Dear Cartoon Network Executives,
My name is Jason Borelli, and I am a fan of
Green Lantern: The Animated Series and
Young Justice. I know . . . you've gotten letters in the past few weeks. Lots of letters. Well, this isn't any different.
I can be long-winded at times, so I'll keep things simple.
1. The Action Figure Metric
From
what I've heard, one of the biggest reasons both shows are getting
canceled is because not enough of their toys are bought. I'm 37 years
old. I'm not getting action figures. I don't plan on getting action
figures, though I might do it to appease Time-Warner and donate them to
charity. You have to understand that a lot of your audience is outside
whatever target you've set. Look at
Adventure Time . . . I'm not a fan, but it's managed to reach fans across the board. Just because
Young Justice and
GL:TAS are aired in the morning doesn't mean that adults won't watch . . . or at least record it for later viewing.
2. The Replacements
The two shows that are getting put in the "DC Nation" block are
Beware the Batman and
Teen Titans Go! With the later, you have a built-in audience filled with fans of
the original
Teen Titans
series from the previous decade, combine with kids jumping on the
bandwagon with the minute-long "episodes." My concern is that the
chibi style set by the show -- used sparingly in the original edition -- might turn some people off. Also, like
Young Justice, a lot of
Teen Titans fans
cut their teeth on the dramatic storylines mixed in with the humor, as
well as the running feuds . . . like Robin/Slade, Raven/Trigon,
Cyborg/Brother Blood and Titans/Brotherhood of Evil.
Beware the Batman has greater potential to fail. Over the years, the one Batman animated franchise to failed was
The Batman
. . . and even then, things picked up with Batgirl and Robin were
eventually cast. It wasn't just the lack of Kevin Conroy or Mark Hamil .
. . it was disappointing seeing stuff like a Penguin that knew advanced
kung fu, Penguin's two silent Asian sidekicks, a Joker with big feet
and no shoes, etc. And Cluemaster. I'll save you the trouble of
an image search. Grisly, right? With
Beware the Batman,
you got Batman with no Robin. Instead . . . he's got Katana, a canon
Outsider who didn't get her own series until last week, and whose only
media exposure was a few appearances as
Batman: The Brave And The Bold.
Then there's the canon butler, Alfred Pennyworth, a staple in most of
-- if not all of -- the Batman franchises. In promotional images, he's
wielding firearms. Never mind the makeover to make him more of a tough
guy (like in Geoff Johns's treatment in
Batman: Earth One), which
could work out. No, it's Alfred carrying guns that will tick people
off. If Batman is known for anything, "anti-gun" would be in the top
five.
Bottom line: Wouldn't it be a good idea to have
Young Justice and/or
GL:TAS on the shelf, just in case
Teen Titans Go! and
Beware the Batman
wind up failing? You have an audience for that block that remained
loyal, even after your network shelved both series for a few months, for
reasons that are still not clear to me.
3. The Current Crop
When I first got into reading comics, I gravitated towards
Green Lantern.
Back then, Kyle Rayner was the title's protagonist . . . as well as the
only GL in the DC Universe. While I consider myself a Kyle fan, and
while I
hated the whitewashing of Hal Jordan's character by Geoff Johns, I have to say that
Green Lantern: The Animated Series
manages to please me every week. It manages to incorporate comics canon
into CGI animation with few hiccups. If the writers of the Green
Lantern movie had put as much care into this was those for
GL: TAS, the movie would've managed to keep up with
Thor and
Captain America in the box office. That movie was a huge letdown; proof that DC Comics-based movies aren't good beyond Batman.
GL: TAS
succeeds in make space opera work, it has incorporated Johns's
"Emotional Spectrum" flawlessly (Red Lanterns, Blue Lanterns, Star
Sapphires, etc), and it has produced two breakout characters in Razer
(the Red Lantern who travels with Hal and Kilowog) and Aya (the
artificial intelligence with a robot chassis). Why should we say goodbye
after two seasons?
Young Justice takes a departure from
the comic series of the same name. Rather than go for the humor Peter
David wrote in the Nineties and Aughts, producers Greg Weisman and
Brandon Vietti opted for drama on a grander scale. There is no "Young
Justice" . . . rather, a group of young heroes that operate under the
auspices of the Justice League. While it started out slow,
Young Justice
managed to make its mark as a program that can produce in thirty
minutes, while creating an overreaching arc connecting the individual
pieces.
For the second season, the producers opted to move the
series five years into its future. Suddenly, "Young Justice" becomes
more of a feeling than an actual team, as a few dozen heroes joined the
cast. Currently, the "big bad" is The Reach, an alien race determined to
mine Earth for its "metahumans" and control the planet. They manage to
beat the good guys both in battle as well as in public relations. They
even managed to turn one of the teen heroes -- Jamie Reyes, aka Blue
Beetle -- against his comrades. I think one of the biggest realizations I
had was seeing Black Manta fret over the safety of his son, whom has
defected to assist The Reach and the Earth-based conclave known as "The
Light." The revelation:
We're actually caring for an Aquaman villain. An Aquaman villain. That takes a lot of talent.
I think that you should keep
Young Justice and
Green Lantern: The Animated Series
in your lineup. I'm not overly familiar with animation timetables, but
I'm guessing you can slate both series for mid-to-late 2014. Even if
Teen Titans Go! and
Beware the Batman find their niche, I know you'll have a loyal audience that will come back.
Sincerely,
Jason Borelli
PS: In order to join the effort to save the show, I made
these motivational posters
with your names, positions and e-mail addresses. I figured that they
would direct people to air their grievances towards you, as well as
remind them what they're fighting for. Also, I think they're fun to look
at. Enjoy!
