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ASSURED MUSINGS 2022-05 (May)
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Anonymous writes...
Mr. Weisman,
Since the word "Marvel" can no longer be used in Earth-16, and Captain Marvel is now identified as Shazam, does that mean...
A. The Marvel Family is now addressed as the Shazam Family like in the New 52?
B. Lieutenant Marvel (Freddy Freeman) is now addressed as Shazam, Jr. like in the New 52?
C. Sergeant Marvel (Mary Bromfield) is now addressed as Lady Shazam like in the New 52?
Greg responds...
A. I suppose. Haven't really thought about it. So far, we haven't been asked to retcon anything.
B. No.
C. No.
Anonymous writes...
Mr. Weisman,
In "Odnu!" we see the Earth-16 debut of the Phantom Stranger. Now, despite the ethnicity change (from Caucasian to African-American), is his real name identified as Judas Iscariot; like his New 52 counterpart (as indicated in "Trinity of Sin: The Phantom Stranger: Futures End #1")?
Greg responds...
I haven't read that - or any Pre-Rebirth New 52 comics. (That's not a comment on their quality. I just wasn't reading comics during that era and didn't hop back on again until Rebirth.) So if PS is JI, it's news to me. Not saying no. Just haven't thought about it at all to see if it fits with what I do know about the Earth-16 version of PS.
Paul writes...
1) Why was Klarion wearing a suit (his trademark look) during his first encounter with Vandal Savage, when that fashion style had yet to be invented? Do the Lords of Chaos emulate styles from the past, present and future, since they themselves are "ageless" beings? If so, how is this possible? I hope there's a deeper explanation for this than "it's magic, anything goes"... but it isn't a big deal.
2) Klarion and Child wear suits (or at least, smart/formal clothing). Likewise, so does Phantom Stranger. Is this just a coincidence or is it significant in some way that they all select smart attire?
I doubt that clothing will be discussed in any depth in the next few episodes, so I feel that it's safe to submit these questions.
Greg responds...
1. For the time being, let's say that before choosing his physical form, Klarion bounced around space and time until he found something he liked.
2. Lot's of people wear smart attire. Clark Kent wears a suit. I wouldn't read too much into Stranger's turtleneck. Whether Klarion and Child's attire mirrors each other is a more interesting question to me.
Zachary Zatara writes...
Does Zatanna watch Lacey Chabert Hallmark movies?
Greg responds...
Doesn't everybody?
Rob writes...
Hi Greg, I’m loving season 4! Thank you, Brandon, and all of your crew for all the hard work. A few questions,
1. Who all is living in the premiere building in season 4? We’ve seen Beast Boy is there but did all the Taos meta kids move in when they joined the outsiders/team?
2. What team year did Batgirl join the team?
3. What team year did Bumblebee join the team?
4. What team year did Lagoon Boy join the team?
Greg responds...
1. Daniel Cassidy, Garfield Logan, Forager, Violet Harper, Andie Murphy, Leslie Willis, Lia Briggs and Wendy Jones all live at the Premiere Building.
I feel like I've definitely already answered the rest of these, but what the heck...
2, 3, 4. Batgirl, Bumblebee and Lagoon Boy all joined the Team in Team Year Four.
Anonymous writes...
Mr. Weisman,
Forgive me if this sounds too insensitive or anything, but with the way that Beast Boy's storyline is being handled thus far in Season 4 of Young Justice, are you ultimately trying to deliver some kind of message to viewers about the importance of suicide prevention? The reason I am asking about this sensitive topic is because given that Beast Boy's depression has now been shown (as of the time of this posting) in "Odnu!" to have progressed to a point where he is now suffering from lack of sleep and needs medication to help him deal with it, I'm deeply worried that his depression may eventually drive him to the point of attempting to commit suicide because he can't deal with the culmination of the personal losses that have occurred throughout his life; with the apparent loss of Superboy apparently being the final straw for Beast Boy. To be fair though, if this is your intent, then I can understand because I have never seen a cartoon TV series that has ever publicly addressed this specific issue; as such, I suspect this is going to be a first if my suspicion about what might happen to Beast Boy turns out to be true. I do, however, remember watching a Static Shock episode years ago that addressed the issue of guns, and that was a pretty dark episode.
