IF writes...

In "Schooled":
1.When was Amazo created?
In "Denial":
2. How old was Inza Nelson when she dead?
3. How old is Teekl? Is he ageless as Klarion?

J writes...

Hello,
a while ago I asked how Superman kept his identity as Clark Kent a secret if the only "disguise" is a pair of glasses, to which you conceeded did in fact provide the minor disguise of subduing his eye color, but your main reasoning was that few people know both Superman and Clark Kent, so that there was little chance of the general public realizing they look identical...but, to me, and maby I am way over-thinking this, there seems to be a flaw in this logic.
Ill explain...youve said before that superheroes were Earth-16's version of super-star celebrities...now, im not a fan of Tom Cruise in thr least, but ive seen his face enough to recognize him at the local store if the only thing he did to disguse himself was put on glasses and slick his hair back. Addionaly, since Clark Kent is (im assuming) well known journalist, whose pictures regularly appear next to articals, at least in a lot of newspapers ive read, it seems to me there is a HUGE portion of Metropolis, if not all America, that could put 2 & 2 together at any time without ever having met either Superman or Clark Kent.
I appologize if Im being nit-pickey, but this has always kind of bugged me about Superman (and I hate explainations like "super hypnotism") so sinve you tend to write stories with a sence of realism, I was just wondering if you have any further thoughts on this.

Thank you for your time.

J.J. writes...

Hey Greg Got a few Young Justice questions:

1. When Beast Boy transforms into an animal, say an exact replica of Wolf(except green of course), is he able to communicate with the animal?

2. Basing it off that out of ALL the characters, especially in the Team, Superboy has had the most interactions and seems to have taken the most interest in Apokolipse tech throughout season 1 and 2, is it safe assume that he would have had a considerable role in season 3? just going by that logic.

3.Since Superboy is pretty darn indestructible is it safe to say that the best and simplest way to kill him is by drowning him?

4.Same with Superman?

5.In your continuity is it possible for a Green Lantern, whether Hal, John, or even Guy, to take down Superman if the situation called for it.

Much thanks for the opportunity and buying your book and planning to pre-order the second as soon as possible.

JSA Fan writes...

Hi Greg. In one of your rambles, you mentioned that you updated the Earth-16 timeline, which included some Golden Age information.
You have mentioned in past answers some of the characters that made up the JSA and All-Star Squadron, including when they joined and how long they remained in these groups.
Are the complete rosters included in your timeline, as well as all of the members' length of service and their final fates (who died in battle, who retired, and who is still living)?
Some characters that I remember from old issues are relatively obscure, like Tarantula and Johnny Thunder. How closely do the Earth-16 rosters match with the ones seen in the comics, and do they include such characters that are not as well-known?

Todd Jensen writes...

I kept forgetting to submit this one, but I've read the second and third trade paperback volumes of the "Young Justice" comic book, and it's time I posted my reviews of them.

TRAINING DAY: We start off with Artemis' perspective on the adventure involving Professor Ivo and Amazo. I particularly liked the "Alice in Wonderland" comparison (and it strengthened my suspicion that Professor Ivo's robot monkeys were indeed a hommage to the winged monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz".

The main thing that struck me about the Captain Atom story which came next: I recall that you said once that you worked on "Captain Atom" before you created "Gargoyles" for Disney and that General Eiling was a sort of forerunner to Xanatos. If his depiction in this story was anything like the way that he was portrayed in your old "Captain Atom" stories, I can readily believe that; the scene at the end in Eiling's office definitely felt like one of those Xanatos tag scenes in "Gargoyles".

I have to admit that in the Ra's Al Ghul story that came next, I kept hearing David Warner delivering Ra's Al Ghul's lines - no disrespect to Oded Fehr, who did a good job, but it was the "Batman: TAS" take that introduced me to this character, and Warner's performance has lodged itself inextricably in my consciousness. (And hearing him do Ra's helps me understand indeed why you brought the Archmage back in Season Two of "Gargoyles".) And I enjoyed the scene where Batman and Alfred are talking at the Batcave; Alfred's one of my favorite characters in the Batman mythos, as I mentioned here before.

