A Station Eight Fan Web Site

Gargoyles

The Phoenix Gate

Ask Greg Archives

DEFINITE UNCERTAINTY 2021-06 (Jun)

Archive Index


: « First : « 100 : « 10 : Displaying #103 - #112 of 112 records. :


Posts Per Page: 1 : 10 : 25 : 50 : 100 : All :


Bookmark Link

Marvelman writes...

Most people who know me would say I'm book-smart, but not street smart. (I'm a little like Dustin on Stranger Things.) I have an unfortunate tendency to not be politically smart and blurt out exactly what I'm thinking. Sometimes it gets me into trouble.

How do you deal with that as someone working in the entertainment industry? What do you do, just for example,if someone asks you what you think about the current Spider-Man cartoon, and you happen to think that it sucks? What do you do if somebody asks you what executive producer John Doe is like, and you happen to think John is a jerk? Do you lie? Do you massage the truth? How do you do that? Can you give some examples? As someone who will probably always be socially inept, I'd love to know.

Teach me, oh wise one.:)

Greg responds...

Mostly, it's about (a) thinking before you speak and (b) utilizing common sense.

A lot depends on who's asking me. Do I know this person? Do I trust this person? What does this person do?

If it's a reporter, I'm going to be way more circumspect unless I'm confident I'm speaking off the record.

If I think a show (or Producer) sucks, I'm not likely to say that unless I know the person I'm talking to and trust that person not to spread it.

Some of this is political. I don't want to burn bridges; I have to work in this town, etc. But some of it is just being polite and considerate. I don't review other pop culture for a living, and I don't need or want to be a jerk, tearing down the hard work of other professionals just because it's not to my taste.

Having said that, keep in mind, I haven't always been "wise" about this stuff. I had a massive learning curve as early answers in ASK GREG will probably reveal.

Response recorded on June 28, 2021

Bookmark Link

Marvelman writes...

I don't know why you did not continue on as story editor on season 2 of Rebels, but I think it is unfortunate. The show would have been better with you on it. The animation is spectacular but I find the characters boring.

Greg responds...

Um... noted.

Response recorded on June 28, 2021

Bookmark Link

Geraghty writes...

Mister Greg a few questions. Why did M'gann use her shapeshifting powers to give herself shorter hair in young justice season two than the longer hair she had in season one of young justice ? How can Miss Martian have a stronger bound with Garfield after his mom died before begin he living at the cave if she didn't visit him often ?

Greg responds...

1. She felt like it.

2. Who said she didn't visit him?

Response recorded on June 28, 2021

Bookmark Link

FallenLegend writes...

Hey Greg I got some questions regarding young justice and Atlantean magic.

On land we know only people born with the talent like Zatanna or Zatara can use magic (not counting artifacts like fate's helmet). Hence the reason Batman is not a wizard.

So my questions are:

1.- Given we have seen plenty more of human civilian magic users on Atlantis compared to land , does this means that all atlantans have the potential to use magic? or They just have a higher amount of talented magicians?

2.- Given Aquaman lacks magic powers and Ocean Master tried to steal Mera's magic, is their lack of magic powers due to lack of study on magic or they just weren't born with magical talent?

3.-Is Mera's magic derived purely on study? With that I mean, not counting her hard work. was she born with her raw power?

4.- Why didn't Ocean Master or Aquaman considered studying magic to gain magic powers like Mera?

Thank you Greg!

Greg responds...

I'm not necessarily agreeing with your starting premise.

1. I know there's no way (back in 2017) that you could have known this, but the answer to this question is actually a direct SPOILER for YJ season four: YOUNG JUSTICE: PHANTOMS. So... Sorry.

2. Reducing this all simply to "born with" and "not born with" is an oversimplification.

3. She was born with considerable raw power, but she also studied a TON.

4. What makes you think Ocean-Master hasn't studied? As for Orin, he had other stuff keeping him busy.

Response recorded on June 28, 2021

Bookmark Link

FallenLegend writes...

And another question from me. I feel bad for doing so much, but given these are like a year away I kinda want to talk advantage of now before the flood of YJ season 3 questions.

I wanted to share my thoughts on W.I.T.C.H

Your writing was superb, but I did wonder why it failed to beat WINX club on popularity despite having your superior writing. WITCH was popular on Italy, but otherwise it's not the cash cow franchise WITCH still is.

I read a bit of the comic and some of the show season 1 (things you didn't do). My impression is that the concept was great, the artwork was gorgeous. But the execution was flawed.

W.I.T.C.H had for the most part poor villains from the source material. Phobos despite being their "nemesis", their joker to their batman, is particularly as flat as a sheet of paper. Evil without any redeeming qualities whatsoever. The complete opposite of your great villains.