Greg responds...
Hopefully, you've continued to watch as Garfield's story has unfolded and as it continues to unfold throughout the rest of the season. This was really a story about someone suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress. But many issues were dealt with across it.
NoOneSpecial writes...
You know, watching Vandal sire an entire lineage throughout the centuries, I can't help but think about Demona during her 1000 years of life and wonder why she did not try the same approach to 'repopulate' the gargoyle race herself. Ironically, that might work out quite well for Demona in more ways than one since she become the 'mother' of her whole race. I know gargoyles were sparse throughout the years, and I can't remember if Demona even knew about any of the surviving clans. And of course, given her current predicament, I don't see her having kids to be a option, unless she wants to run the risk of giving birth as a human.
Still, it does seem like it would have been at least a potentially useful idea if she ever encounter another gargoyle over the course of her long life to maybe at least 'try' and procreate. Of course I understand, gargoyles are monogamous by nature, but then again, I wouldn't nesscessarily put anything past Demona
Assuming she ever met another gargoyle in the last 1000 years, would she have ever even considered having another egg? Personally, if I had to guess, I would say she would not try, and the reason being there is big difference between her and Vandal; she would have to carry the child to term. And if Demona has one constant, it's her own self-preservation. Still, it's an interesting parallel to ponder.
Greg responds...
It's interesting. But I'm forced to answer NO SPOILERS, for all the usual reasons.
Anonymous writes...
Mr. Weisman,
The episode "Odnu!" identified Vandal Savage's real name as Vandar Adg. Just for clarification, is this his birth name or is this name something that he came up for himself at some point in his life?
Greg responds...
The latter I believe. We've never stated his so-called "birth name."
Anonymous writes...
Dear Mr weisman before i ask my questions i want to apologize for the spelling error as i meant to say Vandal Savage and the phantom stranger but hit a v instead of an s by mistake now for the questions 1 . How long as Zatanna been mentoring Mary Bromfield ? 2. How old is the Phantom stranger ? 3.I like the cute lizard that Traci has how long has she had him? 4 .Does Mary Bromfield wear a baseball cap (like Traci does) or a newsgirl cap ( like Gabi Gabriell does) when not in costume?
Greg responds...
1. Haven't locked in a specific start time, but not all that long.
2. Asked and answered.
3. A year or less.
4. You've seen her out of costume. Was she wearing a hat?
Anonymous writes...
Dear Mr Weisman 1. How long have Zatanna and Madame Xanadu known each outer? 2. Has Madame Xanadu seen the movie Xanadu and how does she feel about it ?( especially the title being the same name as her last name) 3. When did Blue devil take up the role of "'Den Dad'' to the outsiders ? 4. how long have Vandal Vavage and the Phantom stranger known each outer ?
Greg responds...
1. I haven't locked in a day or date when they met. But it's been some time.
2. For all we know, she was inspired to choose that name BECAUSE of the movie. I'm not saying it's true but...
2a. For the record, Madame Xanadu is her stage name/nom de guerre. Her real name is Nimue Inwudu.
3. Again, I haven't nailed down a precise date, but sometime after Helga Jace, um... disqualified herself from the gig.
4. A very long time.
Marvelman writes...
1) Is season 4 Shazam as strong and as fast as season 1 Captain Marvel?
2) Is there a limit to the amount of kinetic energy Rocket's force-field can absorb? Is there a point beyond whic the force field will just break?
Greg responds...
1. Nope.
2. There's no limit for kinetic energy. Other energies aren't as compatible.
Marvelman writes...
If Madame Xanadu is a true medium then she can communicate with the dead, right? If that's the case, why didn't Zatanna just bring Artemis to Xanadu so that Artemis could speak to Wally's spirit during "Overwhelmed"?
Greg responds...
It's not that simple. If a spirit is truly at rest, you generally cannot reach them. And in any case, you seem to think it's healthy to attempt to commune with the dead. Zatanna might not agree with you.