I also liked the touch of showing more "off-stage" scenes from the cartoon (pity that you weren't able to do that all the way to the end of Season One) - such as Kent Nelson's funeral. (By the way, I recognized everyone else at the funeral, but who were: a) the guy in the blue suit between Zatara and the original Flash, and b) the blond person in red and black clothing standing between the original Flash and the current Flash?)

CREATURE FEATURES: I knew nothing about Prince Orm except what I'd seen of him in "Downtime", had never heard of him or Ocean Master before "Young Justice" came out, but I felt suspicious about him when I saw "Downtime". I'd seen enough cases of the younger brother of a king no longer next line in succession because the king now has a child who will be heir to the throne, who decides to deal with that by skullduggery and usurpation (ranging from Shakespeare's Richard III and Claudius to Miraz in "Prince Caspian" to Scar in "The Lion King") to wonder if Orm would take that same path. And he does indeed, even exploiting racial tensions in Atlantis to his own ends.

Orm/Ocean-Master echoes Castaway in his words "anonymity is the Purists' greatest weapon". Not surprising, since it's a natural strategy for a hate group; it can become all the more dangerous if you don't know who's in it and who's not.

And I liked the use of the Greek alphabet for Atlantean language. And the background scenes for the Red Tornado arc.

Kid Flash naturally would call the serpentized Kobra leader "Kobramort".

We end with the gorilla adventure - complete with Superboy once again thinking "I hate monkeys", and being corrected on that, since gorillas are apes, not monkeys.

I understand that there's a fourth volume (set during Season Two), but I haven't found a copy yet. When I do, I'll submit my review of it. All in all, I found these two trade paperbacks fun reading.

Anonymous writes...

I know you said before that the New 52 has no effect on what goes on with "Young Justice," and to be honest confuses me still. I mean if the events of "Flashpoint" changes the entire history of the mainstream DC universe, then wouldn't that create some kind of domino effect that affects all other parallel Earths (including Earth-16) in some way or another, no matter how big or small that change could be? I mean, isn't the DC multiverse considered to be like a pyramid or a tree and the mainstream DC universe (Prime Earth) is the one that hold it all together in place?

Lexiana writes...

Hi Greg!! Ok I am dying to know what is Artemis's eye colour?? Because in comics its blue but in the series its dark grey (almost black) so which one??

A fan from far away writes...

Hi Greg!
I'm a huge fan girl of YJ from Singapore. I really love your show and hope to see more seasons if possible.
My favorite character in the show is Artemis, she really struck me in season 1 and her tenure as Tigress in Season 2 was really impressive. So I would like to ask a few questions about her.
1) What served as your inspiration for creating her?
2) Are any of her character traits inspired by strong female characters from other sources? Cos I noticed that she was rather similar to some of my other favorite ladies, such as Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games, Eponine from Les Miserables, Mulan, Ravager (Deathstroke's daughter), to name a few.
3) How abusive was Sportsmaster? Cos I figured he had to be pretty bad to his girls for Jade to pack up and abandon her younger sister.
4) Unrelated but... Will YJ be translated into Chinese? I'm ethnic Chinese and I would love to know their Chinese names.
Thanks for looking through my queries, though they may have been answered. Thank you for giving us fans a really wonderful show while it lasted!

Anonymous writes...

1) While Troia was on the Team, was her personality at all similar to season 1 Miss Martian or season 1 Artemis?

2) While Sergeant Marvel was on the Team, was her personality at all similar to season 1 Miss Martian?

Paul writes...

1) Out of curiosity, if you could have included Troia and Sergeant Marvel in the crowd shot in "Endgame", who would you have paired each of them with in the subsequent scramble for the MFDs? I know that this would likely necessitate a 'reshuffle' of the pairings you came up with for the final episode, since say pairing Troia with Superboy would leave Wolf wanting a partner, but ignoring that, who would you have ideally paired with Donna and who would you have ideally paired with Mary for the team-ups?

