Snapper Carr Appreciation Week: Day 3~

You know what's cool about Snapper Carr? He shares a quality that I like to see in my favorite characters in that he actually grows and changes. The Snapper of the early Justice League comics isn't the same as the Snapper in Hourman who isn't the same as the Snapper who served as mentor to Young Justice.

Snapper in the JLA was pretty much an idiot and really really annoying. I don't deny that and Sally has some wonderful examples for you.

But that Snapper is also a kid, and as someone who was herself a really stupid and annoying kid, I can't help but sympathize a little. And besides, that just makes him cooler now!

Snapper Carr in Young Justice is supervisory and easy going. He's got the same ease with people that he has in Hourman, with some added wisdom and maturity. Snapper in Hourman was a gaping emotional wound hiding behind a veneer of prankster humor, but the series took him face to face with his own issues leading to actual growth and maturity. Which makes Snapper in Young Justice even more great, because he really knows how to deal with the kids.

Like here, in Young Justice 49. The kids have decided to invade a foreign nation for perfectly understandable reasons that I'm too lazy to get into right now. How does Snapper deal with that?





Snapper's in a tricky position as a supervisor here. He wants the kids to trust him but he also wants to be a good supervisor and keep them safe. And he does exactly the right thing here, in my opinion. The kids were going to go anyway, if he just put his foot down, they'd just rebel and run off half-cocked. This way, he might not be able to stop them from going, but he can at least make sure they're prepared and increase their chances for getting out in one piece.

And that Nightwing shirt is still awesome.

Young Justice 55 has a really nice bit with Snapper as well. In brief summation of what had happened before, Secret, the ghost girl, had gone a bit... Well, the stress of her situation had gotten to her. It was a bad situation that could have gotten worse if Tim hadn't managed to talk her down in a very nice speech that basically encapsulated what the series was about.

The situation was a very important growing experience for the kids. There were a lot of consequences to deal with and there wasn't any easy answer. The kids do handle it well though and they come out of it having grown some. Afterwards, we get a scene of the adults talking:



Snapper could have called in adult interference, of course, but he chose not to. This may have been an irresponsible decision (Red Tornado certainly appears to think so), but it really shows the amount of trust he has in the kids and an understanding of what they are going through and what they have to deal with. Sure it could have gone very badly, but it didn't! Sometimes the hardest thing for an adult to step back and let the kids work through it on their own. Snapper does this because he's a good mentor.

So now when I read the old annoying Snapper bits like what Sally has, I'm all "Awwww, he's grown so much!"

And he still snaps. Which is as it should be. :-)