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Marvelman writes...

Hi Greg,

I'm trying my best to be as polite as possible to say what I have to say because I know that this has not always been the case with people on this page. I know you like your show and I don't expect you to agree with me but there are some things I have to get off my chest.

Now that season two is almost over I think I am now is a position to say that I prefer season one to season two. The production quality is still top-notch but you made some creative choices with season two that were bound to alienate me - at least a little.

You went epic. You and Brandon concocted an elaborate twenty-part story that will forever raise the bar of what is possible in the superhero genre on TV. I don't believe there has ever been an animated show with this complex a storyline on American television. But the reason I fell in love with the show was the characters and season two was so scattered that I just didn't find anyone to care about.

You have said that the original six are still the main cast members and I sort of get that. These are the characters that are going to grow and change. Great! But Wally, Artemis, and Kaldur were off-screen for most of the season. The only original team-members who got substantial screen-time were Superboy and Miss Martian. You have in the past claimed that you try to balance the character focus but that's clearly not the case in season two. If Wally had a character arc, I don't know what it could be. And you spent too much time focusing on characters like Arsenal and the runaways who I never grew to care about.

Am I being unfair? Is it right for someone to go to a romantic-comedy and then complain that there weren't enough action scenes? I realize that there is no such thing as an objective critic and I will admit up-front that I am a huge Spitfire fan and that relationship was largely out of focus for most of the season. As a fellow-geek, I really latched on to Wally early on in season one and I loved Artemis's playfulness. I realize that my favorite elements can't be the focus all of the time, but how about some of the time?

One of the downsides of having so much going on is that certain character beats had to be skipped over. For example: Miss Martian, Superboy, and Nightwing had some pretty good reasons to be angry with each other. They all kept secrets that led to Miss Martian frying Aqualad's brain. You dealt with this but in a very truncated form. It would have been much more dramatically satisfying for me to let those feelings play out on-screen instead of only getting to see the tail-end of what was probably a colossal argument. It just didn't get the time it deserved. If only you had had six more episodes…

None of this is to say that I disliked Young Justice: Invasion. It was still a very very good show! I just don't have the crazy mad love for it that I had for season one. I enjoyed M'gann's character arc. I enjoyed the sibling relationship between M'gann and Beast Boy. I did like Blue Beetle, not as much as Wally or Connor, but I liked him. I thought Cassie's enthusiasm was endearing. I also loved her dramatic entrance: leaping over Lobo and then punching him in the gut! And it was definitely cool seeing Mongul, Despero, and Lobo. But do you know what would have been cooler? A few more episodes about Kaldur, Wally, and Artemis.

Now, since we're supposed to ask you questions in this forum, here's one for you. I understand if there is a season three there will be another time jump and presumably another cast change. Let's say Cartoon Network smiles down upon us from on high and grants you ten episodes for season three. Do you really think ten episodes are enough to get your audience to care about a new cast of main characters?

Greg responds...

Mootness and hypotheticallity abounds.

Response recorded on July 10, 2013