2) When you and Brandon Vietti were developing Young Justice, were you 'for' the possibility of having an even number of male and female leads in season 1 or did you set out to have slightly more male leads than female leads? Basically, what I'm asking is whether you were at all interested in the prospect of having 3 male leads and 3 female leads instead of 4 male leads and 2 female leads.

3) Why did Nightwing and company allow Mal to join the Team as Guardian? I guess one could argue that it was because he proved his worth by helping against Despero, but since his sole contribution in that fight was to stall for time, I'm wondering why Nightwing and company felt he was Team material?

4) What was the in-universe reason for Donna not being available/ready to join the Team at the end of "Fireworks"? We know why Garth and Roy couldn't (since Kaldur took Garth's place as Aqualad and Roy was replaced by a certain angsty clone), but what about Donna?

5) I noticed Tempest in the crowd shot in "Endgame". What has he been up to since leaving the Team i.e. what's his occupation now?

NoOneSpecial writes...

1. In Bereft, was it phsimons intention to erase the teams memorays or was it purely by accident?
2.At what point did the light become aware of miss martians introduction into the team? They knew it already consisted of robin, speedy, conner and aqaulad after the events of Fireworks, so when did they learn about miss martian?
3.During the Reach/Light summit, why ra's give an excuse for klarion's absence?
4.How was wally meant to act during the whole artemis death story? I know he would pretend to be in mourning but would he really have been convincing for everyone else? In Darkest he seemed pretty angry at the idea that aretmis or the others could have been really killed. Would that have been a more geninue reaction for him to have? Did any one from the team talk to wally when aretmis died or did he intentionally avoid everyone?
5. Is devastation a clone of someone else?

Jarrod writes...

Hi Greg!

Thank you for all your amazing work on YJ, Gargoyles, SSM, and the many other series you have been a part of. All of them were beautifully animated and fantastically written.

I was excited that Season 2 part 2 of Gargoyles was finally released. I was hoping that we would get some more episode intros from you. They were a great boost to the season 2 part 1 dvds. I suppose Disney wasn't interested/didn't contact you about the possibility?

Anyways, My Boyfriend and I both loved YJ, he even went to NY Comic Con as your YJ Nightwing! He got many compliments and it was fun to Attend the informal YJ meet-up with Christopher Jones.

I recently heard that Cartoon Network has cancelled Beware the Batman, and that in order to keep the DC block going, they might bring back YJ? I know you probably don't have a say in such things, but we all hope for it.

Thank you again!

Anonymous writes...

What are the ages of the following Marvel Family members?
1.)Christopher "Kit" Freeman
2.)Freddy Freeman
3.) I'm assuming that Mary Bromfield is the same age as Billy Batson, am I right?

Anonymous writes...

I know you said you wouldn't confirm whether Alan Scott was alive or not, but at the very least can you tell us what his age was when he first put the ring on his finger and became a hero?

nygma619 writes...

Who'd you mentally cast as the following characters in the YJ comic:
-Alec Rois
-Rako
-Talia Al Ghul
-Solovar
-Gorilla Grodd

Anonymous writes...

Are Martians capable of reproducing with other species on Earth 16, like humans or any other species? Until I saw the episode Image my 1st instinct would've been to say no. But after seeing M'gann shapeshift her blood specifically to the point that it would match Gar's blood type (not without after effects of course, as Beast Boy shows us), I'm left feeling that it's a possibility.

Mags writes...

Dear Mr. Weisman,

Thanks for a wonderful show; I'm a big time travel nut, and one of the things I look forward to if there's a third season of some kind is seeing how that's wrapped up! :) The show is really amazing in the steps that it's taken to include people of all walks of life, and I don't think any of us can thank you enough for that.

