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THE UNVARNISHED OPINION 2018-04 (Apr)
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John Doe writes...
Hi Greg, I read somewhere you said that If possible you'd want to get to every young DC hero as young justice goes on. This might be a silly question but I just wanted to know if you were speaking broadly or literally. Also if what I read was wrong and you never said that feel free to ignore my question. Keep up the goof work, can't wait for season 3
Greg responds...
Mostly, I'm speaking broadly, but given enough episodes, it might perhaps become literal. No spoilers.
Peter writes...
Hey! Young Justice is my life. As of the time I'm sending this, Pride Month is almost over. I read over lots of the asks and replies you get on here and a fair amount are about something LGBT related, whether its about something thats akin to Fanfiction or borderline homophobic. I'm sure you might have come to dread those types of questions, but mines is a bit different.
I don't want you to think that I'm requesting this, i guess at the end of the day i am, but i mean so in the most respectful way possible. Please... If there's ever a time when you might include LGBT content or anything like it in YJ, please don't let it be queerbaiting. Its such a horrible thing to do to us. I don't think I'd be able to handle it from my favorite show. I don't think you'd ever let that happen, and i don't even think we'd get LGBT relationships in the show, but i just had to say it. For myself, just in case.
Greg responds...
I had to look up queerbaiting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queerbaiting
Some of the examples given on the wikipedia page seem unfair to me. (Though I'm happy to grant that as a straight male, I'm coming at this from a very different point of view.) For example, calling Holmes and Watson queerbaiting actually seems outrageous to me. Creators need to be able to present two male or two female best friends in a close but non-sexual relationship without being accused of trying to "bait" anyone.
I'm not going to address anything related to YJ, since that would involve spoilers, but I will bring up some Gargoyles stuff, as an example.
In our minds, Lexington is gay. But in those mid-nineties days when the series was originally on the air, there was absolutely no way Disney would let us objectively show this. Nevertheless, we strove to write the character to be consistent with his orientation. We thought we were doing the best possible alternative. So were we queerbaiting? And what would the alternative have been? Not depicting any LGBTQ characters at all?
I, personally, don't have the clout to make (successful) ultimatums to my employers. I could, of course, have insisted on being allowed to show Lexington kiss a guy. But if I had insisted that it's the kiss or I walk, Disney would have shrugged and waved goodbye to me. And my replacement would likely - if only to reassure his or her bosses - have made Lex objectively STRAIGHT. Is that better for anyone?
This kind of thing is simply a reality of the industry. It is getting better. There are plenty of series we can point to that demonstrate that. And I like to think I'm trying to help make things better still. But I'm going to - for my own mental health - reject the notion of queerbaiting almost entirely.
Maybe I'm not yet 'woke' enough. That's certainly possible. But I'm going to consistently push to depict what I can, to suggest what I cannot and to not for one second shy away from depicting two same sex characters having a close but platonic relationship, because (for example) one or both might be heterosexual. Because I write characters. I don't write agendas-masquerading-as-characters. I have agendas, but I don't write characters who are nothing but. I try to keep my characters consistent and true to themselves. But I'm not baiting anyone. And I'm certainly not trying to trick anyone with this sort of thing. Quite the reverse. I'm simply trying to do the best I can under occasionally hostile conditions.
Sorry if that's disappointing. But it's the best 2018 Greg Weisman can give you.
KarrinBlue writes...
Hi Greg! Congratulations on getting season three, and hopefully many more.
1) Is the wildlife on the watchtower from the world it was originally stationed around?
2) What is Dick planning on majoring in?
3) Dick's standard override is RG-4 - RG presumably stands for 'Richard Grayson' but what does the 4 mean?
4) I noticed that Kevin Michael Richardson and Jason Marsden sang the Hello Megan and Reach commercial songs respectively. Were they picked because they had singing voices that fit the tone you were going for, for the symbolism of them also voicing J'onn and Bart, or a mixture of the two?
5) Did Marie Logan act in anything other than Hello Megan?
And, just as an aside - thank you for going to the lengths to represent different kinds of people. It really does mean a lot, even if it's in small, quiet details. I was honestly surprised at how much it meant to me to see in Face Your Fears that Kaldur would have trouble focusing with scents that the others barely noticed - I've never seen any characters that had sensory problems like mine, let alone a main character. It really does mean a lot, so thank you.
Greg responds...
1. Nope. It's from Earth.
2. No spoilers.
3. He's the fourth individual with an over-ride code.
4. Voices. Not symbolism.
5. Yes.
6. You're welcome, but honestly, my desire for diversity in my work is largely selfish. It makes for better/richer stories and a more honest depiction of the world.
B_Schwaz writes...
You have said that Zeta-Beam transportation to Mars hasn't been set up yet because, until Sardath accidentally brought Adam Strange to Rann, it wasn't thought to be possible. However, you have also said that Martian Manhunter was initially brought to Earth via a Zeta-Beam accident. Shouldn't that have indicated to the League and Zeta-Beam scientists that it is, in fact, possible?
Greg responds...
Well, yes. "Possible." But the accident was not - at the time - reproducible, so it was "impossible" until Sardath figured out how.
Lyle writes...
Why does the Young Justice tie-in comic have lightning for the speedster but the show does not?
Greg responds...
It does? Where?
Young Archer writes...
In season 1 episode 9 "Misplaced", Robin mentioned that everyone in the world 18 years or older, "including Red Arrow" had gone missing. And I believe Red Arrow was absent from this episode as well, in both dimensions. Now that we know Red Arrow was really only 3 years old at the time of this episode, where the heck was he? Did the distraction allow the light more time to place more programming into Red's head, or did he actually disappear and that was a big plot hole?
Sorry if this has been asked before. :|
Greg responds...
Biological age and the age that each character considered him or herself to be, won out over chronological age. Otherwise, Miss Martian, who was chronologically 48 at the time, would have been on the adult world.
There's not plot hole. He was on adult world, probably in Star City, dealing with the chaos. We just didn't show it, as we didn't show where a lot of the adult heroes were.
Fangirl writes...
Did Sportsmaster wanted kids? Was he happy when Artemis and Jade were born?
Greg responds...
1. He didn't not want kids. At least not theoretically.
2. In his way.
Somebody writes...
1. Does Wally know about Lian?
2. Have Lian and Wally met?
3. How does he feels about her? Does he think of her like his niece?
Greg responds...
1. At what point?
2. No spoilers.
3. You're overthinking things.
Fangirl writes...
In episode "Denial" Kent Nelson tells Wally "Find your own little spitfire, one who won't let you get away with nothin'. For example, that--" but is cut off when Wally removes the Helmet.
1. So what was he going to say?
Greg responds...
1. Something like, "For example, that blonde cutie with the mouth on her..." or something. I don't want to get bogged down in what his exact words might have been. He simply would have referred Wally to Artemis.
Jack Carpenter writes...
In Spectacular 201, who were those... two... random guys with the tire iron on the bridge who tried to attack Mysterio? I didn't really think about it before, but in hindsight, they seem kind of random. Just... two guys, on a bridge, with a tire iron, and a loudmouth dude in a flashy costume shows up, if I recall hasn't actually done anything YET that they've seen, and they just decide to have a go at him.
I though maybe they were the security detail for the TriCorp shipment, but they have neither guard uniforms nor guns.
This is obviously a really tiny, unimportant thing, but... I don't know, it really stood out to me.
Greg responds...
I think it's just clear to these guys that Mysterio is the one who's held up traffic. They're New Yorkers. It ticked them off.
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