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Anonymous writes...
What were the names of Billy Batson's parents?
Is Mary his sister?
Greg responds...
1. I don't currently seem to have that info. I'd research it before we named them in canon.
2. Biologically and emotionally, yes. Legally, no.
Mr Fan and Mr Disappointed writes...
Hi Greg ! Hope you're fine !
I have a really important question (and some criticism) to write. To explain quickly before :
I've just watched "Teg Ydaer" and I got to say this is the episode I hated the most of the show, and by far. And I'm afraid this will happen again. I hated it against my will, believe me, but that was too much. Aside the fact that this is Zatanna's arc and that she got like 3% of the screentime so far, with absolutely NO character development, I'm deeply angered that you introduced religion in such a central matter. We had a long part of the episode dedicated to religion and talking about how great it was, giving hope to people and so on ... And to me, during that moment, that wasn't a superhero show anymore ! That was religion propaganda. What's next then ? Telling kids how great it is to join the Jehovah's Witnesses or any other religion, sect or cult because it gives hope ? To someone like me, who considers (and I speak only from my perspective, don't want to offend anybody here) religion like one of the most silliest and dangerous things ever happened in human history, that's really disgusting. Not only that, but to see my favorite show becoming something absolutely irrelevant to its subject, I felt really sick.
Like I've seen in some comments before me, that feels like positive discrimination. It feels like Khalid is here ONLY because he's a muslim.
Now, I'm not a hater, I love this show, I don't want to get in a fight about religion or belief, I'm just a fan deeply concerned, sad and disappointed with the direction that the show is taking today, and who feels betrayed more and more.
SO, to come back to my question, have you planned to develop or talk again about religion ? And do you regret having done that in such a proportion, or done it at all ?
Thanks for reading, hope I wasn't too harsh or rude ;)
Greg responds...
Hm.
No regrets. And I suppose it SHOULDN'T come as any shock to you that I'm quite proud of that episode. Very proud, actually.
I personally have tremendous distaste for organized religion - including my own, i.e. Judaism. But that doesn't change the fact that faith is a huge part of many, many, many peoples' lives. We're telling a story about people. (Not about super-heroes, by the way, which is incidental - its eye-candy - but about people. If all you want is super-hero adventure, then you are shopping at the wrong store and have been since episode one of season one.) Please don't even start to tell me that I can't tell stories about the things that concern people. Irrelevant? Give me a break.
And that's aside from the fact, that although I don't think religion should be an out of bounds topic, I don't actually think that this story was about religion. It was about faith, through the vehicle of religion. But maybe that's splitting hairs.
I do resent the notion that Khalid only exists in the story because he's Muslim. I think that's very short-sighted. Why not say he's only in this story because he's a medical student, which got equal play in this episode and more play in the two episodes that preceded it? I believe Khalid is as fully realized a character as any we've had - relative to his amount of screen time. Do you think Zatara only exists in the story because he's Catholic. (But good on you that you're not a hater.)
(I also love that you think using Jehovah's Witnesses as some kind of ultimate example of cultish religious extremism is a-okay. It's not.)
Now, I will admit that I do wish we could find more room for Atheism in the show. Even for Agnosticism. Although I am neither, I admire both more than I admire any and every organized religion. But the problem with setting your series in a world with ghosts (like Secret) and demons (like Etrigan), is that it doesn't leave much space for doubt. [Artemis knows - KNOWS - that the soul exists because she's SEEN one, and so has our audience.] That's a puzzle I'm still trying to solve. But I have no intention of solving it by pretending that religion doesn't exist and doesn't mean something significant to literally MILLIONS of people.
(And for the record, I'm a secular pagan Jew and an animist.)
As for the BITCHING about Zatanna not getting enough attention, I officially roll my eyes at you. This is without a doubt Zatanna's story from moment one to moment last. I get why it's not clear to you back in 411, but, hey, way to be patient. And if it's not clear by the end of the arc, then all I can do is shrug. Zatanna doesn't need to dominate screen time to make this her story. That notion is just silly to me. I also find it sardonically amusing that at least some fan or another has complained to me about how the headline character of a given arc is not getting enough screen time or attention... in literally ALL six of the arcs. I think Nightwing fans may have some - small - justification for these complaints. But for the others, all I can say is that you've created your own expectations about what YJ:P was supposed to deliver for your personal favorite character. Instead, Brandon and I delivered what we wanted to deliver about each character. The rule, as always, being that if we aren't passionate about the show we're creating then how can we expect anyone else to even have a shot at being passionate about what they're seeing? There is no other way for us to create.
And, no, I don't think you were too harsh or rude (though your message above did read to me as obnoxious, which isn't the same thing). But I may be bordering on all those negative qualities in my response. If so, understand that I am truly inundated with comments from "fans" telling me I've done them wrong. With fans who are "sad" or "disappointed". With fans who are trying to convince me that I don't like my own show - or that I wouldn't like it if I simply listened to them and/or thought about if for a few minutes. (Your second to last paragraph is basically doing that.) But the thing is that Brandon and I listened to a lot of people and gave TONS of thought to everything in every episode. Way, way more thought than most shows get, I know. I know. I'm not saying we're above making mistakes, but we didn't do entire episodes by accident.