Anonymous writes...
Hey Greg,
I was wondering about Arsenal’s amputation. Is his arm amputated below the elbow?
How does Jason Bard come to lose his leg?
Greg responds...
1. Uh... just below the elbow. Barely.
2. In combat. He's an ex-Marine.
Anonymous writes...
Is Helga Jace aware that zviad is a member of the light?
Greg responds...
No spoilers.
Paul writes...
"Odnu!" was amazing!
1) How old is Mary Bromfield?
2) How old is Khalid Nassour?
3) Mary mentions that she gave up (or "had to" give up) being Sergeant Marvel -- but we know that she would have appeared as Sergeant in "Satisfaction" (per your remark some time ago that she would have said "Shazam!" in this scene). Did Mary therefore give up being Sergeant Marvel after Raquel's bridal shower, rather than before that event?
4) Now that Mary has appeared, would you be able to reveal the in-universe reason for her absence in "Satisfaction", please?
5) Silly long-shot question: how old is the Phantom Stranger?
Greg responds...
1. Mary was born in 2000.
2. Khalid was born in 1998.
3. Stuff we once may have planned but didn't end up doing are NOT canon. Beyond that, NO SPOILERS.
4. Maybe. If I had one.
5. He's biologically 28.
traught4life writes...
hey Greg i just want to ask about something i've been wondering about for a while did dick reveal his identity to Artemis and show her the picture he took if so how did she react and will we ever see her reaction in a flashback or future episodes???
Greg responds...
At this stage, yes, Artemis knows Dick's identity. Beyond that, NO SPOILERS.
Anonymous writes...
mister Greg why did you have Garfield join the Doom Patrol if you just kill them?
Greg responds...
History is a mystery.
camila perez writes...
is supermartian your favorite couple? it feels like they're the mainstream couple and I'm absolutely in love with that
Greg responds...
I don't have one favorite. But I'm glad you like them.
Anonymous writes...
You’ve mentioned a few times that the pandemic likely hit Earth-16 in 2021 instead of 2020. Can we infer from that that the virus in the Young Justice universe is called COVID-20 instead of COVID-19?
Greg responds...
Potentially. I have to think out all the ramifications, and I haven't yet.
Anonymous writes...
Not really a question, but I rewatched the entire show recently and season 1 is really just something special. It's so rare to see something in DC media that's character focused and optimistic. It still has its dark moments, but the characters are there to pick each other up. And I think it's the only show that accurately shows the relationships between the mentors and the proteges; most either focus on the older heroes or the younger ones with minimal interaction. I still love the show, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the earlier vibe.
Greg responds...
That's fair. But kids grow up. It's inevitable, and we wanted to explore that.
Anonymous writes...
when creating halo, did no one stop to think that killing gabrielle and having a motherbox use her corpse was a bad idea for your first (and only) female muslim hero? i know your response before was that it was taken from the comics, but now with oracle's origin we can clearly see you guys aren't afraid to change things. so you could've easily changed it to have gabrielle resurrected with the powers of a motherbox instead.
and i feel like you still don't see the issue here, which is that violet is not a muslim woman of color, so you don't get credit for "turning a woman of color from a victim to hero" as you've said. you killed a woman of color and possessed her corpse. i'm sorry but i just can't get over how no one saw a problem with that.
Greg responds...
We talked about this a lot, actually, with a number of people, including with a Muslim woman of color. And, no. No one saw a problem. As with all things, people's mileage varies.
We had not, yet, involved MPAC in our creative process. Maybe they would've had a problem with how we introduced Halo if they had been involved in Season Three. But MPAC's involvement and interaction with us began during the creation of Season Four. At that point, when we told them where we were going with the character, they were good with it. Even, I dare say, enthusiastic. MPAC and other Muslims we've consulted have been happy with who Halo/Violet has become, or in any case, with the journey that we've put them on.
But just so I'm clear, you'd have preferred - since we were doing THIS story - that the character had been white?
