Anonymous writes...

I think the problem that quite a few people have, myself included, with Wally's character/story on Young Justice might stem from the fact that he was the 'normal' one amongst the members of the original team. And on a show that at it's core is built around angst and drama, the normal characters tend to get lost in the shuffle since they don't come with built-in storylines like a character with a criminal family/background (Artemis and Kaldur), leadership issues (Kaldur and Dick), an inferior clone made by the enemy (Superboy), or a Martian used to discrimination living on Earth. They're just harder to fit into the story of the show. So it's much more important to their characters for the show to create an emotional connection to the audience and develop some meaningful relationships for that character to make them relevant to the show at large. And that's where I think the show failed as far as Wally was concerned.

For instance, you've said that Wally was a very insecure person during the first season and one of the big reasons why you paired him with Artemis. But out of all the members of the team, he always struck me as being the only one that wasn't insecure about who he was, or his role on the team. He was never shown to be bothered by his inferiority to Barry in season one, and even a good portion of the fandom didn't even know Barry was faster until BLOODLINES in season two. In fact, it was Conner who got the inferiority to the mentor storyline fleshed out in season one. And it was never said that Barry didn't originally want him to be his sidekick on the show. Plus the only insecurity he showed with girls was with Artemis. But that was more of a by product of him thinking she hated him because he was a jerk to her when she joined the team, not because he was insecure about who he was. So the show never really established him as an insecure character during the first season. He just came across as an idiot and an occasional selfish jerk simply because he was an idiot and an occasional selfish jerk; not because he was trying to overcompensate for his insecurity because of that.

And it's more of the same in the second season. Wally had became a completely different character between seasons and the only explanation the show gives is basically time-skip happened. I mean, Wally nearly killed himself just to become a hero and absolutely loved being one throughout the first season despite everything that happened. He also was pretty much supportive of his friends no matter what during that season, too. But during season two, Wally wanted absolutely nothing to do with being a hero and was accusing friends of being traitors and blaming them for trying to stop an alien invasion that he couldn't care less about for the majority of the season. It's like the show tossed away whatever previous characterization he had to justify his retirement and get him out of the way before reverting him back to something much closer to his previous characterization in the final two episodes. Which is why I found it a little hard to use Wally's previous characterization during the first season to defend his character in season two when he's not even close to being the same character. And I don't mean to say it's impossible that he could change that much over the gap, but it's such a drastic change that I think it deserved some sort of in-universe explanation.

Another thing I'd like to mention is that you said that Wally's 'humanity' was what you liked most about his character, but I'd say that that was the biggest flaw that this version of Wally West had. I mean, one of the things I've always loved about Wally in the comics and on other shows is that he would normally do the right thing simply because it was the right thing to do. That was missing with the Wally on Young Justice to me. Everything was always about him and what he wanted. Sure, he'd say some nice things to his friends on occasion, but he was the guy that would basically throw an inner-fit at the thought of saving a little girl's life instead of working on another mission with the League. And whatever development he was suppose to get from COLDHEARTED didn't seem to stick or didn't happen as he was practically thrilled that someone got kidnapped simply because he was bored at the beginning of the Young Justice video game. And Wally sitting out the majority of an alien invasion where things get worse and worse goes against everything I've ever loved about him over the years, and the scene at the end of DARKEST pretty much destroyed the character for me. The only times he was shown to help out was when the situation suited his interest, such as retrieving Artemis in SUMMIT, or helping out his family in BLOODLINES and ENDGAME. If the situation didn't have something directly to do with him, he couldn't be bothered to help and that's just not Wally West in my opinion.

As for his relationships, I think the issue for me was how unbalanced they seemed to be. I mean, I can appreciate the slow build and subtlety the show did with building up Artemis' side of their relationship; though I did think the show relied a little too heavily on telling us that they were going to get together in an effort to make her small moments such as asking about his parents in MISPLACED or making the sling for his arm to mean more than they really did. The problem is that the show basically punched me in the face with Wally's side of the relationship in contrast. The show pretty much shouted that he should get together with Artemis in DENIAL, he had an entire episode in FAILSAFE where she's almost all he could think about, was basically her number one fan for the majority of INSECURITY, and was shown to do nothing but worry about her in season two. Artemis never had anything remotely close to those type of things during the two seasons while he was alive. That's because Artemis had a lot going on besides Wally, as she had her family/trust issues, being a mole suspect, and the undercover mission. Where as with Wally being the normal one, the show made Artemis his thing and smashed us over the head with it. That's why I always preferred the M'gann/Conner relationship despite never being big fans of their characters since neither side dominated their relationship. It was balanced. It never felt like one of them was way more committed to the other like it did with Wally and Artemis. And like a previous poster before me mentioned, I think his friendship with Dick was handled in a similar way. It's why their reactions to his death fell completely flat and contrived to me because Wally wasn't really ever shown to be as important to them as they made him out to be after he died. And as a character, Wally got very little out of those relationships himself.