Phobos whole character is basically "I want ultimate power and I will always do evil" He is so predictable that he will backstab or do evil always.

WINX had the advantage there as the trix definitively are more interesting. It would seem as they took notes from you as they are like you said "a twisted reflection of the hero."

The girls were very overpowered in the original comics. I glanced the wiki and they have even more powers than Superman, each. Say Hay Lin can turn invisible or "hear the past" and for example and not even Avatar Aang or Korra can do that.

Now your influence was great as you did a great job with Nerissa improving the source material giving her depth she didn't had. You never disappoint on villiains.

By saying it was too easy for them,I'll give an example. It's telling how on season 2 (before you worked on the show) all the girls had their "soulmates" . While Peter was still struggling with love on season 2. Also on season 2 the main couples Wally X Artemis and Superboy Miss Martian were struggling in one way or another. By the end of Gargoyles, Eliza and Goliath still had room to grow as a couple and so on.

I feel a lot of character development was stolen before you got to them. But I think you did the best with what you got.

For a magical girl show the magic trinkets was unnecessarily complex, I think. Meaning all of them had to be close to the heart to transform and close to WIll. WINX had them not dependent on a jewel. As far as kids playing as WINX they had more fun without a doubt. But again this was from the source.

As for the girls you defitiveley wrote them better than WINX. But I feel that girls wanted to be more like Bloom (their redhead lead) than Will. Bloom was a secret flame princess or something and Will had divorced parents. Which made Will more relatable but less escapist.

Regardless I just want to say that I loved what you did on that show. In fact I only checked it out because you worked on it.

I would love to see you develop a magical girl show, but on your terms.

So my question would be, what are your thoughts on it?
Keep the good work!

Greg responds...

I WISH my answers had only been a year away and not nearly four years. Sorry about that.

Anyway, I've never seen WINX. So I have no opinion on it one way or another, and I can't compare the two series. But I truly LOVED doing WITCH and would have loved to have done a third season. I had definite ideas, based on the comics and coming out of what we had already built in Season Two.

Response recorded on June 28, 2021

Bookmark Link

FallenLegend writes...

Hey there it's me again. Sorry for asking so many things, but I admire your writing and love your shows.

I have two questions regarding your storytelling techniques.

First How do you manage to always see up us guessing? I know you're very protective on spoilers. But I mean, how do you plan these seeds of questions in our minds?

I have a lot of questions you won't answer because they are spoilers. But how do you manage to make us want to know in the first place.

Your questions are like Hydra. Whenever you answer a question we have as fans (like who are the members of the light) two more questions take their place.

Second

I've heard you mention that you would do series forever if you could. But how would you do that with licensed properties?

Specially after you said you do like characters growing.

Sure with Gargoyles you said you could keep the story after Goliath dies and sure you could make a lot of villains and plots. We already got Alexander Xanatos in the future for one.

But what about Spectacular Spiderman? by season 2 you had already introduced like 90% of his most famous villains. How could you've kept things fresh without creating original characters?

And with Young justice, not complaining about time skips, but eventually all of them will become adults right? Wouldn't you be running out of teenage superheros by time skipping?

I know you're skilled writer. But it seems like theres no way on making these lost longer and keep character growing without creating new characters that aren't part of the franchise.

I'm very curious. Thank you greg!

Greg responds...

1. Planning, I guess. (If I'm understanding your question correctly.) We block out our stories beat by beat over an entire season. Some of it's instinct, I suppose. A lot of it is experience. But our rule of thumb is if it intrigues us, it might just intrigue our audience.

2. The DC Universe has been going for over 80 years. The Spider-Man corner of the Marvel Universe has been going for almost 60. No one's run out of characters yet. And as I believe YJ proves, you can age your original leads and still constantly intro new young leads as you go. (We're not even vaguely close to running out of young heroes that are canon to DC.) If anything, I think our audience is sometimes annoyed that we don't focus enough on existing characters and keep introducing more.

Response recorded on June 28, 2021

Bookmark Link

Jack Carpenter writes...

Can Blue Beetle's armor create a grappling hook? I mean, he obviously doesn't need one because he can fly, but if he did?

What happens to the ammunition, like the staples, that Beetle leaves behind?

Where does the extra mass come from for Beetle's weapons and equipment?

Greg responds...

1. I guess he could.

2. They stay where he left 'em.

3. It has to be acquired.

Response recorded on June 28, 2021

Bookmark Link

a human Earthling writes...