1) First of all, I really want to thank you for M'gann: she's had a very strong impact on my life. I've been involved in the fandom for a really long time, and I'm sure you remember fan reaction to her and her "Hello, Megan," among other things. =P I also wasn't a fan of that phrase or even her in general, at first, but she /really/ made me think. I consider(ed) myself very media savvy and well-educated (we actually share an alma mater! I am a fellow fuzzy Stanford alum. My freshman-year RA got elected Tree by covering himself in baking soda and jumping into a kiddie pool of vinegar, haha) at the time. However, M'gann and the fan reaction to her made me take a step back, and I realized that some rather misogynistic ideas (girls definitely have them, too!) had seeped into my preconceptions about what "(strong) girls should be like." I think I've become a better person by reevaluating my ideas around "perky, feminine" girls and "strength/power" thanks to M'gann. Also, of course, the dynamic between "who M'gann knew she was" and what Martian /society/ expected her to be was /fantastic/. Really brilliant, and thank you so much for that. Female-fandom's relationship with women and media is super, super interesting (and occasionally scary. But mostly interesting).

2) As a sort of side note, looking at some of the previous questions about Wally, wow, I would have /never/ called my views on Wally West (good and bad) "middling," but it looks like they actually might be, and /I/--and maybe this isn't a good thing to admit, but whatever--I've run a blog for the last three years dedicated to Dick and Wally called Birdflash (don't ask, haha). All you need now is an essay from a Spitfire fan and a (different kind of) M'gann fan, and you'll have collected the entire rainbow of post-series Wally West "feels."

Anyway, here it goes. I've come in before: while Wally's /initial/ quitting didn't bother me that much, I invaded the comments a while ago to ask why Wally was staying away (I'm "Mags," the one with family in St. Louis--and I'm also sorry if I overstepped my bounds there). I was lucky enough to catch you that day, and while I thought that your response that Dick had ordered him away said some really sad things about the state of their "friendship," if that's what happened, that's what happened.

However, when one answer to a related question explained that Dick did it so that Wally would look like a "grieving boyfriend," someone else pointed out that Wally had reacted to what he thought was Artemis's real, /actual/ death in the exact opposite way in FAILSAFE, and I'm lost again.

Thinking about it, I'm a little surprised that M'gann and Conner didn't find his reaction /suspicious/, given FAILSAFE, and if Wally actually wanted to help out, I can't see any strategic, tactical, or (theoretically) personal reason for Dick to lock out one of the most experienced and powerful Team members. That Dick and Wally thought that the Team would think that "if Wally /did/ step out to help, it would somehow mean that Artemis was alive" (as if he would only bother to save the world if she were in it? I'm not sure) in the first place is also pretty confusing.

The Hall of Justice was leveled; the Earth got a second /moon/; the Reach /still/ had an (smaller-ish) armada (by the way, what an extremely clever way to get rid of most of the ships! That was really cool.), and these people had /nuked/ his /hometown/. All of this was on the news or in the sky.

Would the Team really have found it so shocking if Dick had asked for his help, that Wally would help? Even when Dick was completely alone, without League help, with a REAL rogue Team member, or even it was him and M'gann against the War World, he didn't want to "risk" telling Wally this and asking him to come to help save his kidnapped cousin? Wally wouldn't have even had to "pretend" to be furious with Dick but willing to help out anyway.

That Dick (and even Wally) would think that the Team thought that about Wally--or that he'd just be too broken to get out of bed for anyone else after three months--is heart-breaking, especially when it wasn't even /true/.

It's just so sad that Wally couldn't even get Dick to /let/ him help over a period of six weeks, or maybe stopped trying even though things were so crazy after DARKEST. Even that fight in DARKEST felt like it came to nothing: Dick didn't even /LISTEN/ to him. Nothing changed in the "extreme" plan, and as far as the /plan/ went it "worked out"--(I /also/ think that Conner bore some serious responsibility for his secret-keeping, maybe even more so than Dick, in the disaster that was M'gann's willingness to brainwipe Kaldur)--and the things that Wally said about Kaldur were proven false fifteen minutes into the next episode.

Wally was never the most observant person when it came to M'gann, but I like to think that he'd matured beyond that, and that if there had been another pair of eyes who knew her and Conner for the last five years, a pair of eyes that wasn't also running a Team without a safety net of the League and dealing with clones and kids from the future and disaster after disaster, he might have noticed something was wrong.

