A Station Eight Fan Web Site

Gargoyles

The Phoenix Gate

Ask Greg Archives

DEFINITE UNCERTAINTY 2021-10 (Oct)

Archive Index


: Displaying #1 - #10 of 75 records. : 10 » : Last » :


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


Bookmark Link

Aziraphale writes...

After watching the season premiere of YJ, I have an additional question:

In your reinterpretation of the White Martians, I was confused by their new portrayal as an oppressed underclass compared to the Green Martians, in contrast to their depiction in the comics and other media as hatemongering conquerors. And that led to a confusing racial allegory that I already didn't think worked well, but then I noticed Ma’alefa’ak's birth name is "M'Comm", something original to this show and not the comics, and he was imprisoned in a jail with a giant X on the building. M'Comm X? If this was an intentional reference to real life civil rights leaders, what was the thought process in turning a character who had murdered innocent teenagers the previous season into a Malcolm X analogy?

Greg responds...

I see where you're coming from, but that's not where we were coming from.

The X on the building comes from the X on Martian Manhunter's chest. In our mind, that was the symbol of the M'huntrrs, i.e the Martian police, that J'onn J'onzz was a member of before coming to Earth. I totally see how you got there, but I promise you it literally never occurred to us to associate that X with M'comm to create any kind of Malcolm X reference or analogy.

The name M'comm was, for us, just following in the tradition of most Martian naming, i.e. you take a relatively average human name and Martian it up a bit. Hence John becomes J'onn, Megan becomes M'gann, etc. M'ree, M'aatt, J'ann and M'comm follow along those lines. So, yes, M'comm is a Martianing up of Malcolm, but I never specifically thought of associating him with Malcolm X, any more than I think of J'onn being associated with some specific Jon or John.

Way back when we were developing Season One, Brandon and I rejected the idea of there being an evil race on M'arzz. I find that notion from the comics very troubling. But we did think that the MYTH of an evil race would be useful for the ruling castes to justify their caste system. Scapegoating, in essence, creates a self-justifying belief: "Oh, so the A'ashenn are angry about the way we treat them? They don't like how we keep them in their place? Well, that's because they're hate-mongering would-be conquerors! Thank C'eridyall we DO keep them in their place!"

I've said before that I regret having used White Martians at all. We were following in the footsteps of the comics, but I do wish we had thought to use Grays instead of Whites. For one thing, the idea of Martians being either "little green men" or "Grays" feels right to me, in terms of alien-mythology. But mostly, it's because here in the real world, the word "white" is obviously associated with people of European descent (such as myself) - i.e. so-called Caucasian - and not with the actual color white, i.e. the snow white or chalk white of our A'ashenn. In essence, we were distracted by the visual look of the White Martians and didn't have the sensitivity to focus on the actual and very real connotation of the WORD "white".

That's one of the main reasons why, this season, we made a conscious choice to largely stop referring to the Martians as White, Green, Red and Yellow, in favor of A'ashenn, G'arrunn, B'lahdenn and Y'ellonn. We actively wanted to create some mental distance between the A'ashenn and Caucasians by avoiding the common word "white". We don't want the oppressed A'ashenn associated with the decidedly NOT oppressed Caucasians in any way, shape or form. It's not a perfect solution, but after consulting with our multiple sensitivity readers, it felt like the best we could do, given our failure of imagination and sensitivity way back in Season One.

Response recorded on October 29, 2021

Bookmark Link

Brie writes...

Hey Greg!
I have seen people say that Wallace West (the second) and Emiko Queens relationship in the comics is Spitfire 2.0
An archer and a Kid Flash being in a relationship alone is enough to draw parallels, but they also started off fighting/being sarcastic before eventually opening up to each other and starting to date.
My question is:
1) What do you think about people calling them spitfire 2.0?
2) what do you think about Emiko Queen in general?
3) what do you think about Wallace West (the second) in general?
Thanks for taking the time to answer this! I'm loving season four so far!

Greg responds...

1. It feels like a tribute, so I guess it's a smile. But this question is the first time I've heard of this.

2. She's interesting.

3. Also interesting.

Thanks!

Response recorded on October 29, 2021

Bookmark Link

Ash writes...

Hi Greg, fantastic start to Season Four and perhaps bigger congratulations on finishing the queue.

Have a range of questions both new and old, but I'll start off with a few new ones that I don't Think will be covered in the very soon to air episodes.

1) Once is Happenstance, Twice is Coincidence, Three times is Enemy Action. With Mgann appearing to match Megan Wheeler and Mree (now Emree) matching Marie Logan, we've at least reached the Coincidence level. Given that Hello Megan didn't air till 17 years after M'gann was born, I was curious if there might have been some "Enemy Action" inspiring their names that may have come at a point later than is common for human newborns?

2) I am absolutely loving the Martian language, sorry for avoiding apostrophes here I know that Ask Greg tends to misrepresent those. Was curious if you came up with most of it, or who otherwise to thank and credit as well?

