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SPONSES 2014-10 (Oct)
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Anonymous writes...
It's been mentioned before that a Marvel Family story was planned for the companion comic book, but then had to be scrapped when you were asked to jump forward to the Invasion timeline. I've just got a couple of questions about this Marvel Family story:
1) Just to clarify, would it have been set in Team Year Zero?
2) Which month of the year would it have been set in?
Greg responds...
SPOILER REQUESTS. NO COMMENT.
Heath writes...
Why did you guys decide to use Wally West as one of the members of the original team on Young Justice? Was it because he was a vastly popular character in the comics (and therefore would be popular on the show)? Was it simply because he was one of the original sidekicks? Or was he just a placeholder speedster until Bart could be brought in?
I ask because it certainly seemed like the show never put as much effort and thought into his character and story that it did any of the other lead characters throughout the two seasons. You guys completely skipped over important parts of his story and never established things that were supposedly vital to the character on the show. Having to come here to find out that he was insecure about his speed relative to Barry (pretty important since he died because of that), or what Artemis might like about him, or why he wasn't helping out with the alien invasion after his confrontation with Dick during the second season isn't something that should be necessary. Which meant that both he and the stories he was a part of on the show suffered greatly. Also, you even mentioned that Wally was never a priority for the show like the other five members of the original team were.
So why use a valuable roster spot and screen-time on a character that you guys obviously weren't all that invested in? It's not like he was ever relevant to the plot aside from being Artemis' love interest, which any other character could have been, and being the character that died. The fact that he disappeared for a long stretch and was ultimately killed off during season two shows he wasn't important to the show like the others. That he was the one "main" character you guys felt the show could do without. And I got the feeling from how the show treated the character that you guys didn't care all that much about him, either.
And it's not that I didn't like Wally as I liked him well enough. Though I'm honestly not sure if I would have liked YJ's Wally if I didn't feel a pre-established connection to the character (thanks to the comics and Justice League/Unlimited) that allowed me to excuse his behavior/faults that the show never bothered explaining. I ask simply because he didn't bring much to the overall plot of the show in either season as he was just a support character (his relationships with Artemis, Dick, and Bart were portrayed as one-sided too) and the show never bothered examining the important aspects of his character and story like the others. It just seems strange to have a roster of six, and then treat five characters one way and Wally another. I mean, there was probably another character out there that you guys could have made relevant to the plot and/or been interested in exploring their character, right?
Greg responds...
Wow, I'm getting tired of this.
I've said this before, ad nauseum at this point, but I'll say it again. Wally West is my all-time favorite speedster. The fact that he was one of the original sidekicks didn't hurt. But he certainly was NOT just a placeholder for Bart. And I don't particularly care who is popular or not. Brandon and I chose him for a variety of reasons, that included powers, power-level, personality, background, history, dynamics with other characters - and, yes, nostalgia.
There definitely seems to be a vocal minority who seems to think we didn't do the character justice. (At least they're pretty darn vocal here at ASK GREG.) But they are the minority. The vast majority of our audience seems to have loved Wally, which suggests they loved how we handled him - except maybe his ceasing to exist at the end, which BROKE THEIR HEARTS. And you can't break a fan's heart if they don't care about the character in the first place. (I suppose you'll attribute that to the love of the character they brought with them TO the show. But I don't believe that's true for most of our audience, who loved Wally - and in particular, Jason Spisak's performance as Wally.)
And I've never said that Wally was any less of a priority in Season One than the others. All six of the original teammates had equal priority and near-equal screen time. (What I said was that his story was more straight-forward and required less explanation - something that was equally true about Dick and Kaldur.) And what I said about Wally relative to Season Two is that ALL the characters (in terms of screen time) were subservient to the arc of the story. So, yes, some got more priority because of the story. But that wasn't a knock on Wally. Anymore than Superboy's near total absence in the second half of the season was a knock against him.
