From
DC Women Kicking Ass:
My in-boxes started to fill up early yesterday with notes. And more notes. And then there were emails and tweets. And they all asked the same thing; did Cartoon Network pull
Young Justice and postpone it until January because Stephanie Brown was in it?
First let’s clarify things. Cartoon Network didn’t pull
Young Justice. It pulled DC Nation including Green Lantern, DC Digital shorts (including the premiere of Amethyst) and
Young Justice. The creator of
Green Lantern is upset; the creator of the Amethyst short is
understandably mad as well)
Secondly, Cartoon Network has been futzing with their schedule on
Young Justice since the show premiered. In fact according to Greg Weisman the episode that was scheduled to appear on Saturday was supposed to have been the hiatus episode for the second season but they ended up going on hiatus earlier.
So why did Cartoon Network pull it? There are a few theories floating around:
1. That there is ongoing legal issues with the use of Milestone characters and since Icon and Rocket are in the show, they postponed until January.
This was first reported
here but in the comments you can see that the TV rights are separate from the comics rights. And the comics rights are being dealt with right now based on comments I heard at NYCC.
2. Cartoon Network is unhappy with the ratings.
The show is one of the top rated on CN but I’m not sure whether it is in key demographics. So it’s a possibility.
3. Cartoon Network is flaky and decided to put the show on hiatus at the last minute because they are celebrating their 20th Anniversary
We’ve seen them postpone stuff before including
YJ. And they are celebrating their anniversary. Still seems sudden. But definitely flaky.
4. Someone at DC Comics who doesn’t want Stephanie Brown to appear anywhere (whether because she is “toxic” or on ice for a huge comeback in a few years) they found out about the show this week and demanded that Cartoon Network, which is owned by Turner, put DC Nation on hiatus so she could be removed.
I’ve checked out a few different sources and honestly I’m not sure anyone at DC even knew Stephanie Brown was going to be in the show. Don’t get me wrong. She’s still toxic in comics (and I was told that by not one but two more sources this past week - BUT, well I’ll save that for another post in a few weeks … maybe), but TV is separate from comics and CN is not part of the WB. And if they really had an issue with the show they could have run a repeat of another episode.
We’re still waiting to hear an official explanation from CN but my take is the Stephanie issue is a non-starter.
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Although that's kind of why I said "allegedly", because at best it's a running theory that she had something to do with it, given how much vitriol DC's upper management seems to reserve for the character.