3) With the Blahdenn specifically, I was curious to their name. It resembles Blood, in much the way Aashenn resembles Ash, Garrunn Green and Yellonn Yellow, but we see in Image that Martians have Green Blood, so I was curious if this was the route association and how it fits given that all their blood I would think to be green across races?

4) This is with an assumption that the Maayavaana is not just a light show with magic but does involve some deeper invocation of Ceridyall and the love shared by the couple, clearly a success for Mgann and Superboy. My question is whether this rite would be possible if there were not a deep sense of love shared?

5) We've seen that a Martian telepath, even one as strong as Mgann, has range limitations. On Marzz, is there something like piggybacking signal jumping system that aquires larger ranges, or was Emree and the Zeta Project sufficiently close for her to contact Queen Jarlia Jaxx?

Just a final comment; have loved every bit of worldbuilding and all the new Martian characters. Emree is an absolute favourite and hope to see much more from her as she develops and learns more of her familys truths.

Greg responds...

1. I'm honestly not sure if I understand your question. But it sounds a bit paranoid on the surface of it..

2. Originally, back in Season One, it was a cooperative effort between myself and Nicole Dubuc. This season it's been mostly me and Brandon Vietti. I mean, it's mostly all proper names, as the rest is translated for you. But I'm glad you're grooving on it.

3. Out of universe, Brandon and I wanted names for the races that the AUDIENCE would more easily grok by association. So A'ashenn does indeed equate from white ash, B'lahdenn from red blood, G'arrunn from green and Y'ellonn from yellow. But we're categorically NOT saying that, in Universe, those Martian words evolved out of these human words.

4. Possible, yes. As brilliant, no. The brilliance depends on two factors: the love of the couple and the skills of the Priest or Priestess.

5. There's a potential snowball effect, and yes, if a large linked body is sending signals between each other, than it can overwhelm at a greater distance, as long as SOMEONE on the link is close enough to be in range. And, yes, The Science Center was sufficiently close to the Palace.

We like Em'ree, as well. :)

Response recorded on October 29, 2021

Bookmark Link

Impetuous_77 writes...

I have a few questions about the que ball himself...Hro tic tac

1. How old is Hro talak
2.Why is Hro talak bald
3. Did Hro talak ever get into a romantic relationship with Shayera?
4. Is Hro talak single
5. Is Hro talak nice at all?

Thank you for making him a piece of crap, I've always hated how abusive he was in JLU.

Greg responds...

1. By the end of TEAM YEAR EIGHT, Hro Talak was 52.

2. For one of the myriad reasons folks are bald.

3. No spoilers.

4. No spoilers.

5. I'll leave that to your imagination.

Response recorded on October 29, 2021

Bookmark Link

Verdragon writes...

What did that Reach metahuman failsafe that was kept at STAR Labs Detroit actually do?

Greg responds...

We may never know.

Response recorded on October 29, 2021

Bookmark Link

Caleb writes...

I've been sitting on this question for a while, so it's not strictly related to the season 4 premiere (which I really enjoyed), but here we go:

Agendas is one of my favorite episodes of Young Justice. I love seeing superheroes interact in decidedly not-super ways. Anyway, I was looking at the membership timeline of the Justice League on the YJ Wiki and noticed that (as a rule) there seem to be no new members for years, and then a huge jump in membership around the same time. What was really odd was the (at least) 10 season 3 additions (from Aquaman II to Steel) all joining around 6 months before the season began. This is contrasted with the Team, where members come and go much more frequently. So…

1. Is the meeting/discussion/vote format depicted in Agendas the primary way that new members are added to the Justice League?
2. Are there any outliers besides Doctor Fate (who was then legitimized by the vote in Agendas)?
3. When multiple members are added in a single day (like Atom, Plastic Man, Icon, and Red Arrow in Usual Suspects or the aforementioned season 3 batch), how are their Zeta-designations assigned? When they debuted as heroes? How many votes they got? Whatever order Batman dictates?
4. Whose arm do I have to twist at DC to get a comic miniseries of Earth-16 Justice League Election Specials?

Greg responds...

1. Yes.

2. On occasion, a hero may be drafted into the League on a probationary basis, during an emergency or for other reasons. But then he, she or they would have to be confirmed in a League vote, as with - as you noted - Doctor Fate.

3. Batman has nothing to do with it. He doesn't run the League. He was chairman during Season One. But since then, we've had multiple chairpersons, including Captain Atom, Black Canary, Wonder Woman & Aquaman (II), and Black Lightning. Generally speaking, if members join at the same time - without having first joined on a probationary basis (as Doctor Fate did) - they are in essence inducted in the order they debuted publicly as heroes.

4. I wish I knew...

Response recorded on October 29, 2021

Bookmark Link

Gigliovaljr writes...

Hey Greg,
It has been a delightful surprise for the sudden premiere of YJ Phantoms and I hope there's more episodes soon.

Looking back at when YJ returned, you had a lot less restrictions, allowing you to tell the story more to your choosing, but I can't help but wonder how different season 3 would have been if Young Justice had never been cancelled to begin with and still had those restrictions.

