Young Justice

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

Aired tonight at 7 PM, EST, on Cartoon Network. I loved it. Then again, I’m biased.

PAD

UPDATE: Check out the site of co-producer Brandon Vietti for a behind-the-scenes article about a YJ recording session. Click here.

45 comments on “Young Justice”

  1. *spoilers*

    I loved it. Kid Flash reminded me of Wally West and Robin reminded me of the Ðìçk Grayson version but with a elements of Tim Drake. Is that the intention? Superboy is interesting with him *or so it appears* being a Superman only clone set at 1938 power levels. I’m defenetly catching this in January. Hey PAD any chance you’ll get to write for this show? I loved your BEN TEN episode!

    1. Funny you should ask, and it’s the reason I’m not exactly unbiased: I’ve written two episodes for the show, although they won’t air for quite some time yet.
      .
      PAD

    2. In the TV show, Robin is Ðìçk Grayson and Kid Flash is Wally West. The show is borrowing liberally from elements of the earlier-ish DCU, when the original Teen Titans appeared, and elements of the current DCU. The original Titans were Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad, which is who we saw in this first episode.

  2. Missed the 7:00pm broadcast, but I’ve set my DVR for the 10:00pm West-Coast broadcast! I’ll post my “assessment” afterwards.

    Without even seeing it, I too would look forward to seeing a Young Justice ep written by you, Peter. Come on January!

  3. Pretty strong opening. I loved the idea of the Hall of Justice as a front for the cover satellite. Hope to see versions of Secret and Wonder Girl in the future.

    2. The idea of the Hall of Justice as a front/entrance to the real headquarters was introduced in Brad Meltzer’s (did I get that last name right?) short run on the Justice League of America. I jumped ship on the title as soon as he did as did not have the money to comit to another title long term.

    2. Jess, it won’t be shown for at least the next 2 weeks as Directv does not show any more future showings of it. My guess is we’ll see it again at its official premiere.

  5. Peter, by any chance are the episodes you wrote based on issues of the comics? And if so, which ones?

      1. Perhaps after they air you can talk a little about the writing process for them. Some things will probably be obvious, but I’m looking forward to anything you might add.

  6. Argh, I forgot to record it, and they don’t appear to be rerunning it anytime in the next week.

  7. More a Teen Titans fan but LOVED this introduction to the new Young Justice and Earth – 16.

    I found the new touches to old characters very interesting from Speedy’s reaction to Robin hacking everything in sight and laughing from the shadows – (of course, he would!); the new Aqualad; and Superman’s reaction to Superboy.

    Great start and can’t wait until Jan to see how it goes from here!

    1. Makes a lot of sense the way Superman reacted to Superboy. Superman has never really wanted to take any personal responsibility for Kon-El. He was always pushing the kid onto other people’s hands. He was more than happy to let Cadmus take care of him or a really trashy agent like Rex.

      Or let the kid (still a minor) live on his own. Eventually he took some sort of interest and made John and Martha Kent raise him. But still not any real personal involvment. Man Superman’s a jerk. lol

      1. This kind of reminds me of Superman’s original reaction to Supergirl.

        Superman: I’m so glad to have a cousin! Finally, I have family!

        Supergirl: So I can live with you?

        Superman: What? No, no, no! You’re going to an orphanage.

      3. And don’t forget the movie! One amnesia kiss later, and Superman’s parental responsibilities are forgotten.

  8. Amazing job, I am so happy with it, I literally camped out in my attic and warned my family I was studying something vital.

    So much good dialogue! Intelligent plot!

  9. Hi, Peter… A question entirely unrelated to Young Justice: will you be at the Epic Mickey launch celebration in Times Square early next week? (I know Warren Spector’s showing up, and I’ve heard rumors that Jennifer Grey will be there as well…)

  10. I enjoyed it and thought it was a great start.
    .
    I had a little misgivings when I first heard the voice of Aqualad. It seemed odd to use one of the prominent actors from Teen Titans, since that’s the same source material. However, it was quickly clear that he was doing a very different character and giving a different and enjoyable performance. I also thought Robin was going to get annoying based on the voice, but he grew on me quickly. I think the voice cast was great.
    .
    There are a lot of differences from the comic, but they all seem character driven in a good way. For example, Superboy has a very different personality from what he had when he first escaped Cadmus in the comics, but it makes a lot of sense and is very interesting. I think that so far the show is doing a good job of honoring what we know yet feeling new.

  11. A word I haven’t used in ages: Awesome!

    I’ve been out of circulation regarding the DC comics that inspired this series, but I think it’s a worthy successor to all of the Justice League animated series aired to date! The Hall of Justice and Project Cadmus in the same story! Excellent!

    Regarding the voices, it’s nice to hear some familiar ones (Bruce Greenwood as Batman and Phil Lamar as Aquaman this time!) and, after reading the IMDB site, it looks like an “old Trek friend of yours, Peter” will be providing the voice of a classic DC villainess in January! I can’t wait!

  12. Loved it enough to watch the series when it commences. Now if only we got to see a guest appearance by Sweeney.

  13. Geez, PAD, would it kill ya to mention these things BEFORE they come out? You don’t make it easy for us absent-minded fanboys to keep up on your latest stuff.
    .
    Even if this wasn’t one of your eps, it’s still a project you’re working on.
    .
    Luckily, I did manage to catch it (even though I was at work while it aired first). But come on, PAD, give us a break, will ya?
    .
    J.

    1. I have to concur with Jay Tea. I didn’t know it was on until I was watching the “Guide Channel” and it listed Young Justice at 7 — but it had started at 6! I’d rather have had a quick entry about it on Thursday than just the “It aired earlier tonight” entry after it was shown.