I know this is just a story, and that if TPTB wanted Wally dead, he would have died, no matter what.

It just … it feels like in the end, Dick didn't ask Wally for help--even given Wally's reaction in FAILSAFE and the fact that he /was/ willing to help--ignored what advice Wally DID show up to give, and then ... nothing. That says some really sad things about their "closeness" and "friendship," to me (particularly since they didn't even bother to say "hi" to each other in the game). That Dick didn't think it was safe to rely on Wally, to let him in on their problems--not even for /advice/--when he was completely and totally alone--

--that that's the legacy of PERFORMANCE is crushing.

And if Wally just changed so much that /no one/ even questioned that he'd react to a s1 defining moment in the exact opposite way, I'm not really sure why /we'd/ know what--if anything--still applied to him from s1, much less "everything." :(

Man, I didn't mean to end on such a depressing note; please know that--if the ~2500 people who follow the blog are any indication--the two of them are dearly loved and dearly missed, and that's what's really important.

Thank you for an engaging and--perhaps even more than is healthy for me (haha)--life-changing show. I've learned so much about so many things watching it, met incredible people, and I really appreciate it.

It seems that the game sold out in several places (including Best Buy /online/ and I think Amazon), and I hope that there's a third season or sequel! Best of luck on your book; I have my copy pre-ordered!

Sincerely,
Maggie

P.S. Thank you that when Wally finally found out about M'gann and Conner, he at least dropped it and was perfectly nice to her. All too often, guys complain about being "friendzoned" and mock girls or call them names because the guys were nice to/came onto a girl and she had the gall not to sleep with them. Some of us were worried it would go that route, and how truly nice it was that it didn't.

Anonymous writes...

Helo,

recently I posted a question about the powers of Wonder Woman's lasso (it was actually seperated into 2 posts) & they were deleted. I was just wondering, why?
Are the powers of her lasso a spoiler? I did not include any story ideas, or otherwise break any of the rules (unless they are in fact spoiler requests, in the case of which I apologize, but I honestly dont see how).
It seems that a lot of questions get past your moderators that clearly break the rules...especially asking questons that have been asked & answered about a billion times, or blatantly asking for spoilers, & even a few that clearly try to pass story ideas as questions.
So I wont ask my question again, but I was just wondering, why Wonder Woman's lasso is such a sensitive topic?
Do you have plans for it that would spoil a revilation in a story if people knew what it could do?

Riyan writes...

