Month: August 2016

I would like to introduce you to Orson James Mayhew, newborn son of Heath Mayhew and my daughter, Guinevere David Mayhew. Six pounds, nine ounces, nineteen inches long.

So as I mentioned earlier, someone on Reddit took the comment that I’ve made about “Young Justice” any number of times, put his own spin on it, and suddenly the Internet was alive with assertions that I had had a meeting with Netflix about a third season of YJ.

What fascinates me is the number of websites who posted reports of the guy’s false claim as opposed to the number who contacted me for verification.

The answer? None. Not a single website bothered to contact me via Twitter (until after the fact) or email, even though my email address is public.

One site recently wound up posted on Facebook and I got fed up. I wrote an admittedly scathing note stating that the writer/editor (so he bills himself) had been journalistically remiss in not bothering to contact me; that such a lapse was inexcusable and he should take the non-story down immediately. The fact that it said in the story that it was unsubstantiated rumor infuriated me even more. What was the point in printing something that you yourself declared was unreliable?

His response? He apologized profusely.

Kidding: He threw a hissy fit. He called me names, declared that he’d been a big supporter of the show but now hoped it would rot, and was no longer a fan of mine.

Now am I being old fashioned? Is it my BA in journalism or my old reporter’s instincts being applied to non-journalism? It may well be me, but I simply do not understand the point of publishing unsubstantiated rumors, especially when (1) they can be easily double checked and (2) can cause damage. As I said, if enough people believed that a third season of YJ was a go, they might well say “Mission accomplished!” and stop watching it on Netflix, which would damage the cause. So falsely reporting the existence of a third season could well ensure there won’t be one.

Say what you will about Rich Johnston–and God knows a lot has been said–but there have been a number of occasions where he has written to me in researching an article for “Bleeding Cool” and asked for verification. At which point he runs the story with my comments included or, several times, has dropped the article because it was baseless. That’s how you do it.

If you’re a private blog and you say, “I heard this was said,” yeah, okay, I can kind of see it. Not thrilled, but I understand. But if you are a general comic book blog, then I’m sorry, but I think that you have a journalistic obligation to double check something before putting it up there. Because people don’t remember that you said, “This isn’t verified.” Half the time they don’t even remember where they read it; they just remember what they read (or even better, just read the headline) and will then repeat it, and the next thing you know, damaging misinformation is being widely disseminated as fact.

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“Mr. David, what are the chances of ‘Young Justice’ getting a third season?”

“Well, I had lunch with Greg Weisman a few weeks ago, and he said that Netflix is seriously considering ordering a third season because they’re impressed with how much people are watching it. So if you want to make it happen, keep on doing that.”

That’s what I’ve been saying for the past month, countless times, ever since I had lunch with Greg before San Diego. Seems pretty straightforward.

And suddenly I’ve been getting barraged with tweets and emails from fans asking me if it’s true that I’ve had a meeting with Netflix about writing the third season. Why? Because someone asked me the question at the recent Terrificon in Connecticut and, rather than report the answer I’ve given at least a hundred times, he instead provided his own version. I’ve no doubt it was an innocent mistake, but it’s caused a MAJOR headache for me.

Furthermore I’m now worried it could do damage to the cause, because people might think, “We did it! There’s gonna be a third season, done deal!” and then stop watching. Which would then cause Netflix to say, “Hunh, people have stopped watching, guess it was just a passing fad,” and that’s that.

So I will say it once more: It is NOT a done deal. So continue watching “Young Justice” if you want to have a hope of a third season.

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Perhaps it was because my expectations had been so lowered. The reviews for Suicide Squad were almost relentlessly negative. People just seemed to hate it. Maybe folks had staked so much belief that it would somehow make up for the mess that was Batman vs. Superman that no film could possibly have lived up to it. I dunno. All I was sure about was that it was likely going to suck. That the story would be incomprehensible, the performances phoned in, the directing indifferent.

Instead what I got was a perfectly fine superhero–or more accurately supervillain as hero–movie. A big adventure where a modern day magnificent seven has to ride to the rescue against yet another supervillain who seems determined to rip a hole in the sky with some sort of energy force beam and end the world.

Is it brilliantly original? No. Does it raise the bar on comic book movies? No. Will it change anyone’s life? No.

Was it entertaining? Hëll yes.

Continue Reading “Suicide Squad: WTF, People?” →