      And it looks like it won’t be replaying until January, probably right before the series.

  14. Ðámņáŧìøņ and Hellfire!!

    I forgot the show was on last night. Need to catch it somehow, I wish Cartoon Network was better at repeating stuff later in the night.

      1. That’s a little odd.
        .
        Since the regular series doesn’t start until January, I’m guessing they’ll show it again right before that.

  15. The voice cast was fantastic. I didn’t think I could like anyone other than Kevin Conroy in the Batman role but Bruce Greenwood does a fantastic job, and I was blown away with Alan Tudyk as Green Arrow.

    I do have to admit I wasn’t expecting much in terms of story it being the pilot and all but there was so much in there to go through. I ended up watching the west coast repeat just to see it all. This looks like it’s going to be a really well made program.

    Also Robin’s face icons in his wrist-top computer lock program were really neat. I like how they’re portraying him as slightly more immature than they normally do.

  16. It was pretty good. I’m not crazy about it, but I want to give it a few more episodes before I judge. I find that I like shows better once they get past the great, big two-part series opener (it was the same case with the new Avengers show).

    It’s so much more angsty and serious than I usually go for. I’m much more into lighter superheroes these days. I especially didn’t care for their take on Superboy (I miss the cocky Kid from the ’90s comics). Though, I guess since the WB Teen Titans cartoon was more overtly light that a more serious Young Justice cartoon is just a way of balancing things out in the universe.

  17. In a lot of ways, I liked it a lot more than early episodes of the new Avengers series; the characters felt more substantial to me. And I like that they’re giving a lighter touch to Robin, even compared to the Teen Titans version. Not having a mini-Batman in play alters the power dynamic in interesting ways.

    1. I guess they have the room to lighten up Robin since he’s not really the leader. He’s the strategist, but I think Aqualad is supposed to be the leader.

  18. Generally liked it, but couldn’t quite figure out why Dubblex (a long-time favorite character of mine) let things get so corrupt at Cadmus before doing anything; the G-gnomes were pretty obvious, particularly given his own telepathy.

    Also, I can’t really tell what Aqualad’s powers are. It’s obvious he can do a Mera-like hard water control and has enhanced strength, but he (or is it the gadgets on his back?) also seems to be able to generate an electric field (only through water?) and the gadgets seem to generate made-of-water weapons when there’s no other obvious water source. Basically, I’d like to know what those gadgets are and what they can do.

    Interesting that Zatara is part of the League rather than Zatanna; could be they’re planning on a young Zatanna showing up in YJ. Also, while I don’t think he’s shown elsewhere, as the League departs at the end, you can see John Stewart as GL, as well as Hal Jordan.

  19. I loved it – it was a great introduction to the characters. I really liked the new Aqualad from Brightest Day and that they included Miss Martian. I can’t wait to see more, usually anything that Greg Weisman is involved with is fantastic (Gargoyles and Spectacular Spider-man).

  20. One thing I wondered about (minor spoiler here): Why did they have Miss Martian show up about five minutes before the end? If they still have her vulnerability to fire she wouldn’t have made the Cadmus incursion a cakewalk. All she “does” in the episode is get introduced as J’onn’s niece and have the YJ folks drool all over her.

    I think they either should have her in from the start, or have a later episode devoted fully to her introduction (much like the current Avengers ‘toon did with Captain America). Having her show up just for the sake of showing up felt superfluous.

    1. It was a little odd that the other characters got the whole episode and all she got was a little time at the end.
      .
      However, it’s not as easy as just having her in from the beginning. More time spent on her is less time spent on the other characters. They introduced four main characters in this episode and then gave us brief glimpses for more to come at the end. I like that they took sufficient time to round those four characters out.
      .
      A lot of anime is done that way. Cowboy Bebop started out with just two characters and a dog. A few episodes later they added the third cast member, then a few episodes after than they added the fourth. I like that, it’s more natural than the American practice of having everyone come together in the first episode.
      .
      Plus it’s not a bad thing that we’re all sitting around saying, “I want more Miss Martian.” It kind of serves the same function as a cliff hanger, making us want to tune in next week to find out more about the new character.

      1. I was more irritated with how Speedy came off. He storms out, is absent for the entire adventure, then gets brought back in at the very end. You’d think the other sidekicks would be a little resentful — they did all the work, they cleaned up Cadmus, they freed Superboy, and then got their reward — along with Speedy, who blew them off. The Miss Martian I can live with — Jonn was keeping her away from all that, but now thinks it’s OK — but Speedy? I guess he’s going to be the “bad boy” of the group.
        .
        J.

    2. JamesLynch, it was sort of an homage to first grouping of Teen Titans before they were called “Teen Titans”. The very first team-up was Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad. The true “official” TT group then included Wonder Girl (who is being replaced by Miss martian on the show) and Speedy (who is being replaced by Artemis on the show).

  21. I liked it a whole lot! I think it combined the best elements of A LOT of DC lore. I’ll definitely enjoy this more than Teen Titans cartoon (which I think was fine on its own merits.)

  22. This, I feel, will be a more than worthy replacement for Batman: The Brave and The Bold. Much fun to be had.

    And hey, a Blockbuster who doesn’t look like a cheap Hulk knock-off? Bonus!

  23. I think there’s a lot of potential here, although I’m going to have to get used to Robin’s new/old personality again after “Ultra Serious Robin” in Teen Titans. However, I trust Greg Weisman. It’ll be nice to get a female dynamic back into the group when they introduce Artemis and Miss Martian. Wish Wonder Girl was coming, too, but you can’t have everything I guess.

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