitles was to show that the Atlanteans do not speak English and the English dialoge was "translated."

1) How did you create the Atlantean dialoge?

2) When Aqualad and Garth stole the uniforms of Black Manta's men, what did they do with the men themselves? Did they take them someplace with air or did they just let them drown?

Pumpkin Bomb writes...

Hi Greg,

Loved "Downtime." One thing I've noticed about other episodes is how dark they are visually, as in some cases it's pretty hard for me to make out some of the actions of characters in whatever warehouse or jungle they're fighting in. But there were lots of great undersea colors that made this episode gorgeous to look at.

Had a quick question about the Atlantian language used in the episode--we get that segment of Aquaman greeting Kaldur in it, but then it's pretty much all English after, albeit in that very formal tone. I know the practical side is that doing an entire episode in a made up language with subtitles would be just plain weird, but to your mind were all characters speaking Atlantian to each other during the underwater sequences? Or is English somehow a fallback language, that friends use with each other after formal greetings?

The Spectacular Spider-Man Season 3 writes...

Can't you just talk to Sony, so that they would let you supervise the Spectacular Spider-Man, Season 3? So that they could change their mind to let Marvel use Spider-Man for the Super Hero Squad Show season 2 finale, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 1 finale, and main character for season 2 of Avengers and season 3 of Super Hero Squad, i'm tired of him being in just comics and video games, please bring back The Spectacular Spider-Man!

Javier writes...

Hi Greg, im greatly enjoying Young Justice. The character design departament surprise me every episode, Black Manta never looked more menacing and bad ass. Atlantis looked beautiful and the magic spells looked great, but im really dissapointed becouse compared to other characters like Mera and Aqualad, the king Aquaman seems to be a little weak if he only has his classic powers. Is Aquaman capable of using magic like the other Atlanteans ? thanks a lot for a such a great series, keep it up

Matheus A. Maskalenka writes...

Hey there Greg.

Just watched the episode "Downtime" and I think that episode just redeemed an awful lpt of Aquaman's famous (Albeit unfair) uselesness.

What I have to ask is, is the team's name Young Justice, in the show? I looked into quite a lot of responses and didn't see a question like this so I thought I'd ask.

Mike H writes...

Hi Greg,
In the episode "Downtime", I noticed the initial couple shots of Gotham were very similar to some shots in Brandon's movie "Under the Red Hood". I was wondering if art was reused to lower costs or whether the art was developed separately but shared some common inspiration.

Josh writes...

I don't quite understand the Gathering; was it a family reunion meant to last a few centuries before letting all the Children go back to the real world, a chance for everyone to worship their Lord, or did everyone have to go back to Avalon and stay forever?

Kenny writes...

What are some of the things you can do in yj with a pg rating rather than one that is rated y7-fv?

Richard Jackson writes...

Mera said she was "with child" in Downtime. Was that just writing a character who speaks in a refined way or is there an S&P ban on using the word "pregnant" for cartoons? I remember that Owen used the word "expecting" to refer to Fox's pregnancy.

Sara writes...

Hello, again. I actually have questions this time, most of them pertaining to the latest episode, 'Downtime' (which, by the way, I loved: again, the romantic in me was excited to see Garth and Tula's relationship animated at last, even if they had very brief and subtle moments -- and I actually liked the triangle with Kaldur there, too).

1. Immediately following the beginning credits, we see a red-eyed, green-skinned, humanoid-fish creature chanting and practising magic. Is that Lagoon Boy making a cameo, or just a nameless guy based off of his appearance?

2. How old is Garth?

3. How old is Tula?

4. Are either Garth or Tula more skilled in wielding magic than the other, or are they equal?

5. This question NOT pertaining to 'Downtime': How old is Roy Harper?

Nate Binker writes...

Hey Greg, I wanted to ask about Superman/Superboy; since the premiere, Superboy's been wanting Superman in his life as he is a clone, while Superman doesn't seem to want anything to do with him, and even snaps at those like Batman when it is brought up or even him being referred to as a "father" or Superboy as his "son". I think I could understand: out of nowhere, someone cloned him and he feels violated. But Superman acting this way is very un-Superman-like; even if he was cloned and even if he doesn't want to be a father, he could be a brother or simply a friend, because in the end Superboy is there, he IS him at a young age, and wants to be like him. So he should be in the boy's life because if he isn't, he could go the wrong path and something might happen and Superman would HAVE TO accept guilt for it, which seems to be the current situation judging by each one of their attitudes toward one another and the situation, regardless of the rest of the heroes. I like this character next to Batman, but even I want to slap the Man of Steel for acting this way. With that said, here's what I want to ask:

1) When will this Superman/Superboy situation change?
2) If what I suggested is wrong, then why is Superman acting this way?
And 3) to you Greg and the team; what led to this decision to have Superman act this way on the show (or at first on the show)?

Thank you and keep up the good work.

AJC writes...

Just watched Downtime and it was a great episode! I'm impressed by the amount of detail in the choreography and backgrounds, and the number of voice actors you had in the episode. While I thought cutting from scene to scene of each YJ member during their downtime would be a bit choppy, it was actually very insightful, and it made it very realistic to see each of their lives.

How do companies decide what kind of budget to give to cartoon shows? Some older cartoon shows (ie from the 90s) had worse animation as the series progressed. I noticed the even the batman's animation wasn't as good as its earlier days(although still never went that bad).

Have you or brandon watched avatar the last airbender? I feel your show is taking some cues from the show (ie, the water sorcery, the diverse locations the team travels to each ep).

I have a question about aqualad. He obviously does not live at mount justice so would he not return to atlantis when he's not crime fighting? So wouldn't that mean he sees tula and garth still? Or is he that busy?

Ziyad B writes...

I was wondering if you can tell us about what led you and the others in your team to create the new aqualad to use instead of garth.
I mean no disrespect since i am a fan of the new aqualad.
I'm just curious.

Harlequinn writes...

Lemme just say, I love where YJ is going. The story build-up and everything is WONDERFULLY done. The animation is great. This is gonna end up being my fav.

Algernon writes...

Hey Greg,

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with the "Young Justice" reviews. Work's been keeping me busy and frankly, there's only so many ways I can say "this is freaking awesome" before it gets old. Rest assured I've thouroghly enjoyed "Infiltrator","Denial" and "Downtime" and am eagerly awaiting more. Quick question though.

1) In "Downtime", Garth and Tula say that they haven't seen Kaldur in about two months. If he hasn't been back to Atlantis since he joined the team, then where has he been living?