Now, before you say, "Hey, if everyone's telling you that your stuff sucks, maybe it does," you should know we get WAY more praise than we get criticism. Way more. And of course, the praise is nice but washes over me, and only the criticism sticks. I honestly should ignore ALL of it, criticism and praise, but I'm not that bulletproof. It makes me sad and disappointed. And frustrated. Very, very frustrated. Even if the nay-sayers are only a small (but vocal) minority. And that must be all they are, because our numbers this season on HBO Max are stunningly good. Today, I saw numbers that indicated we have more views this year than any other animated super-hero series on ANY streaming service. (Because, yes, we still have super-heroes in YJ, despite what you believe are my best efforts!) We even beat out a couple of prestige live-action super-hero series. Thus, not everyone thinks we suck. Most clearly don't.
So all of you out there who are going to read this post and feel the need to post a criticism of me here or on twitter (while tagging me) for responding in this harsh, rude obnoxious way... stop. Please. Put yourselves in my shoes for a minute. No one's saying you have to like the show. Certainly no one is forcing you to watch it. (Seriously, I think our season four hate-watchers alone must outnumber our entire audience for season one.) But that doesn't mean you need to sling your $#!^ my way. Be kind. Kinder than I'm being, I suppose. And I'll try to be kinder, too. Thanks.
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."
--Walt Whitman
Marvelman writes...
Mary still has 1/3 of the power of Shazam. Does she drain power from Billy and Freddy even when she is not using it?
Greg responds...
She doesn't drain anything from either of them. And certainly gets nothing from (or owes anything to) Freddy.
That power is hers now. Given freely and impossible to return.
Coby Michael Dupre writes...
Fellow writer (albeit an amateur) here, and I gotta say: Dang dude, nice episode and I love the hyping up of this "new" girl Child but you had to resort to a neck snap? I'm still recovering from losing my favorite version of Superboy ever to that, even if it was a villain this time.
Greg responds...
R.I.P. Teekl.
Anonymous writes...
When was Nabu (Savage's son) born?
Greg responds...
I could've sworn I've answered this, but, fine: Nabu was born in 1836 B.C.E.
Fallenlegend writes...
Hey Greg!
I was one of the fans that keep asking an bugging about Mary Marvel (now Sargent) over the years and was pleasantly surprised to see you finally portray her.
I am actually extremely surprised how you caught on that obscure flaw of hers many fans don’t
Of how even in the old fawcett comics she was very very attached to her powers.
I recall there was an issue in the original fawcett run (Mary Marvel issue #4) were it is stated Shazam loses his powers every thousand years. And so did Mary herself.
So she extremely depressed and went crying to the point she felt useless for losing her powers, but still managed to save the day by her own power (similar to what you did) That in contrast to Billy who actually took losing his powers much better.
There are other examples in the comics, but usually she is the one to take it the worst of the marvel family when they get de-powered.
This also how she was corrupted im the infamous, and for some badly written, countdown comics were she got the black suit and went too drunk with power. And sacrificed her morality for power. Twice.
1.-My first question would be, am I right in the money, of you portraying her being too atached to her Shazam form being part of her “core true†and/or inspired by past stories?
Of course asking if she is ever going to transform is a spoiler so I am going to ask about her perspective instead. So my second question is
2-Does Mary consider giving up being Sargent Marvel as a permanent solution? As in does she gave up ever transforming? or just until she rehabilites and manages not too get drunk in power?
I am a bit sad we won’t see Sargent Marvel in action in the future, or the hole marvel family together, but still happy I got my wish on got to see your take on her.
Keep the great work!
Greg responds...
1. It all weighs in.
2. We'll have to see...
Anonymous writes...
Why did nabu bother testing zatanna’s students if he wasn’t planning on intervering anyway
Greg responds...
Well, I think he was trying to make a point to her. But I'll leave it up to your interpretation.
Marvelman writes...
In "Teg ydaer" there is brief shot of the Elders (the gods & heroes that give Shazam his power). Their appearance is much like their appearance in the live-action Shazam! show from the 1970s. Was this a deliberate shout-out to that series?
Greg responds...
Of course. (I mean, you thought it might be an accident or coincidence?)
Paul writes...
1) What is Sergeant Marvel's biological equivalent age? It was a surprise to see that she looked older than season 4 Mary, who would probably be about 20 years old.
2) What is Captain Marvel's biological equivalent age?
Greg responds...
1. Mary Bromfield was born in 2000.
1a. Sergeant Marvel was perpetually a biological 18.
2. Captain Marvel/Shazam is perpetually a biological 24.
Paul writes...
Quick question about "Tea Ydaer!" (which was a fantastic episode!):
I remember that it was reported from Ask Greg Live several years ago (maybe it was in 2015?) that the plan for Lt. and Sgt. Marvel was to have them both wear pants and have stars and sashes on their outfits to indicate their "ranks". Now this is not a criticism AT ALL, as I thought Sergeant looked amazing in the latest episode, but I'm just wondering if there's a reason why the stars and sashes were ultimately not used for Sergeant? (Unless they were there and I just didn't notice them.)
As always, Greg, thanks for your response and for your work on this amazing show!
Greg responds...
I guess by the time we got around to designing her, I had forgotten about stars and sashes.
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