I mean I get that you'd have preferred that the character had been a Muslim woman of color with a different story, but I'm not a big fan of fans who tell me which story to tell. This was the story we wanted to tell. This was the version of Halo we wanted to create.
But we could have made Gabrielle a white girl, I guess. She's a white girl in the comics. We could have had yet another blonde in the cast.
But we already had aliens who present as white, including Superman and Hawkwoman, among others. We've also had a dead girl who was white, i.e. Secret.
It seems to me that having Halo be a person of color - even a person of color who (as you dismissively note) was created from a corpse possessed by an alien spirit - was a step in the right direction. Especially since we knew where we were going with the character. You may not like how Violet became Violet, and I respect that. (I don't apologize for it, but I respect it.) But now that you've seen where we've taken the character, I wonder if there's another way to look at it.
Yes, Gabrielle is dead. Her death is horrible and tragic. She was vulnerable. And she was exploited and murdered. Now, she's dead.
But Violet is alive. They are not Gabrielle. But they are definitely a person of color (as much as Clark Kent's a white guy - and I think we can all agree that Clark Kent is a white guy). And now they're a person of color, who's interested in exploring the Muslim heritage that mattered so much to Gabrielle. In essence, Violet is seriously thinking about converting to Islam, in part because of Gabrielle's memory of faith. And I doubt we would've gotten that story if we'd made Gabrielle a white girl.
Because, here's the thing: we're doing genre fiction here. That means we are using aliens, demons, ghosts, mermaids and robots to tell stories about the human condition. I reject the notion that all our diversity MUST somehow come from fully human characters like Dick Grayson and Artemis Crock. Again, no one doubts that stories about a Kryptonian aren't capable of telling us something about the human condition. Or that Atlanteans and Amazons aren't human enough to empathize with. So some of our characters are going to have bizarre and even horrifying origins. That's the genre. So do we play it safe and only do white characters when we go inhuman?
Some of our aliens look like space aliens. Some look like humans. Most of those humans look white historically. We're trying to turn the battleship on that notion. So Martian Manhunter - when he looks human - looks Black. Icon is Black. Highmother and General Zod are Black. Lor-Zod is biracial. B'arzz O'oomm, when he looks human, looks Latinx. And Halo looks Arabic. It's not much. But it's a start.
Now, don't get me wrong. I understand that a big problem that you have with Halo is that Gabrielle was the only Muslim woman of color in the show. (It's not actually true, of course. But no one wants to count villains like Queen Bee or Talia al Ghul, who probably only pay lip service to being Muslim.) So we need more representation. More representation is always better. We're working on it. Maybe not as fast as everyone would like. But we're trying. Truly, honestly, trying. In fact, I've been trying to increase representation my entire career for all sorts of different communities. I know my track record is mixed. I've taken a lot of swings, and some of those swings have been misses. (And maybe Halo was another miss - though I truly don't think so.) But Elisa Maza didn't come from nowhere. I PUT her in Gargoyles. And that was nearly thirty years ago. We need to do better, and we continue to strive to do better. And, meanwhile, we have increased the Muslim representation in YJ. Madia's role has expanded. Khalid Nassour joined the cast. We met his Muslim parents briefly. And we're only getting started, frankly. I can't promise you we'll get more seasons. So maybe our progress on this particular show will be arrested. But I'm not done (I hope). And I will continue to strive to do the best I can. Because this MATTERS to me. I promise you. And we're also learning to bring in more voices. More readers like the folks at MPAC and GLAAD and ASAN. More diverse writers. An increasingly diverse cast. Etc. We're a work in progress. But even that IS progress.
All of which is NOT to say that you need to agree with us, with me, with any of it. Again, I respect your point of view. The decisions we made still work for us. But I don't have any illusion that I can somehow TALK you into making it work for you. Your responses to what's on the screen are your own. And they're valid. Period.
Still, we've done everything in our power in Season Four to make sure that everything we do with the character of Halo is as respectful as possible going forward. We don't always succeed. I just hope you see that we're trying.
Nate writes...
