See, but I'm not gonna get my hopes up. The only cartoon that I know of that got cancelled and revived in it's original incarnation is Family Guy. I don't even know if crowdsourcing is feasible to fund an entire season, but I do think it would give the suits an idea of how much interest there is in the show. If YJ/ GL:TAS were to raise a mil quickly like the Veronica Mars movie, then it would create a lot of buzz. I don't think Veronica Mars raised even half of the money necessary to put a full length feature film into production, but now the execs know that the VM fandom is here for a movie.
Best case scenario, I would want six more episodes of YJ, putting the count up to 52, which is all anyone can ask. Batman the Brave and the Bold got 65. Justice League/Unlimited got 52. Batman Beyond got 52. YJ is worthy of 52 episodes!
I also want CN/DC/WB to stop slacking on the merchandising and sell some damn branding licenses. You can only blame the fans and the kids' parents so much for not buying those toys, when CN didn't bother advertising them. Where are the t-shirts, lunch boxes, backpacks, and Halloween costumes? Why does Marvel always slay with the merchandising, but DC can't get it together ?
So, today (Saturday (3/16/13)), it ended. The last of YJ’s 46 episodes aired on Floptoon network . . .
And no, this isn’t my Reason #1, but the series finale (YJ: Endgame) is deserving of its own post.
Just so many feels . . .
Fist off, Lex Luthor is a mutha ****ing . . .
Behold the Teflon Don! Nothing sticks to this man. He goes from orchestrating a global conquest scheme to being proclaimed a hero in the same breath as the YJ team and being nominated for Secretary General of the United Nations. Lex had the whole team running around the globe disarming “The Reach’s” doomsday devices with LexCorp tech. He literally had the team cleaning up the mess he helped make. Lex Luthor has done more to keep the hero hoes employed than Floptoon Network itself.
Absolutely none of us is worthy. Get on bended knee, and kiss the ring!
OK, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system . . .
(Cut the PIMP music off)
On a more somber note, I don’t know how I feel about DC Nation using character deaths as a tv series ending plot device. In addition to Wally West’s (Kid Flash) untimely demise; Aya, the artificial intelligence on Green Lantern: The Animated Series got “deleted” as well, and since I don’t think the two creative teams of GL: TAS and YJ had anything to do with each other, I think their decision to kill off major characters on both their shows was a mere coincidence. I’m torn between whether or not that tool is cheap and melodramatic or appropriate and in keeping with the tone of the shows. Wars have casualties on both sides, and it’s unrealistic to think that the heroes would be exempt, just because they’re the good guys in a kids cartoon.
That said, the YJ writers foreshadowed Wally’s death lovely. We always knew that Barry Allen (The Flash) was faster than Wally West (Kid Flash), but we assumed this was the case because Barry was fully grown and in his prime and that when Wally reached adulthood he too would be as fast, if not faster than his Uncle Barry. Fast forward five plus years, when Wally is in his early twenties, and Barry’s grandson Bart Allen (Impulse) travels back in time from his dystopian future to prevent that future from occurring. Much to everyone’s surprise, Bart Allen is not only younger than Wally when he arrives in the past, but unlike Wally, Bart can keep up with Barry. Now, for those who don’t know, Wally West became Kid Flash when he used his Uncle Barry’s notes to recreate the accident that turned Barry into the Flash, but the fact that Wally is slower than both Bart and Barry suggests that Barry’s accident is not the only reason why he is as fast as he is. It suggests that Barry has some sort of genetic aptitude, an aptitude that his grandson Bart has inherited, one that Wally does not have because he doesn’t hail from the same gene pool. Wally is Barry’s nephew through marriage. All of this makes the “Bloodlines” episode, where Bart first appears and the “Wally really is slower” seed was first planted, more apropos.
(1:29- 2:50)
I don’t read the Flash comic book, but DC’s current Flash book features Barry Allen as the “The Flash.” Wally isn’t in the reboot. So maybe that's why they got rid of him in this show like they did in the "Flash Point" comic book arc. I personally found Wally’s death by slowness to be a bit trite, and for the writers to do that after he and Artemis had that great fight scene together in Paris . . . is just gut wrenching. Ya’ll know from the last post that I live for that romancy, mushy ish. (So, **** You Very Much, Greg Weisman! **** You!) I got misty eyed when Kid Flash went out smiling and joking because I didn’t quite believe that he was dead. I shed some tears when Artemis showed up at Wally’s parents house to inform them that their son had made the ultimate sacrifice, but I really started bawling when I saw his image amongst the other Justice League fallen and his cousin Bart continuing the legacy in Kid Flash’s uniform. At that point, it was real. Wally was dead. There is no hope for his return ala Wally West on Justice League Unlimited’s episode “Devided We Fall,” where Wally was rescued from the grasp of speed force.
