Today's announcements by Cartoon Network about their new DC Nation schedule come spring 2013 into 2014 isn't a surprise to me in regards to "YOUNG JUSTICE". For me the writing was on the wall when the SDCC went by last summer and there wasn't a hint of promotion about the show except for more of Season 2. When there wasn't a peep at the NYCC last October, I figured that was a final nail. Moves such as the cancellation of the toy line and the end of the tie-in comic was just more evidence to the inevitable. How the network has treated the show over the past year seems to imply it was no longer a priority - despite the fact that YJ pre-dated the whole DC Nation thing. I never watched "GL:TAS" and I don't plan to watch what comes next. My interest in "BEWARE THE BATMAN" is next to nil and even lower for "TEEN TITANS GO!", which seems to exist to make in-jokes about a cartoon which CN canceled some SEVEN YEARS AGO and which no longer is syndicated by the channel. To a degree it may remind some of SUPER DEFORMED GUNDAM, but GUNDAM is a far larger franchise worth spoofing in Japan than "Teen Titans" was to Americans here.
Whether Superman gets a cartoon show in the near future will depend on how well or poorly "MAN OF STEEL" is. It is worth noting that while "SUPERMAN RETURNS" was a disappointment, around the same time "LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES" was still drafted for Kid's WB which featured Superman as an unofficial star and included his shield in the show's official logo. Superman is also a character who has seen more success in live action TV shows; since 1990 he's had 3 live action TV shows which all lasted beyond two seasons. "SMALLVILLE" ran for 10 seasons and was the second most profitable TV show for WB.
This marks the 4th Greg Weisman cartoon in a row which was either cancelled or yanked from him after 2 seasons. In fairness, fans got more episodes of "YOUNG JUSTICE" than fans got of "SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN" got. I'd have loved another 20 or even 10 episodes of that show. Such a shame the good shows rarely last.
As for the endurance of the TMNT in animation, the answer is simple; merchandise. The action figures for TMNT have historically been good sellers. The "2k3" version of the cartoon lasted 3 seasons less than the original show, and it still brought in over a billion dollars in toy sales alone. I imagine that is also why "BEN 10" has endured.
This is a shame, but it isn't a shame I didn't see coming or expected for many months now. In fact the only good news about this is that since "TTG!" debuts in April, that CN may finish airing the rest of the episodes from this season into March in a timely fashion. It wouldn't be commercially solvent to not air all of the episodes of this show (and GL:TAS) the network paid to have made at least once. I mean, even Fox Kids was willing to air all episodes of "SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED" at least once.
Of course, but that's about as clean as he could get out of this situation considering his relationship with Artemis dictated that he always had to know about the plan. Painting him as silently condoning something he disagrees with for Artemis' sake is the lesser evil than having him actively take part with something he doesn't agree with. The show has seemingly tried to distance him from everything else going on with the plan besides knowing.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I see Wally's principles as a hero are more in-line with Superman and Barry Allen's (or how they're usually portrayed in stuff I've read/watched) than the Batman's protege (Nightwing), a hero changed significantly by the death of a loved one (Kaldur), or the daughter of villains who has been hinted at doing questionable things in her past. He would have had to sacrifice those principles to a greater degree than the other three if he took an active role in all this, and I don't think the show wanted that.
Unfortunately, the alternative the show took was to virtually write Wally as a sporadic guest character and replace him with Impulse, whose subplot is more firmly entrenched in the seasonal arc.
As you know, this has always bugged me too. But "BLOODLINES" was also more of a traditional hero mission/situation. So I think it goes back to the show wanting him to stay out of the rescue mission do to the complications it would cause. I mean, given Wally's concern for Artemis at the end of "DARKEST", it stands reason that Wally would've went out of his way to check on her in "BEFORE THE DAWN", doesn't it? Maybe Dick was afraid that Wally would've done just that and never told him about the the rescue operation.
Perhaps. Assuming of course the two happened to run into each other during the mission in "BEFORE THE DAWN". The other side of it is that by doing nothing, Wally isn't helping to end the situation sooner.
I'm still not sure what the show's agenda was when they had Wally bring up Kaldur's loyalty. I don't they just threw that in there for no reason, and initially thought it was foreshadowing Kaldur getting mind blasted by M'gann (which happened) and think he was a real bad guy. Now the latter could still happen but too many people know he got mind-blasted, and M'gann should have a feeling where Kaldur's at due to her putting his mind back together. So unless Kaldur becomes an enemy because something goes wrong, and M'gann and possibly Artemis are taken out of the equation, then Nightwing knows what's going on.