Could you tell us more of how different season 3 would have been if the show had continued back in 2013? What would have changed in regards to characters and story? What plans for season 3 did you come up after the original cancellation and what plans were scrapped?

Greg responds...

I can't answer that. It's hypothetical to a wild degree. Our general plans for the first four seasons haven't changed from back when we first developed the series. But we didn't break Season Three in any detail until DC Universe picked us up for a third season. And we didn't begin breaking Season Four until DC Universe picked a fourth season up - months before DC Universe became DC Universe Infinite, and we moved over to HBO Max.

Response recorded on October 29, 2021

Bookmark Link

Nick writes...

Since you were willing to clear up by earlier confusion about the G-series of designations (https://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=24794), I was wondering if you could find it in your heart to help me with the Z-series, considering it is also seemingly defunct after the events of “Nevermore.”

In the Season 3 premiere, Batman exits the League along with Green Arrow, Plastic Man, Katana, Hardware, and Batwoman, as well as some Team members (Robin, Arrowette, and Spoiler). We also later see that Orphan and Metamorpho are members of this team.

Thanks to promotional materials, our current understanding of the Z-series is as follows:

Z-01: Batman
Z-02: Green Arrow
Z-05: Katana
Z-07: Robin
Z-08: Arrowette
Z-09: Spoiler
Z-10: Orphan

This leaves three spots open for some of the aforementioned Justice Leaguers. There is also the additional inclusion of Metamorpho, which means Batman Inc. had at least eleven members unless some of the Leaguers who quit with him did not end up joining his team. My real confusion lies in the exact designation ordering. My previous understanding has been that designations are distributed in the order that characters begin their heroic careers when there are multiple heroes joining at the same time. But if this was the same for Batman’s team -- who were seemingly all recruited at the same time -- then why is Katana Z-05? Based on the debut info you have recently revealed for some of the newer Leaguers, we know that Katana began her heroic career in Japan in Team Year Three, prior to Hardware (Team Year Five), Batwoman (Team Year Six), and Metamorpho (Team Year Seven). But since there are two slots prior to Katana (one of which is presumably Plastic Man) and only one after before getting into the younger heroes, I was wondering if a) these promotional materials were a mistake or if b) any of the debut info was incorrect or c) if Batman assembled his team in different designation batches despite them all ultimately walking away from the League at the same time.

If you’d be willing to clear up the confusion, I would sincerely appreciate it. Hope production on the last few PHANTOMS episodes is going smoothly!

Greg responds...

Okay, to be clear, I'm spelling out the Z-Designations BECAUSE they are defunct. I will not be doing this for non-lettered designations (Justice League), A-Designation (guests), B-Designations (Team), C-Designations (pets) or D-Designations (Outsiders).

Z-01: Batman
Z-02: Green Arrow
Z-03: Plastic Man
Z-04: Hardware
Z-05: Katana
Z-06: Batwoman
Z-07: Robin
Z-08: Arrowette
Z-09: Spoiler
Z-10: Orphan
Z-11: Metamorpho

Response recorded on October 29, 2021

Bookmark Link

Marvelman writes...

In "Needful", why did Gar's telepathic plugs (or whatever they are) fall off during the cave-in? They had always seemed to adapt to whatever form Beast Boy took regardless of size.

Greg responds...

No, they didn't. His speakers never changed size. They stayed on his collar but maintained a consistent size, whether he was a green elephant or a green mouse. So, in essence, if he and his collar becomes too small to hold the speakers, they fall off. This happened last season when he became a green hornet, and this season when he became a green cockroach.

Response recorded on October 29, 2021

Bookmark Link

May Zozi writes...

Okay so my question requires a bit of background:

All three of the Harper boys (Will: B06, Roy: B25, Jim: A45) have different designations yet are identical as they are clones. So, why does the Zeta Tech not view them all as one person?

In S2, the eye scanner at the Arrow Cave viewed both Roy and Will as the same person. When it scanned Will's eyes it recognized him as Roy, who was already inside, then the alarm went off. I am supposing the technology must be different and I am guessing the Zeta tech is more advanced. But then how does it function? WHAT differentiates them?

The only two things I could think were age and physical attributes. All three Harpers are different ages (technically with Jim being the eldest and Roy being the youngest due to time spent on ice) and have differing physical attributes (hair, facial hair, muscle mass, height, limbs in Roy's case.)

My main question is: how does the zeta tube recognize people? Is it through blood, through DNA, through physical attributes? And how can it tell the Harper boys apart?

Thank you so much and really enjoying S4 thus far! :)

Greg responds...

Captain Marvel and Billy Batson were genetically identical, but the Zeta Tube didn't recognize them as the same person. You're assuming that the Zeta Tube is genetically testing potential travelers. And it clearly isn't. I mean how do you genetically test Red Tornado to identify him? Or Sphere?

Response recorded on October 29, 2021


: Displaying #1 - #10 of 75 records. : 10 » : Last » :