And like most of the 'normal' characters, Wally was killed off because there's only so much a show feels they can do with them. You guys milked about as much drama/angst you could get out of his relationship with Artemis over the two seasons and because of that, Wally was no longer useful to the show because he didn't bring any drama/angst as his own character. In essence, as a standalone character he had no real story of his own and that made him an expendable character.

Unfortunately, it just seemed like the majority of the things that made Wally tick and were important to his character would seem to have been left out of the show for the most part. And I'd say that he's the only one out of the main cast of either season that was handled that way. It's why while I normally enjoy Wally in the comics and other shows (I loved him and Jay/Barry in the episode "Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster!" that you wrote for Batman: The Brave and the Bold, by the way), I had a hard time getting invested into his character on Young Justice. And the Wally you talk about here and the Wally that was on the show just seem like two completely different characters to me.

GoldenAgeTeen writes...

Hi! I have a few more questions:
1. How old is Shelly Longshdow?
2. How old is Holling Longshadow?
3. How old is Nathaniel Tryon in 2016?
Thanks again for answering questions from fans!

Billy Black writes...

Will for centiers or die withe the team Does Garfield a longer lifespan after becoming beast boy because he has misss marshin dna

Chad writes...

What year did garfied become full green and what year did he join the team and how did team know marie was dead

Nate Elias writes...

Hey Greg, longtime Fan here. I watched "Gargoyles" as a Kid. And me and my Brother loved both "Spectacular Spider-Man" & "Young Justice"! I'm so pissed that they both got cancelled before they could get Third Seasons, I have no doubt they would've gotten even better. Nevertheless my most sincere thanks goes out to you and all the very talented people that brought us these shows. Here are a few "Young Justice" Related things that I wanted to bring up.

1. Deathstroke was AWESOME!!! His Design and Wentworth Miller's Performance were both Great.

2. Have you checked out the Game "Injustice: Gods Among Us"? I applaud their decision to hire several Actors from "YJ" to reprise their Roles. Hearing Alan Tudyk and Mark Rolston as Green Arrow & Luthor again, and in a Fighting Game no less, is just great.

3. Keith David as Mongul? Total WIN! I knew you would work him in somehow.

4. I just noticed that "Denial" is a partial "Gargoyles" Reunion! It had Ed Asner(Kent Nelson/Hudson), Jeff Bennett(Brooklyn/Abra Kadabra) & Thom Adcox-Hernandez(Lexington/Klarion)!!! It reminded me I should watch Gargoyles more often nowadays.

5. Last one. Me & my Brother LOVED Guy Gardner's Design in the Show. As usual yall guys tried something new and different and it turned out "Spectacular"!!!(I know, I forced that joke)

P.S. Loved Josh Keaton's Cameo as "Black Spider", brought back great memories!

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.

Mina writes...

Why did Tye's eyes change from brown to blue? Was it due to the Reach's testing? I checked the episodes to see if it was a mistake, but before he was captured he had brown eyes and after he had blue in all of his appearances.

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) Why wasn't Troia included in the last scene of "Alienated", when Wonder Woman and the others were bidding farewell to the Earth?

2) Since Rocket appears to be a mother in Team Year Six (as Amistad was mentioned in the companion comic), did she take a leave of absence from the Team when she was pregnant? (I'm guessing she did…) If so, how long was her 'maternity leave'?

3) While Troia was on the Team, was she mentored by Wonder Woman?

4) Did Mary Bromfield or Freddy Freeman have A designations, since Billy Batson had one?

5) Is there any chance that Phil Bourassa might do Young Justice designs for Troia and Sergeant Marvel sometime in the future? I've tried asking him on deviantart but I don't know if he's allowed to do that kind of thing. If he were to design them, would you weigh in to give your verdict before he posts them online? Can't speak for other YJ fans, but I would love to see YJ designs for Donna and Mary.