So I think the show was just trying to drum up a last bit of suspense about where Kaldur's true loyalty was (just look at the subsequnt scene after Wally bings up that possibility with Kaldur meeting the Light) before the reveal during the scene where M'gann attacks him. Of course, that falls a little flat since the majority of people already figured Kaldur was on the up-and-up since "Depths". But still, I think there had to be some agenda there instead of Wally just randomly bringing it up and letting it fall to the wayside.
The broader scope of what Wally claimed in "DEPTHS" was for Nightwing to be careful that Kaldur was genuine and not playing him, since their infiltration was not going according to plan. Megan was concerned about re-assembling Kaldur's mind wrong in "THE FIX", but as I stated before, even if that does happen, it doesn't make Wally right in that regard as at the time Kaldur was not a triple agent.
If anything, the major issue for Nightwing is that his long term plan to infiltrate "the Light" has seen an increasing degree of risk as it goes along. The initial risk was of course having Kaldur join Black Manta soon after Tula's death and have the rest of their allies assume him a traitor. Then they had to fake Artemis' death to "prove" his loyalty. And then even that wasn't enough and Nightwing has to sacrifice Mt. Justice and seriously endanger the lives of several of his teammates (not to mention he and most of the rest of his team almost drowning themselves if not for Mal Duncan and circumstance).
I still find it curious how Psimon said - twice - that he'd soon know Kaldur better than even Black Manta knew him (or he knew himself), and that he was specifically brought in for the task by Vandal Savage himself. I think "the Light" (or at least Savage, Luthor and some others) finds it too convenient that Kaldur would turn on his comrades even with his father being Black Manta, but they might be "playing" the team themselves and allowing certain things to go on. They can't prove that Kaldur is a double agent since every time they escalate, he responds. Psimon was perhaps an assurance policy, but naturally Tigress eliminated that and Black Manta quickly agreed to bring in Megan in his stead. Would Savage and the rest of "the Light" quickly agreed to bring in Miss Martian like Manta (who wanted revenge on her) would have? For all we know, "the team" are being manipulated against the Reach by the Light as a fail safe for their "partner".
It would be ironic if Wally showed up more in a season where he was a secondary/guest star (which I'm guessing he'd be in a possible Season Three) than during a season where the producers still consider him as one of the "six leads".
Sadly, we know that won't happen now that it's unlikely there will be a new season.
Not to mention Megan obviously told Superboy about what she did to Kaldur (which, BTW, really says a lot about how little she thinks of her relationship with La'Gann, who is too obtuse and immature to realize just how much of a rebound guy he really is), which means Superboy either still didn't know the full extent of Nightwing's plan or wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth himself. If there's a character flaw about Superboy this season, it's that he expects others to own up to their mistakes and be upfront and honest on their own initiative.
And I agree with your assessment on Nightwing. Even though he has a great tactical mind like Batman, a lot of the problems come from the fact that he's trying way to hard to run things how he assumes Batman would run them. After all, there's a reason why Batman, because of his willingness to manipulate his fellow League members like Chess pieces and is not fully upfront about his strategies doesn't have many close friends in the League, unlike Nightwing who, by nature, is far more trustworthy and willing to work with others. His keeping secrets from his other teammates, even if it's for the greater good, is just not his leadership style.
This season, Nightwing has grown closer to being "the Batman" than he initially sought to become last season. As has been mentioned, he's on a slippery slope to becoming worse than Batman as even Batman might balk at blowing up a base and risking the lives of his allies for the sake of a long term infiltration. After all, he was willing to cut protocol and intervene against Clayface when the team weren't able to handle him in "DOWNTIME".
I strongly suspect Superboy knew more about "the plan" than he let on, but he was waiting for Nightwing to admit it. As I stated, Conner understands keeping the team together in terms of showing unity to the junior members, but among the senior ones he has his issues. And considering Megan wasn't above trying to psychically manipulate a boyfriend and didn't know it was wrong until he called her on it years after they broke up, is it really so strange that she'd treat L'Gann as little more than a rebound fling? For all we know they're only dating because he's green. The irony is that Conner and Wally are in a similar place now - on the sidelines of a plan they disapprove of by their friends - only Conner didn't retire. If anything he's still the team's MVP.
(In fact it was all ages, but you get the point.)
