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Anonymous writes...

Hi Greg,
I've really enjoyed all your work. Spectacular Spiderman s one of my "gateway" superhero shows! Thanks for that and Young Justice. This is a retype of my question because I forgot to mention how much I love Rain! I love big mystery/treasure hunts that build on themselves, and the way that Rain and Charlie save the day (no spoilers!) was so fun and cathartic. Rain's relationship with the other generations in her family is such a valuable dynamic that you just don't see elsewhere. :)

One thing still confuses me about Young Justice, though-I'm trying to understand some of the logic behind Dick's decision to keep Wally "hanging back," as you said.

Why would Dick feel there was "no shortage" of heroes? At the least, they were down the six most powerful heroes on Earth with most of the JL off-planet, and in the War World episodes, almost the entire Team was kidnapped. Why wouldn't he call Wally in then? (M'gann is really powerful, but that was a small planet they were fighting. Also, later, the Reach showed that they had an armada with hundreds of ships left over the fight with the War World - surely he'd want all hands on deck, particularly with so much of the League gone?

Why would Wally's appearance be able to catch the bad guys "off guard" after Bloodlines? Wally was already in the game; the nuclear bomb in Central was well publicized; why would his appearance be any more a surprise after that?

On the War World, Dick knew Artemis wouldn't be an issue because M'gann knew she was down under the ocean, so that wasn't a big concern. Even if Artemis did teleport to the alien world, it seems foolhardy in the extreme (almost unbelievably so) that Dick would attempt to take on a planet with only one other hero when another was supposedly waiting in the wings, ready to help whenever.

It doesn't make sense to me that Wally's appearance would be most needed and the biggest surprise only in Summit, when Dick had more backup than at any other point in the entire season and Wally had already showed up in Bloodlines. How was he more useful or a bigger surprise in a huge crowd than in a group of three on the War World, propotionally, when Dick was in the biggest trouble?

It also seems very, very strange that Dick wouldn't let Wally contribute to the efforts of bringing the people who nuked his hometown to justice. No one died that day, but their livlihoods were destroyed and there would be nuclear fallout. Even if Dick was too worried Wally would hurt himself (?), or whatever, Wally showed in Homefront that he was very capable of support - moral and technical - without necessarily getting into the fray. It seems just so strange that, if Wally really *wanted* to help, that he'd shut him out of something that had so ruined Wally's home. It seems strange that Artemis wouldn't have an issue with Dick forcing Wally to stay home, too.

As an aside, why would Dick initially try to keep the truth about Artemis's death from Wally if he *wanted* Wally to hang back for some reason? How would they guy who wanted to kill every alien robot dead in when he really believed Artemis to be dead in Failsafe be easier to control and tell to "hang back" if he REALLY thought Artemis was dead?

Logistically, to me it feels like Dick was more adept and logically minded when he was 13 than 19 with five more years of experience, which is strange. No real judgement against "Dick," really, but none of this seems to hold water at all.
I'm just trying to wrap my head around it.

I enjoyed the rest of the show a lot, though! And Rain is the best!

Thanks. :)

Greg responds...

Dick has learned the value of (1) holding heroes in reserve (for example, in "Failsafe") - and (2) of not making any single squad too big or unmanageable and (3) of keeping people who had trained together working together.

As for Summit, Kid Flash was certainly useful there, but mostly he was there because Artemis' undercover op was coming to an end, and Wally wanted to be there, which at that point was fine with Nightwing.

Beyond that, if it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work for you. But it works fine for me, and I won't apologize for it. Nor do I agree with your interpretation of Dick's skills as a leader, season to season. But your mileage may vary.

Response recorded on April 06, 2016