I will say that if you didn't get some of the nuances of the character until you came here to ASK GREG, then I'm sorry. In that sense, we failed you. Some of it was revealed with more clarity in our companion comic, but I'll grant that you shouldn't have had to pick that up in order to appreciate what was going on in the show. But we took no different approach to Wally than to Dick or Kaldur or Artemis or anyone. If we failed, we failed. But please STOP trying to ascribe some odd motivation to it. You don't like it, fine. But stop trying to tell us how WE feel. It's reductive, presumptuous and insulting.
(And by the way, I don't agree that we failed. The truth of all those things you "discovered" here is IN THE EPISODES themselves. It may not be stated verbally, but I think all of it is there, spelled out in behavior, action and words between words. If we weren't on the head with it enough for you, fine. But it worked for us. We were happy with it. And again, I think most of our audience got it, even if some of our audience did not. And I'm okay with that.)
We were VERY invested in Wally, from his first appearance to his last. Sorry if it didn't work for you, but that's all it is. Us doing something that didn't work for you. Not us crapping it out. We worked very hard, and I believe overall we did justice to the character, as seems obvious by fan response to his death.
Now, can we please put this topic to rest? Those of you who feel this way have had your say, over and over. And I've responded, over and over. Neither side is going to convince each other. It's enough.
Presto writes...
Favorite character to write ever? Go.
Greg responds...
Go where?
Star Wars Rebels: Kanan
This weekend at New York Comic Con, Marvel and Lucasfilm announced the new monthly on-going STAR WARS REBELS: KANAN comic book. I will be writing the first five-issue arc, THE LAST PADAWAN. I'm very excited. More info in an interview I did here: http://www.coffeewithkenobi.com/with-new-kanan-comic-marvel-set-to-explore-more-star-wars-lore/
Presto writes...
I am meeting with Kaitlin Dahill Jeph Loeb's assistant. Anything I can say which would help the Spectacular Spidey cause in any way?
Greg responds...
I doubt it.
Marvel Entertainment has its own Spidey show now, which is doing VERY well. They don't need Spectacular. Plus they couldn't do Spectacular without paying Sony for the rights to it. And you can imagine how enthusiastic they'd be to pay Sony to do Spidey.
Halsey writes...
Who when back to Quarac to get Garfield after Marie died and how soon was it
Greg responds...
NO SPOILERS.
Steel-Goliath writes...
I'm wondering if you could be a duel master what civilization would you choose me i would hybrid with water and nature
Greg responds...
I'm too much of a chicken to be a duel-master.
Steel-Goliath writes...
I wonder you said that kaijudo was complex to write even for you could you clarify also what was it like to write for the choten any similarities to writing for xanatos
Greg responds...
There are a lot of characters, multiple worlds within worlds, lots of rules, lots of alliances. It's complex. Not undoable. And not necessarily hard to understand while viewing. But it's a lot to keep track of while writing. Even for me, and I specialize in juggling this kind of thing. That's not meant as a criticism. I think the series is a blast. But it was a challenging show to get my head around as a freelancer.
I suppose there are some low level similarities between Xanatos and the Choten. Certainly, they both have complex agendas. But I suppose you'll forgive me if I see more differences than similarities and believe that Xanatos is at a different level of sophistication in terms of his goals. In terms of what he cares about and especially what he DOESN'T care about. He's less... obvious. (But of course, I'm biased.)
Matt writes...
Hi Greg, I am a huge fan of spectacular spider-man. I'm not sure if you've ever heard of a companies called telltale games, if you haven't maybe take a few seconds to check out their work. I think a game developed by them would be the perfect way to continue the series, seeing as this is a little to none possibility, hypothetically would you ever consider continuing the show in that way?
Greg responds...
I'd be interested, but you have to understand that it's not up to me. I own neither Spider-Man (obviously) or the rights to The Spectacular Spider-Man series.
Daniel Ant writes...
Who rebuilt macbeths home after it was destroyed in enter Macbeth ?
Greg responds...
You mean what contractor did he use?
Lily gomez writes...
Why would the show depend on how much merchandise we buy?. We would all love to sit at home and re watch the episodes of YJ, and why would the show be left at a cliff hanger? after Kid Flash died i cried my eyes out and what would Artimis do with out him what would the team do with out him?
P.S. can you please send a message back I would love to know the anwsers.
