Thomas Allen Dreyfuss writes...

Hi Greg. I've been a long time reader of your responses and I figured after reading through 100's of responses (for my own purposes), I'd find the courage in me to ask you a question. When it comes to planning for a show like "Young Justice" that's episodic in nature (like many of your other works) yet geared for all ages (see previous statement in parenthesis), how do you and your collaborators approach something as daunting like weaving together multiple plot threads, showing character growth, and create story arcs? What are some of the advantages and constraints to writing in the way that you do? I'm currently studying television production as my major in college (a career path I've been told that is faced with rejection, hard work, and passion) and I'm asking this question (well, now it's questions) because I've been fascinated with well organized/structured series. Being the well accomplished writer that you are, I thought I'd ask you on the subject since you have a lot of experience writing/creating/producing shows like "Gargoyles", "The Spectacular Spider-Man", and "Young Justice". If you don't feel like answering this question, I understand that you're a very busy person (you don't need to tell me how busy, I've read the rambles) who takes the time from work to answer the many questions people send to you and I for one certainly appreciate all the hard work you (and of course, the many people you've worked with) put into your each of your projects. Anyways, thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to ramble and I look forward to whatever stories you have planned next (INVASION! WOOT!).

LupusLover writes...

Was Paula Crock put in a wheel chair before she went to prison or during?

Adam writes...

Hello!

As I'm writing this, "Usual Suspects" aired yesterday. Before I get to my question, I'd just like to thank you for a few things. First, that for "Young Justice," which has more or less replaced "Justice League Unlimited" for me as my favorite DC adaptation of all time, and I didn't think that was going to happen. Second, thanks for "Spectacular Spider-Man", which is tied with YJ as my favorite comic adaptation ever. And finally, thank you SO much for including Icon and Rocket in "Usual Suspects". I'm not sure Rocket will stay with the Team, but as a Milestone fan from way back, it meant a lot to me to see these characters get some screen time.

Now for my question, since I don't recall having seen it asked before: in "Misplaced," did Zatanna understand, before she put it on, that she might never be able to take off the helmet of Fate? It was a powerful moment (I loved the reversal my expectations given Zatara's fate in the comics), but I'm not clear on whether Zatanna had a sense of the potential jeopardy she was in.

"Usual Suspects" was immensely satisfying for me, and I'm looking forward to next week's season finale. I hope you and your fellow creators are proud; I think the work you've done on YJ has been a high watermark for cartoons based on comics.

The black guy writes...

As a kid, I grew up watching superhero cartoons. I watched Spider-man(loved him), Superman(hated him), Batman, and etc. I thought to myself, "There is not a fly in the milk." It wasn't until Justice League Unlimited(Jon Stewart was awesome) and Static Shock where I could see Superheroes who looked liked me. The same culture as me. Green Lantern was raised in the projects and regularly got his haircut in Barbershop just like mine. Static had that same parent who acted just like mine did. What I am trying to say is thank you. Thank you for being so open minded with established characters and having the foresight to think that not all kids in America or the world have to have that "Great White Hero." Adding Icon and Rocket to the Young Justice was a great homage to Dwayne McDuffie, the man who made those characters or pushed for the inclusion of those characters in the mainstream. I'm glad that my little girl can have that same cathartic feeling about Rocket as I did for Static and Jon Stewart.

Anonymous writes...

Why is Superboy in every episode so far? Is he supposed to be the character with more focused, or no real reason?

Foxwolf writes...

Hi Greg

As someone who is interested in writing episodic stories, I was wondering if you could tell me your approach on how you write a season for a series like YJ? I remember seeing an image on Brandon Vietti's blog where he had post-it's on a board mapping out all of season 1. Do you start with the season's overall story first, eg. The Light wants to take control of the Justice League and Red Arrow is the mole who will help them?

Then do you just come up with events that move the story forward and scatter them across episodes? Do you come up with plot points and character development separately or in tandum, eg. Superboy's growth would work well with this event? I ask because in my own writing I have season arc's and checkpoints on where I want some character's to grow but have struggled with "filling in the blanks".

Just off the top of your head, would you be able to share a few of the post-it's from a particular YJ episode?

And what are your thoughts on "filler story episodes". My interpretation was "Secrets" and "Performance" were filler in that they didn't drive the overall season story forward, but did have character development. Do you think it's important in writing for a series to give the audience a break from the story arc at regular intervals?

Thanks for your time Greg on sharing your writing process.

I was also wondering if you could please identify which voice actors voiced the following uncredited characters? Thanks.

120 - Coldhearted
Boston Police Officer
Chicago Police Officer #1
Chicago Police Officer #2
South Dakota State Trooper

121 - Image
Biaylan General

124 - Performance
Dragon's Breath
Carlo
Carlo's Brother

jjj writes...

Hi Greg,

Thanks for a great show! I have a question about "The Mole". I believe that in Targets, Sportsmaster implied that the mission in Bialya was one of the things his inside source told him about. If that's the case, how did Roy know about Bialya?

Thanks!

Evan writes...

Hi, Greg!
I just wanted to know: is there a death penalty in Atlantis? No real reason, I'm just curious.

Thanks!

Colleen writes...

Did you consider making Lois Lane a TV reporter or presenter, and having her do all the journalistic narration, instead of Cat Grant?

The Greenman writes...

Excellent, excellent show, ref: YJ.

Just watched "Usual Suspects" and this one was great.

I most especially loved the aspect of mixing science and sorcery to use the Starro chips. I kept thinking to myself, how is it possible to influence the will of Starro if it's incapcitated? You solved it.

For this episode specifically:

What are the names of the t.v. stations 7, 11, and 5?