Hi Greg,
I'm happy the question block is open again.
Congratulations on YJ:Legacy.
I bought the PS3 version game and completed it.
It's quite hurt to learn the story when Aqualad know who his father is and then Tula's death. Though we know what happened already, but when seeing the details, still heart breaking and it almost make me cry.
Do you know, I just can't help thinking that you may be too cruel to Kaldur.
Since the end of season 1, it seems only terrible things happened to him. Especially on the screen time. and we cannot see the off screen time so we don't know if he had met anything happy and smiled. (Maybe I should watch through season 2 again to say this, but as far as I remember, I never saw him smile in season 2.)
And without season 3, we don't know if he would became happy again, but with defeating his father and with great loss in the team, I doubt.
It's good to see your answer about he sure would re-new his friend ship with Red Arrow. I think this is one thing may give him a relief.
And I'd like to ask if there is anything good and happy happened to Kaldur. But I'm quite sure I'd got a "SPOILER REQUEST" answer. So, I'm just hoping YJ came back and you can treat him well.
The above is not complaining, or maybe kind of...
But what I really want to say is: it's a great ability to create and develop characters to let people love them and cry for them. I love Kaldur even more in season2, because he sacrificed a lot of himself and go through miseries to do justice. This makes him a greater hero.
It feels sad and hurt to see what he suffered, but it's also the reason I love this character, not for his appearance or powers or ability, just the greatness in his spirit.
I just want to thank you for creating such a great character.
And here I got some questions about the Young justice after the ask section is closed. And also some for YJ:Legacy.
1. I saw several times you said among the first 4 sidekicks, Aqualad is close to Speedy, and Robin is close to Kid Flash. Is there some reasons like:
a) Aqualad met Speedy first and Robin met Kid Flash first so they are close to the one they met first.
b) Aqualad and Speedy spend more time with each other in their mentors' missions, so did Robin and Kid Flash.
c) Personality. Speedy is the oldest and Aqualad is more mature than the other two, so their personality get along easier and better than with Robin and Kid Flash?
d) Maybe all above?
2. This is one question I got when I re-watch the end of S1. When Ra's said that the real Roy Harper "might still prove useful,as well".
So... was he 'useful' to the Lights in S2?
Or he wasn't because Red Arrow and Cheshire rescued him before Ra's can plan anything?
If Ra's already made a plan, and the rescue was also a part of the plan, what exactly did he want?
I didn't see anything like plan happened on Arsenal. Though he messed up a mission in Lex Farm, and also messed up Reach's plan to abduct all the young heroes. But both looks like accidents, not like a plan.
And League and Team surely would do a thoroughly check on Arsenal before he join the Team, so the Lights couldn't plant any program in his brain.
I guess the question "what exactly did Ra's want" would get an "Spoiler" answer.
So I just want to know, is his plan worked in S2 or not because Red Arrow and Cheshire's rescue.
Or... did Ra's totally forgot he had frozen a young hero in one of his base?
3. This question is for YJ: Legacy.
I looking forward to this game so much before it came. But as a game player and also a YJ fans, honestly, the game is terrible.
Not criticize the plot. I think the plot is good.
But the game system and cut scenes performance is far away from good. No need to mention so many bugs.
It's like some half developed project. Many improvement can be made and it would be a better game. We all know it's been delayed once, and now still lot's of problem remain in the game.
Do you know if there are some issues in the developing period?
Is it because the budget is limited or Little Orbit hasn't developed this kind of game before?
If the budget is not enough to make a good performance game, would it be enough to make an one episode or 2 to tell the same story? I think the plot of this game could be tell in one or two episode.
I would rather see a short animation of YJ rather than a terrible game. I don't know if you played this game or not, but as a normal gamer, it's not a game I'd willing to play. Not like LEGO Batman or Batman Arkham, even my friend who don't know batman, she also enjoyed the game itself.
4. Still for YJ: Legacy. No more criticism. Let's talk about some other things.
It's great for the idea of Red Arrow Journal. I think this is one great motive to play the game.
I haven't collect all the Red Arrow Journals yet but I've saw other's collection. so I read them all.
That's the 2nd heartbreaking things in this game other than Kaldur's suffering.
And then I got a question, when Jade leave Roy, she's already pregnant. And later in the mission, we met her and fight with her.
Is that okay to fight a pregnant woman? I mean, wouldn't we accidentally kill Lian? I think I would never go play this fight again.ad
And also, did Jade know she's pregnant when she left Roy?
5. Have you watch the "Justice League Flash Point Paradox"? Did you see Kaldur's cameo in it? Though no one said it's Kaldur but we all know it's Kaldur and Tula and Garth. Cheers for them!
Do you know the team of Paradox would use Kaldur as a cameo?
What do you think of it?
I mean, Kaldur is an original character you created in Young Justice, right? It's like your own child.
When he is used in other DC works, would it make you proud or a bit complicated?
I think I'd be most happy to see him in YJ season3, but if not, it's also happy to see him in some other animation works. But I'm not sure if I would be happy to see him became not Kaldur in other works. I love what he is in YJ, but in other works without your writing? I'm not sure.
okay. I think that's all I got now.
I'm looking forward to your novels and Star Wars Rebels.

Kelsey writes...

1. You said you pitched the idea of direct to dvd YJ movies and it was turned down. If you had the opportunity to produce a movie(s) do you already have plots in mind? Not asking for specifics, just wondering how seriously you've thought about it.

2. At the risk of crossing spoiler territory, does Tim know how Jason died?

3. Does the rest of the team?

GoldenAgeTeen writes...