Greg responds...
Hi, Lily.
1. The show is SO expensive to produce, that to pay for it, it needs to sell a lot of stuff (usually toys) to allow us to continue making it.
2. The show was NOT left on a cliffhanger unless you're stretching the definition of "cliffhanger" beyond all reasonable measure. Yes, there were loose ends and hints at future seasons, but EVERY major plot line of season two was tied up.
3. I'm afraid that's a spoiler request. I don't give out spoilers.
Presto writes...
Spider mans usually 5'9"/5'10" yet in your series he's around 5'6". Was your intention to have him eventually get to this height as the years progressed?
Greg responds...
I'd question the premise of your question to begin with.
In any case, he'd have gotten a bit taller, but I personally think it's a mistake to make Pete a big guy. That seems to miss the point.
Catherine B writes...
I just wanted to write and just give you some thanks for some of the great shows you have helped create, Greg.
Young Justice I enjoyed thoroughly, though I am more a fan of the first season than the second; I like fewer characters and more characterization as opposed to detailed plots just as a personal preference. I will also say I was not a fan of how Wally West was handled but I am sure you have heard your share of them. I will just say that the Wally of the comics and the Wally of Young Justice seemed to be entirely different characters which seemed a shame to me, given all that could have been done with him. He had such a rich comic book history that I really do not understand why more was not done with it but that is your creative decision. Just not my cup of tea.
I adored your version of Dick Grayson however. He was competent without being overly skilled; he suffered under pressure but learned from what he was exposed to. His relationship with Wally in Season 1 was one of my all time favorites. Thanks for the great run!
Secondly, I could not write you without mentioning Gargoyles. I mean, wow. I think I was in fifth or sixth grade when I first caught it on the air. I just remember being deeply enthralled with it. I thought Elisa was an awesome character, as I did not see a whole lot of strong female leads back then and she was definitely that. I also adored the interesting family background you gave her. So often, characters fall into the stereotypical white, black, etc and she brilliantly avoided those.
I also firmly owe you thanks for igniting my interest in Shakespeare. I remember that I saw "City of Stone" when we were having to pick plays and such to read/analyze for school and after seeing that awesome four parter, I went right to my English teacher and asked if I could read MacBeth. It is still my favorite of the Bard's works.
The characterization of Demona was incredible. Most villains are so one dimensional but all the villains of Gargoyles were so well fleshed out. I am a creative writer myself and working on my first work to aim towards publication and I definitely count Gargoyles among my top inspiration for how to do characterization. To this day, I will tell people if they want to see a well fleshed out villain, go watch Demona from Gargoyles. I honestly would rank her about equal to Gollum from "Lord of the Rings." She can be diabolical, sneaky, cruel and yet you can totally see why she would have turned out that way and I can switch very easily from feeling such anger at her to feeling overwhelming pity. Bravo, my good Sir!
Greg responds...
Thanks. Always nice to have the work thoughtfully appreciated.
Anonymous writes...
I just noticed Super-strength seemed to be the unluckiest power to have in Invasion.
Every power and those who didn't have it got to show off how cool and versatile their power was and those who didn't showed how they were on the team besides that which I really enjoyed. But people with super strength (Wonder Girl, Superboy) seemed to just be out of luck if their opponent was stronger than them and didn't have a real win under their belts all season compared to everyone else on the team.
Do you find Super-strength boring?
Greg responds...
Nope. But no matter how big and strong you are, there's always someone bigger and stronger. That's just a fact of life we couldn't ignore.
Just Asking writes...
First of all, thank you, Brandon and the rest for making Young Justice. You guys have been the reason why I've started collecting DC titles instead of being a casual follower. Even Timm's DCAU couldn't do that.
You must probably have heard about the 'cancellation' of Beware the Batman. While it may have been too offbeat with awkward CGI, it was still a good show. And more importantly, a BATMAN show. Can't believe the state of DC tv animation is right now.
Is it possible for you or someone you know to talk to the DC guys so that they can create a DC nation channel, instead of being left to the whims of CN and toy sales?