Do "Martians" as we know them (such as J'onn, M'gann, and B'arzz) have a name that they use amongst themselves to refer their particular species that goes beyond the planetary designation? Humans, for example, could also be considered "Earthlings," but we tend to think of ourselves and each other as "humans" before we think of ourselves as "Earthlings," and I feel as though that still largely applies to Earth-16 despite people on Earth becoming more and more aware of sentient life on other planets. Is there a Martian equivalent to "human" in that sense, or do Martians call each other "Martians" (or, of course, whatever the Martian language equivalent of "person from/of Mars" is).

This same question could apply to any alien species, I suppose (Kryptonian, Rannian, Krolotean, etc.), but with Mars being a populated planet so relatively close to Earth and its inhabitants being capable of interplanetary travel, it makes me very curious how Martians contextualize themselves as a species. If this question crosses into spoiler territory since we've yet to really see Martian civilization in the show, I understand and apologize. Thank you for your time!

Greg responds...

We basically translate the Martian word for what we call ourselves (as Earthlings) "human," as "Martian" (for inhabitants of M'arzz).

It's just hella simpler that way.

Response recorded on June 28, 2021

Bookmark Link

FallenLegend writes...

Hey there Greg I wanted to clarify and fix question I asked you a while back about how making comics more apealing to the general public.

I correct myself as DC's Rebirth is indeed fantastic.

However new 52 was a disaster (their superman was awful) and Marvel is having a crisis of having low sales of these writting. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/books/marvel-comics-diversity-thor-hulk.html

The think is comics are very niche.

Best selling comics from the big two are at best on the hunred thousands (if they are lucky). And we are talking big names like Spider-Man or Batman.

They are dwarfed by TV. But not even the convenience of TV being free an accesible is an excuse becuase Manga (aka japanese comics) again dwarf them by selling on the millions range.

There was a time Fawcett sold in the millions. Yet today most people simply aren't atracted to comics.

A big issue in my opinion is how the continuity os a nightmare. Just a glance at the retcons and illy explanations like "superboy punched reality" are a nightmare to follow for new comers.

As an outsider I see chaos and very confusing plotlines. But yes as you pointed out "zooming in" there are plenty of fantastic comics.

So my question is, how would you make comics more appealing to the general public?

And

How would you fix all these continuity nighmares caused by cosmic retcons like having hundreds of retcons ( superboy prime, antimonitor, etc)

Thank you Greg. Love your shows.

Greg responds...

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking me? How I would fix things if DC and Marvel gave me full and complete power over their respective Universes? That's a massively huge hypothetical, right?

Otherwise, on a somewhat more reasonable level, if you're asking what I would do with, say, my version of the DC Universe, you can see that by watching YOUNG JUSTICE.

Response recorded on June 28, 2021

Bookmark Link

FallenLegend writes...

Hey Greg the topics on my questions are about popularity. The other day I was thinking abiut gargoyles, and W.I.T.C.H and I always wondered why it didn't get a far better mainstream appeal.

This was odd for me as gargoyles being your baby, it does have brilliant writting and well developed characters.

I mean sure it does have a relative big following , theres a fan hosting this very site. But on the whole of dinsey propierties Gargoyles is a bit on the obscure side of things. I apologize if that comes as an insult. By the standards of a 90's disney cartoon your show is reasnably well rememebered, sure.

But had the fanbase being larger, the comic would've lasted longer I think.

I rather consider this a paradox. A brilliant show with great writting doesn't gett that much attention. Consider for a second how ducktales got a revival, and gargoyles is still waiting despite our best wishes as fans.

I think I found the reason.

Gargoyles lacks escapism.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing. You love your show and just how things are. Nothing wrong with that. I don't want you to change what you love.

Gargoyles are supposed to be feared and disliked as the whole point of them is a statment against prejudice. That's the entire point.

But it does affect their popuilarity.

Say people might want to be like Nightwing or spiderman as teens with incredible lifes. But I think few people would want to be a gargoyle hiding from the world.

People admire Goliath but I don't think anyone (mainly the kids of the audience) would like to be him nor Hudson or Lexington.

X-men has also the prejudiced characters. But there's a line of kids that would love to be like Wolverine or even Mystique.

I think it's safe to say that nobody would like to be in Puck's shoes.

Xanatos, Fox and oberon were probably the closes to escapist characters given their confort. But I think that's a stretch give the gargoyles are the focus.

So my question is what do you think?

Greg responds...

I simply disagree. There's plenty of escapism in Gargoyles. More, I'd argue, than in X-Men. Why would someone want to be Wolverine and not, say, Brooklyn? (I mean from an escapist, point of view.) Is it because Wolverine is a badass? Well, so is Goliath.

Response recorded on June 28, 2021


: « First : « 100 : « 10 : Displaying #103 - #112 of 112 records. :