Hi Greg! Here are some rather odd-ball questions that you may or may not have thought about regarding the worldbuilding/characterization in YJ, that I hope you'll have fun answering/pondering about.
#1 - Do Martians (in their natural form) have tear ducts? We've seen Miss Martian cry in her more humanoid-looking Martian appearance, but I don't believe we've ever seen Martians (like J'emm, for example) shed tears.
#2 - Do you interpret the main colors of hero's costumes to symbolize that character's favorite color? For example, do you think Dick's favorite color is blue, given that's the color of his Nightwing insignia? Artemis' green/orange? Barry's red? Batman's black? Etc. etc.?
#3 - I know you're big on tracking dates and times and all that jazz, but are you a stickler for checking such things as the moon cycle, days of the week, differing sunsets/sunrises, etc. etc. when coming up with dates? For example, say you had a scene take place right after midnight on August 16 (of whatever year), would you go and check what stage the moon would be that night? What day of the week that landed on? Etc. etc.
#4 - In the recent episodes of Artemis' arc, it was revealed that Onyx was the granddaughter of Will Everett, a.k.a. the Amazing Man, who Cheshire (and later Artemis) seemed to be unaware of. It was evident that the League of Shadows knew about him (it was why they kept an eye on her in the first place), but given that everyone else hadn't heard of him, is it safe to say that the history of superheroes just isn't a basic subject in school? Do kids not learn about the Justice Society of America or the All-Star Squadron when learning about World War II? (I realize that Amazing Man might not have been a member of either superhero group, but given Onyx's reaction to him not being known it seemed to imply he was at least a public hero and not a covert one).
#5 - Is Bart legally known as Bart Allen or Bart Garrick on his documentation? I know his guardians were the Garricks, but was he posing as their grandson? An orphan taken in by them? A relative of Barry and Iris? This might constitute a spoiler, but I thought I'd ask anyway. The situation kind of reminds me of how Artemis officially handled her "death" back in S2 from a legal standpoint once she came back from undercover, if that makes sense.
Anyways, thank you for your time. I hope you had some fun (or at least some food for thought?) answering these, and I sincerely hope you're having a great day. I'm still binging YJ:Phantoms and crossing my fingers for S5 every day!
Greg responds...
#1 - Haven't given it any thought. I'd have to confer with Brandon for a final answer, but I'm leaning toward... yes or maybe no.
#2 - Not necessarily.
#3 - I try to remember to check things like that, but it's already hard enough, so I'm definitely not a stickler. I do try to get the times of sunsets and sunrises correct in various locations.
#4 - He was a public hero. I doubt it's a school subject. And I'm not sure I agree that Tigress didn't know about him. Keeping one's response close to the vest can be prudent.
#5 - Bart Allen. No one said he was posing as their grandson. Jay and Joan were his legal guardians. That doesn't mean they had to be blood relatives - even fictional blood relatives.
Michael Broder writes...
Is Henchy an original character, based on someone from the comics, or both?
Have you ever thought of doing a motion comic where the actors read the whole comic?
Greg responds...
1. He's more-or-less original. He's based on a model created for the Green Arrow Showcase short and a specific voice that I love, which actor Steve Blum has used for me in multiple series: Raythor (W.I.T.C.H.), Blackie Gaxton (The Spectacular Spider-Man), Zeb (Star Wars Rebels).
2. Yes. I'd love to do that. But there's no budget for it, generally. The YJ Wiki did a few using volunteer labor and volunteer voice actors. Here's one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42QKFkSy4DU
Oh, and what the heck, here's another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N3Z2b-UlTE
Anonymous writes...
where does Arsenal’s katana go after they leave the library? He’s not shown to carry it afterwards
Greg responds...
Really? That seems odd. Are you sure?
Anonymous writes...
A. Does Will Harper know Moo Gi Gong? What martial arts does he practice?
B. Does Will train regularly with the other Star City vigilantes?
Greg responds...
A. I've never done the research into this.
B. Nowadays? When he has time, I suppose. (And by "other Star City vigilantes," I assume you're talking about the Arrow Family.)
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