Hi greg! First off , Young justice and W.I.T.C.H are some of my favorite tv shows ever. While watching young justice i couldn't help but notice that Rocket had the same voice as taranee! my questions are:
1. Was Asami's concept at all inspired by Hay Lin?
2. Was the Tye/Asami pairing inspired by Eric/hay lin?
3. How old is Rumaan Harjavti?
4. How old is Sumaan Harjavti?
And I wanted to say thanks for having this forum where fans can ask questions, Happy holidays!

Laura 'as astra' Sack writes...

And now for something completely different...
You mentioned you wrote a few episodes of Octonauts. My daughter loves that show. (Catchy tune… and who would have thought there was such a thing as a blob fish?) As far as I noticed the credits only list the head writer.

1. Which episodes did you pen?
2. Did they by chance explain what exactly Turnip and kitchen crew are?
3. On a less frivolous note-
I was thinking about shows like Octonauts or Doc McStuffins or Dora or Little Einsteins or etc, the shows aimed young, as opposed to the shows my kids think are on screen for them but are really for Mommy, like the action plot shows, or the crazy clever ones like Phinias and Ferb. Ironically, a lot of the little kid shows are in a way more realistic because they center on smaller things- "3 simple steps to tying your shoe" or being worried how your old and new friends will get along at your first big sleepover party. The fact that a panda is teaching you to tie that shoe, or you are now a princess in a castle and that's why you have old and new friends to invite to the castle is not something that needs particular explanation. And without having to explain those things you can leave the world gentle.

As you get older you require a setting to make the fantastic events explainable. You can cling to a wall? Radioactive spider! You put on a suit and fight crime from the shadows? You're a rich orphan with a mission to protect the world from suffering as you did! You're a giant scary looking flying 'monster' with the soul of a poet wandering around Manhattan? You a magically time lost nearly lone survivor of a horrible betrayal of a near extinct species! (And you can only glide, not fly!) In order to explain why your heroes act as they do, whole worlds are dreamt up in which the hero's action is logical. The fantastical setting makes the actions in them realistic or at least self-consistent. A side effect of that is to introduce a dark element into the world- parental units are murdered, crime or war is at the door, etc

Which leads me to the dilemma: When, in your opinion, do you begin to transition a small child from the world of Octonauts to the world of Young Justice? (Transition isn't the best word, since you can go on watching the old stuff.) It's not a question of comprehension. Kids can understand an awful lot. The question is; when do you make your child's world less gentle? When my eldest saw the TiVo grabbed an episode of Batman she wanted to watch it. With my luck it's the episode with the amnesia girl who turns out to have started out as a piece of Clayface. Great episode. It ends when she rescues Robin and gets reabsorbed. The show explicitly calls it a murder. Then I got to explain how it is murder, what is murder, to a 3 or 4 year old. What fun! I look forward to watching Gargoyles with her, but not it being her introduction to what a massacre is. ("Well it's just like what happened to your great grandparents...") It's not that you plan on sheltering forever, but small children deserve to be sheltered, and sometimes parents are better as the zone of shelter rather than source of disturbing imagery.

Yes, there is another set of cartoons that avoid the dilemma- she loves Tom & Jerry. But frankly, I can say- 'Wow you could really hurt someone if you did that in real life- but isn't it funny when it's fake? Isn't it funny how everyone overreacts!" And then I'm done. Watching Tom getting hit in the face by a rake doesn't make her life less gentle. Explaining why Tye Longfeather left home would.

There are parallels as kids get older. Harry Potter is age appropriate to whatever age Harry is in the book. So you give an 11 year old book 1. If your 11 year old is a reader he or she will want to tear through the series and might be at the last book before turning 12. The last book is appropriate for a 17 year old. Or as my friend complained that it is frustrating to have so many comics she can't share with her 13 year old - it's not that he isn't going to be reading things with mild sexual imagery, (or not so mild; she was considering starting reading Saga), but maybe it's best he not get it directly from mom. She knows he'd love Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, but he doesn't want to start the series only to stop before the 4th book with the aerial sex scene.