I loved how you were able to create such a detailed universe in such a short time. Now that the New 52 is upon us and probably can be expected to last for the next decade or so, before the next 'Crisis', you guys need to pitch a new DCAU!
I'm fully confident that you can be a great showrunner (or overlord, if you prefer that term) to such a combined show universe. Timm did an excellent job but he barely made a scratch on DC's potentially huge cast.
One of my main grouses with YJ Season 2 is that we didn't see the team's growth during the 5 year period. Dick going from Robin to Nightwing, Connor-Megan's rift, Aqualad's 'betrayal' and the departure of Kid Flash and Artemis - all would have been better served if Season 2 was a Season 5 thing. You guys deserved to tell the entire story.
So, my question is: could you guys handle it? Would you be able to create an entire 'DC universe' (I know you can, but hearing it would feel great!) and if DC becomes sane again, would you do it after what they and CN did to YJ?
Hearing your book Rain of the Ghosts is doing really well, so kudos!
Greg Wiesmann, you have saved this city (sounded cool in my head :))
Greg responds...
1. That's way above my pay grade. I'm sure the idea has been floated on various occasions.
2. We did already. It was called Young Justice. It was called Earth-16. Brandon and I on the television side and Chris and I on the comics side made numerous pitches to keep the show going in various forms. All were given a pass by CN, WB & DC. But if they were willing, we'd all eagerly return to the property.
3. Rain of the Ghosts is, frankly, NOT doing really well. It and Spirits of Ash and Foam could use more readers, reviewers, buyers and people helping to spread the word.
Ben Wes writes...
Why Queen Bee did not kill Garfield right after Marie was killed How soon after his mother die did the team and league take Garfield in
Greg responds...
1. Why would she want Garfield dead?
2. Spoiler Request.
Caio writes...
Hello, Greg. I was reading about what happened to the Gargoyles comic, and from what I understand, you stopped making them because Disney raised the licensing fees and you couldn't find any publisher who would be willing to pay for them. I'm wondering, could you make a Kickstarter to raise the money to pay those fees? I don't see how that could be illegal, since you are paying for something that disney would sell if you had the money. In case I'm wrong, sorry for the ignorance. But it really seems to be a waste for a story likes this to never end because of such a reason. Well, thank you very much for creating this amazing story and I hope the comic isn't the last we hear from Gargoyles.
Greg responds...
I cannot crowd fund a property I do not own. Period.
Tupka writes...
Brandon, Sam Register, Dusty Abell, David Wilcox and a whole slew of others you'd be well familiar with got a new movie out, Scooby-Doo! Wrestlemania Mystery, and it features four surprise guests: Cassie, Artemis, Zatanna and M'Gann, all enjoying the WWE Action.
1. Please tell me this is canon and they're WWE fans.
2. Did Brandon tell you?
Greg responds...
1. Ask Brandon.
2. Yep.
Anonymous writes...
The "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" video game series (in which the major events takes place during the the last three years before Episode IV) showed how the Rebellion started, thanks to the unintentional parts of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, as well as the efforts of the games' protagonists Galen Marek/Starkiller and his supposed clone (due to lack of evidence to fully support that he is actually a clone or his real self in the second game). Will the events of "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" video game series be canon in the Star Wars Rebels timeline (even though the TV series will start in 5 BBY)?
Greg responds...
As I understand things, canon starts NOW. And the only things that are guaranteed canon from prior to now are the six films and Clone Wars.
But to be clear, this is not my call. Please don't rail about it here or to me.
GAvillain writes...
This has been bothering me for a while, but, in regards to Rhino in SSM, how does he use the bathroom with that suit grafted to his body?
Greg responds...
I've answered this before. (Checking the archives gets your question answered faster.) Plumbing is built into the suit. The results are voided through the bottom of his feet.
Random Gal 3 writes...
Hi Greg! earlier, in a different question, you said that Mary Bromfield and Freddy Freeman have A designations like Billy Batson, Can you say what those designations would be? (Sorry if that's a spoiler!)
Greg responds...
Eh... what the heck.
A-06 Freddy Freeman
A-07 Mary Bromfield
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