Theoretically, for the speed force to claim a speedster, he would have to be traveling at a speed where he defied the time-space continuum and what not. YJ Wally West never hit that speed. In fact, Wally died specifically because his @ss was too slow. (Oh, the hipster irony!)
And, I knew it. Of course the show had to end on some cooky, cliffhanger xanatos gambit (I alluded to this in Reason #7, check the receipt). After all, the trope was named after one of Greg Weisman's (YJ show runner's) characters from one of his previous shows. Vandal Savage had yet another contingency plan if the alliance with The Reach didn’t work out. In addition to The Reach, Savage had a partnership with Darkseid on Apokolips, and G. Gordon Godfrey (the Rush Limbaugh talking head), who also has ties to Apokolips in the comics, appears alongside him. Too bad there’s not going to be a season 3. (Die Floptoon Network! Die!)
This episode didn’t do it for me like last week’s did, and not just because my sexy boos had bigger roles in last week’s adventure. Yeah, I got some kiis off Lex pimping the YJ team /Justice League and off of Kaldur getting back to business as team leader in some battle scenes, but Wally’s death squashed those kiis. “Endgame” was very reminiscent of Justice League Unlimited’s series finale (Destroyer), where instead of the JLU running around the globe disarming Apokoliptic drills meant to turn the Earth into a giant lava pit, the YJ team was running around the globe disarming The Reach’s magnetic field disrupters designed to blow up the Earth; except, this time around Wally West really does die.
So my verdict for YJ “Endgame” is YOU FAIL. FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL DAMN IT. DAMN IT ALL TO FAIL! FAIL!
(BTW, I’m still going to post Reason #1 for why I think this cartoon is a candidate for cartoon G.O.A.T. Just not today. Probably on Monday)
For now, Raise a glass to Wally West, the real Kid Flash
Yup, today is thee day, or at least it’s supposed to be thee day. For the past month or so, there’s been talk of a meeting between WB people and smgo (Show Must Go On) .tv, a new crowd-funding website where cancelled shows try to raise money for renewal. As stated in a previous comment, the Veronica Mars fandom used crowdfunding (Kickstarter) to raise money for a new film and met their fundraising goal. Now, the way smgo works is people make suggestions about what shows should be saved. Once smgo gets enough suggestions, they place the show on their homepage where fans vote and decide whether or not there’s enough interest in a show to propel it into the fundraising stage. If you visit smgo, you’ll notice that YJ is not among the voting candidates. That’s because once word got out about YJ/ GL:TAS being featured on smgo, the fandom pounced and crashed the site multiple times. Needless to say, YJ got enough votes to move to phase three.
So today, April 11, 2013, a meeting is supposedly taking place to determine whether or not smgo can get the green light to host a crowdfunding campaign to save YJ/GT:LAS. There’s been no word about this meeting, whether it’s still on, been rescheduled, or what have you. Supposedly smgo is under media blackout about this issue until a decision is made. So, all we can do is wait. . . and hope . . . and pray . . and tweet WB . . . and post YJ love on the WB facebook page
That said, a lot has gone down since Floptoon network cancelled their two best action shows (YJ and GL:TAS).
There was this April fools days tweet from some real evil @ss, demented SOB who thought it would be cute to **** with the fandom so soon after the show’s cancellation.
Wondercon took place recently, and there was plenty of YJ cosplay
In other news, the end of an era is upon us. Bruce Timm stepped down as supervising producer at Warner Brothers Animation. The “Tim-verse” has spanned over a generation with cartoons like Animaniacs, Batman the Animated Series, Superman: The Animate Series, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Batman Beyond, and most recently Green Lantern: The Animated Series (among others). But fear not, DCAU fans, James Tucker is the new guy in charge, and he’s awesome!
I was personally heartened to read it because i09 is an important site in the comics/sci-fi/fantasy world, and they hadn’t weighed in with any deep analysis of the cancellation until now. Bricken’s thesis statement really hit home because I hadn’t really pondered what he was proposing, in terms of a rejuvenation of the DC animated universe, until reading his piece. Imagine a bunch of cartoons done in the same animated style with the level of character/plot development as Young Justice, similar to the string of cartoons (Superman: TAS, Batman Beyond, Justice League/JLU) that succeeded Batman: The Animated Series.
Really, it’s an excellent piece that you should read in it’s entirety when you have the chance.
Ah, what could have been? What could still be? Who knows. Until next time,