Nick writes...

Hi Greg! Hope your day is going well, and that you're working on the Season 5 I'm praying gets greenlit. But even if TPTB haven't yet, I still can't thank you, Brandon, and the whole team enough for the incredible four seasons you've given us. PHANTOMS has been a total blast and I'm ecstatic that the tie-in comics are returning in June with TARGETS (on my birthday no less!). And rest assured, if someone was silly enough to make the mistake of NOT greenlighting Season 5 by the time you're getting to this question, the fandom is working hard to fix that mistake.

Now, for my question, I'm following up on something that I've touched on a couple of times before but that still isn't clear to me. Hopefully, me asking again won't be too annoying considering the 1000-plus questions you've been gracious enough to answer since I last inquired.

Here's what you've told us: Katana began her heroic career in Japan in 2013. She joined the Justice League around December 2017. You've also told us that Hardware began his heroic career in 2015. He joined the Justice League around December 2017. In addition, you confirmed that Batman's Z-designations were based on the order in which the heroes joined the Justice League.

However, when you unveiled the Z-designations, Hardware was Z-04 and Katana was Z-05, despite the latter preceding the former in terms of heroic debut. Based on your previous explanations of how the heroes' designations get decided, it's based on when they debuted as heroes. So Katana being after Hardware would suggest she debuted AFTER him, despite what you've previously confirmed.

So, my question: was Katana's designation assignment based on when she debuted in America? Is any of the information I've recounted above incorrect? Or is there some flaw in my logic I'm not seeing?

I understand that this question could seemingly touch upon unrevealed JL designations, but I promise that's not what I'm after. You've already revealed that Katana and Hardware joined the League the same month, so my question is really just trying to hit on the logic of the heroic debuts than the designations themselves.

Thanks as always for your time and incredible creativity with this world. It has kept me invested for about a decade now. I hope you have a wonderful day.