Chaz! writes...

sorry, after watching "Targets" it reminded me of a few other questions I have.
1 does Bruce commute from Gotham to Metropolis every day or was there a specific reason he was hanging out there in "schooled"?
2 another city question, Do Philadelphia and New York exist on Earth 16 or have Metropolis & Gotham replaced them?
3 is Mercy a cyborg or an android.

Fe writes...

Mr. Weismen, I want to first thank you for creating quality programming that I grew up with and for creating Elisa, a strong female figure that matched my own background in terms of race.

1.Would you say that Aqualad is a younger non gargoyle version of Goliath in terms of personality?

2.You revealed Flash’s, Batman’s and Superman’s ages, would it be okay to ask how old is Aquaman and Mera?

Thank you for looking over my questions and I wish you all the luck with current and future projects.

Kenzey writes...

Hey Mr. Weisman! First off love Gargoyles and Young Justice, and I have a couple of questions about the latter...
1 How long have Superman and Batman known each other in this world, were they friends before the league?
2 Why doesn't Superboy want to be leader of The Team?
Thank you for reading :)Kenzey

Mary writes...

First off, I just want to say how wonderful Ask Greg is. It's so nice of you to take time out of your busy schedule working on the show we love to answer fans questions about them. I'm sorry you get so much negative feed back and rude comment, because you don't have to do this, and we are lucky that you are willing.
I have some questions about Young Justice
1. Do all the members of the Justice League know Batman's secret identity. If not, who knows
2.Who were the founding members of the Justice League
3. Do Bruce and Barry know that Dick told Wally his secret I.D. How long has Wally known?
4. How is Roy supporting himself financially, trick arrows are expensive after all, as are trips to Asia and boat rentals.

DC HERO writes...

Really quick question hope you it doesn't count as a spoiler. 1. Will Aqualad use any kind of modern weaponry? I asked a question like this a few months back after watching the Green Latern trailer. Basically will he use aforementioned weapons or do Atlanteans stick to ancient weapons and sorcery. 2. Didn't plan on this but who do you like more Aquaman or Namor? I'm surprised no one mentioned the fact that The Teams reason for forming is practically ecatepec to the reason the outsiders were formed. They were formed by Batman to do covert missions for the League so none of the Leaguers had to damage their publicity or popularity.

Greg Bishansky writes...

One more...

Settle something. When Demona sits back and relaxes, what is her drink of choice? ;)

I now return you to your regularly scheduled "fishing for Young Justice spoilers" line of questioning. Sorry, couldn't resist. ;)

Greg Bishansky writes...

Another Spidey question. This one is both Spectacular related, and about your Amazing Spider-Man back-up story.

When you wrote and produced "Spectacular Spider-Man," you tried to get to the core truths of who each and every character was. Well, I need to ask you about who Betty Brant was in your series. We've never seen much of her besides Peter trying to ask her to the Fall Formal, and Ned asking her out on a date. She didn't even have a single line of dialogue in the entire second season.

I ask, because in the comics, and this is something that often seems forgotten by most people, Betty Brant is a pretty horrible human being. It's not something I was even really conscious of until my friend, Josh Bertone, started writing a series of articles documenting the history of this character.

She was pretty bipolar when she dated Peter. Constantly flipping out at him if he so much as glanced at Liz Allan, or another human being who lacked a penis. And then, turning around and playing around with both him and Ned Leeds.

She later married Ned and then abandoned him on their honeymoon. Had a one-night stand with Peter, and was later on having an affair with Flash Thompson that lasted for months and months. Which was driving Ned nuts, although, his brainwashing at the hands of the Hobgoblin arguably made things worse. But the affair started well before this Hobgoblin business. Hell, she had the nerve to ask him if their marriage meant anything to him as he was walking out on her, and he replied with "more than it means to you" and he was right.

Of course, Betty now blames the Hobgoblin for all of her marriage's problems and never once really acknowledged any wrongdoing on her part. It's almost Demona-esque how neatly she's able to deflect any feelings of guilt.

And finally, there was Betty's appearance in the back-up story for Flash Thompson that you wrote (loved that story), and when Betty first sees Sha Shan, she is mad. I think I'll quote my friend Bertone, who said it better than I could:

"The icicle speech balloons are a cool callback to the Ditko days but take a look at that scene again. Betty isn’t responding to Sha Shan…Betty starts it! Betty doesn’t greet Sha Shan with an apology or any remorse. No! She’s mad at Sha Shan! Why? What did Sha Shan do to her? It’s not like they had a Betty/Veronica relationship. Betty stole Sha Shan’s man! Sha Shan has a right to be mad! Betty doesn’t!

"Betty Brant is the only woman who will have an affair with your boyfriend and then somehow be mad at you as if she was the victim. What a horrible person."