At least I only have to worry about it once : The younger one will see everything too early over her sister's shoulder :}

I guess this isn't so much a question as a ramble, but I was wondering your thoughts on the matter.

Laura 'as astra' Sack writes...

Now that I've posted all my episode thoughts...(in theory I still plan on doing the same on the comics, but...) I want to say thank you for the series in general. (I'd go into details, but it seems redundant after posting all those responses.) I've thoroughly enjoyed it in all its parts. Well, by the time you read this the video game will be out. [Yep!] I probably will have to sit it out. Pathetic as it is, I have to admit to some motion sickness from a lot of video games. I'm assuming I'll be able to get some pretty detailed descriptions from the good folks here. I hope that there will be other continuations as well. (Also good luck on your new Star Wars series.)

I have to admit to more than a little annoyance that another show I enjoy is canceled, but also some confusion. If I understand correctly one of the major factors, if not the major factor in the cancellation is that the merchandise didn't sell as well as they companies had hoped. Good viewership numbers are almost inconsequential. If this is true, (big if, I admit), I don't understand the business model. Why continue making cartoons targeting the older demographic at all? I know the show aimed for a broad audience, but it aimed for each part directly. A lot of cartoons aim themselves at kids directly, and place bonus references and jokes for the older viewers. I've loved many shows like that. But the complexity of characters and plots in shows like Young Justice is not a bonus for older viewers, it is integral. (IMHO) A relationship like, for example, Guardian and Bumblebee is more relateable to a college or adult viewer than a kid. (I would have gone to Babs and Dick, but that was mainly expanded upon in the comics.) A kid would gravitate to the first season romances, or the M'gan/L'gan/Conner triangle. All the relationships were interesting and important to the show, and none were simple, it's just different parts resonant (from experience or at least plot type familiarity) better to different age sets. (Or for out of YJ examples- In Green Lantern- the complexity of Razor and Ia's relationship- given his past lost love, her resemblance, his survivor guilt and rage issues and her ultimate sacrifice is not something that targets the younger viewers of the show. They'll just accept the two are a couple and enjoy the fight scenes. It was perhaps more integral to the show than any Hal based plot. In Tron the entire looks of the show was aimed older, high teens and 20s would be my guess, and not particularly conducive to action figures to my eye.)

Older fans are less likely to buy toys, (or have toys bought for them), but they also have control over their own finances to buy what is actually advertised during broadcast. Between the 24 hour cable tv cycle and dvrs, grown ups will be watching when kids can't, allowing for targeted ads of the none happy meal/stompies/pillow pet variety. (For the record, my 4.5 year old adores her stompies. ~she's 5 now~) I get that a franchise like DC or Marvel or Star Wars can expect some cross product sales, and even a show not squarely aimed at a small kid can have a cool iconic action figure that sells well. But no one expects Smallville or Arrow to survive on toy and apparel sales, they stays on air based on the number and demographics of viewers, just like Birds of Prey did not last for the same reason. Have cartoons, or at least the beautifully animated ones, become loss leaders for merchandise like comics have become loss leaders for movies? And is that a reasonable burden to place on a show that does not squarely target the audience that will buy those toys? Is a high level video game an attempt to tap into an action figure equivalent of older viewers?

I don't want to turn this into a rant about how annoyed I am that YJ was canceled....er, not renewed. I will admit to being mightily confused why DC Nation isn't aiming to expand into more than an hour of programming. I just assumed it was planned to become a 2 or 3 hour block like the old Disney Afternoon, with perhaps a rotating stable of shows. But I am interested on your more insider insight on what the none creative aims are when a new cartoon is unleashed upon the world nowadays and whether they are reasonable. Thanks,

Reiena writes...

I am curious about something with young Justice Legacy.

I was wondering how the Team Years went, is it from July 4th to July 4th each year, or is it from january 1st to january 1st each year.

Got young Justice Legacy for the 3DS and I have to say, was not seeing this storyline coming. The trailers did not give anything away, and I'm happy with the story so far.