With only four shows in, Young Justice is gaining a huge following and not just with kids. Older fans of DC comics and some Marvel fans are praising the shows take on the teen superhero. The show is set in Earth-16, a DC Multiverse world, and corresponds to the present time of our world — a time period Vietti has called "a new age of heroes."
The pilot movie, aired as a special prior to the debut of the series, introduced four teenaged superheroes: Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Speedy. It established their desire for greater recognition and respect, namely, a promotion in their positions from sidekicks to full-fleged superheroes. Met with opposition from their mentors, who are also members of the Justice League, the protégés react in different ways. Speedy resigns from being Green Arrow's partner, whereas the majority seek to persuade their mentors of their worth by secretly taking on a Justice League mission, during which the series focuses on Superboy and his origins. In the end, Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Superboy negotiate with Batman, who organizes a covert operations team — as a practical contrast to the Justice League, whose celebrity status makes it difficult to maintain secrecy over its efforts — ultimately under the authority of the Justice League. Miss Martian makes an appearance at the end as the fifth member of the covert operations team.
The guys over at CBR news caught up with Greg Weisman & Brand Vietti,for their take on what makes "Young Justice" stand apart from past DC animated series.
Gentlemen, "Young Justice" is a bit of a departure from some of the previous DC animated series, and a big part of what people are sensing as different about it is how connected it is to what DC Comics is doing. How has this process been different from previous DC shows Warner Bros. has done?
Weisman:Well, I can't speak for the previous DC animated shows. I wrote for some of them, but I was just a freelancer on the outside of the process. But there's no doubt that on this show, we've been really tight with DC. Ivan Cohen, who just left, and especially Geoff Johns and now Mike Carlin -- it's been a very close process, and they've been involved since day one. They're very cooperative and great partners on the project.
"Young Justice" is a series that takes its name from a DC book, but it isn't exactly what you'd call a straight adaptation. Were you guys looking to do a teen team show in general and found a comic series to help flesh out the background?
Brand Vietti: Going back to the start of it, Sam Register who's our boss here at Warner Animation put Greg and I together. I think one of the first things he wanted us to think about was a "Justice League" show. And Greg and I said, "Love the idea, but..."
Weisman: It terrified us.
Vietti: [Laughs]"Yeah! Bruce Timm had just done an awesome "Justice League" show not that long ago, and we really didn't want to try and do it again. It just felt like to new of a thing. At some point, the idea of a younger hero show came up, and then "Young Justice" came up and that started the conversation rolling together. That got all of our interest -- another teen show but not too close to something like "Teen Titans." It was maybe a little closer to "Justice League," but it could stand on its own compared to both of those shows, which were great shows. From that point, Greg and I started really thinking about it.'
"We were both interested in trying to do a new take on a teenage superhero show. We'd both, in the pasts of our careers done teenage superhero shows, and there's a lot of "-isms" that are sort of common to those shows. We wanted to put all that behind us and try to find a new way to do a teenager superhero show. We've really focused on trying to ground the series and make it feel more realistic than anything we've done before. We thought that would make a great stamp of originality on "Young Justice" as a series. From the bottom up, we think of it a little bit like a teenager reality show. We're just dealing with teenagers who happen to be superheroes."
For the rest of the Interview, hit the link below.