The above isn't a criticism of the story, or how you used Betty. It's a criticism of Betty as a person.

So, I have to ask. Would your interpretation of Betty, had the series gotten more in depth with her have been this terrible, awful individual? In the comics, she makes Sally Avril look as cool and fun to be with as Mary Jane by comparison! If so, I'd say Peter dodged a major bullet there, when Aunt May put a stop to this in "The Invisible Hand." Come to think of it, May never liked Betty in the Lee/Ditko run either. Betty is definitely not the girl you bring home to meet mom.

Greg Bishansky writes...

I know I wrote to you about a year ago with some thoughts on “W.I.T.C.H.,” but I just went through the series for a second time, and rather than just watch it, I was able to study it, catch all the clues and pieces of foreshadowing and other things that I missed.

Last year, it took me two weeks to make it through the first season, and twenty-four hours to make it through the second season. This time, well, I wanted to let the second season breathe a little more, which is why it took twenty-seven hours to make it through this time.

What can I say, it’s addictive.

I think I’ll start with the large cast, which seems to be a feature in every series you produce. I don’t feel like anybody got the short end of the stick. Will, being the lead, of course got the most time. Everyone else was well balanced also. Casts this big can be pretty hard to juggle. Five main characters, and so many supporting characters, recurring characters, villains, etc.

Irma was probably my favorite of the Guardians. She just had so much spunk. A huge sense of humor. I enjoyed how she often seemed like she would be the most fun to hang out with, but at the same time, probably the meanest when she was in a bad mood. Cornelia at her worst has nothing on a pissed off Irma. Very scary. God help you if you push her to anger. I’ve known people like that in real life, but I find that TV seldom ever does it well. So I have to commend a series that can take someone so likeable and make them nasty without losing their likeability.

The theme of the season seemed to be growing up. Hay-Lin and Taranee change and grow the most this season. Cornelia does well too, learning to be a better sister to Lillian. Will growing in her powers, as a leader, in her relationship with her parents, and their new love interests, and in her own relationship with Matt.
Ironically, Irma seems to change the least over the course of the season, but that’s okay, because she still got a lot of characterization.

Surprising nobody, my favorite character in the series was Nerissa. She always kept me guessing. Going through the series for the second time, I could really see her master plan and all the pipe-laying for her. I probably shouldn’t mention season one, but I paid much more attention to Trill this time, as well as the Mage. Nerissa just seemed to be everywhere, pulling everybody’s strings. I liked the twist that she wasn’t really out for vengeance, which is a twist that made sense. Watching it the first time, I asked myself why would she want to avenge Phobos, she wasn’t there. Well, she was, but you know what I mean. The Knights were all a distraction, and the second time, that seemed much more obvious. But I enjoyed how cold and intelligent she was. She was always scheming; always Machiavellian; and two steps ahead of everyone; all the while carrying around a mountain of repressed guilt. I once described her to a friend with the following words: “imagine if Xanatos and Demona had a baby together, that child would be Nerissa.” I thought Kath Soucie did a magnificent job.

I must also say that the twist that Nerissa was Caleb’s mother was brilliant. As I understand it, this was not the case I the original comic book. But I enjoyed it; I thought it worked quite well. It also made things even more chilling in that, when you think about it, she essentially raped Julian. Rape by deception is still rape, and that’s not something you see often in a cartoon. It almost reminds me of Merlin helping Uther deceive Igraine in order to create King Arthur.

And then there was Prince Phobos. It’s impossible to discuss what was done with him in the second season without talking about the first. I thought he was pretty one note throughout the first season, but season two did something far different with him, and you really felt how this guy could have held the entire world of Meridian under his control for so long.

I felt the same way about Lord Cedric, he got old really fast in the first season, and when he finally gets out of his cell in season two, he’s not doing much that he didn’t do in the first season until what had to be the shock moment of the entire season. I won’t say anymore, but it was nice to see a character I thought so poorly of get that moment. What inspired that twist, I wonder.

The Shagon mini-arc was very well done too. It seems to be a theme in Weisman produced shows to have a character change into something else, all under the control of a villain. David Xanatos turned Derek Maza into Talon; the Green Goblin turned Mark Allan into Molten Man; and Nerissa turns Matt into Shagon. What I also enjoy is just how different each of these scenarios really are. Shagon was a nice personal antagonist towards Will. As I understand it, this is another case where the TV series deviated from the comics for the better. Turning Matt into Shagon just gives that character a lot more chemistry with our heroes than he otherwise would have had.

Would I have liked to see a third season? Sure. But aside from the mystery of who this new teacher was, I thought it was all wrapped up very well, and didn’t leave me “needing” to see more the same way “Gargoyles” and “Spectacular Spider-Man” did. It was great television, and I’m sorry I didn’t get to see it when it was originally airing.