1. The tone.
This Young Justice feels fundamentally like it's made in "this era". Let's call it the "Netflix era." An era where every tv show wants to be Game of Thrones, and every action/superhero cartoon (that's not Teen Titans Go, or Ninja Turtles, ect) wants to try so hard it hurts to shake off the stigma of the animation age getto (for a deeper insight into this, see the really damn good Youtube video "The Legend of Korra is Garbage and Here's Why") Instead of fun banter, teen hero adventures and hammy villains, we have...U.N. meetings, politics and third-world royal infighting. And all of it in this dry, boring wrapping that, along with "Look like we can do now" violence (again, Korra) makes it feel like everyone involved has no interest whatsoever in making something children would actually watch without getting bored or falling asleep (though considering the middling ratings on Cartoon Network, the underwhelming toy sales and DC's current "f*ck Batman" marketing tactics (we'll get to Titans in a bit), no big surprise there.) Anytime the Titans (oops, "The Team") Justice League, or Black Lightning weren't on screen, and I wasn't playing "who's that voice actor", I was bored and kinda only half-paying attention while I played Super Mario Run on my tablet or whatever else I was playing at the time. I don't know if this is Weisman et al's work or the result of DC/WB mandates (I would guess a combination of both) but it left me surprisingly disappointed.
2. The voice cast.
We all knew getting 100% of all the various voice actors back wasn't going to happen. We covered this like a year ago. But it's still surprisingly disappointing how limited and uninspired the talent pool in this show is. This from Greg Weisman, the man who made it his mission to get Star Trek actors in as many of his shows as possible (come to think of it, I don't think there are any in the show at the moment. Oh wait, Bruce Greenwood. Not that he was in shows Weisman used to draw from mind you) and makes his mission to have Lexington from Gargoyles play a character in seemingly every show he does. Yes, pretty much every main character has their voice actor back, as well as the JL (I was surprised Maggie Q came back to voice WW; I was fully expecting her to be recast with Grey Griffin or someone; Griffin ended up playing Troia and Dr. Jace though; Incidentally; Bruce Greenwood still sucks as Batman anytime he's not doing Under the Red Hood) but every new character except Halo, Stargirl and Black Lightning's family draws from the most obvious and overexposed talent pool of voice actors in the modern industry, many of them playing multiple characters. The English Dub of Pokemon has more variety in its casting than this, and that's no compliment.
You have Troy Baker as Geo-Force And Dr. Double-X, Nolan North (who already plays Superboy AND Superman) voicing Bedlam, Crispin Freeman (who already plays both versions of Roy Harper AND the Jim Harper version of Guardian) as Geo-Force's brother, And Grey Griffin as Troia AND Dr. Jace (who, incidentally, is also actively appearing in Black Lightning). Now, I know pretty much every cartoon does this with minor side characters (go back and rewatch JLU and notice how many times someone in that episode plays an extra) but it seems especially lazy and uninspired here, especially considering every single one of these characters is a part of the greater DC canon. This all had the effect of making the production seem much cheaper; I suspect DC cut some corners on the voice acting budget. It just reminds me of all the money Disney comparatively is throwing around for its shows; getting the real Star Wars actors to voice their characters as often as possible starting with Rebels, getting kids from Disney Channel shows to voice the new teen and kid characters, getting David Tennant and Lin-Manual Miranda for Ducktales. Here we get Khary Payton talking to Khary Payton and Steve Blum talking to Steve Blum (though at least Blum's characters return from Seasons 1 and 2)
Before I get off track, I also was disappointed to hear that G. Gordon Godrey was no longer voiced by the legendary Tim Curry. Not only was that a throwback to Gargoyles (Curry voiced Dr. Sevarious) but he lent his unique blend of classiness to the proceedings. Here he's voiced by James Arnold Taylor trying to imitate the voice (he also replaced George Eads as Barry Allen in season 2), and as soon as I heard I literally said "You're not Tim Curry. Boo!"
On the other hand, I was overjoyed at Beast Boy being recast with Greg Cipes from Teen Titans. I didn't care for the original YJ actor and he's great here, modifying his voice to no longer be the jokey comic relief version he's otherwise always voicing BB as. In fact, BB's segments are the best part of the whole show IMO. They feel like the kind of In-Universe web short viral marketing videos you used to see for big studio movies. It also has me wondering if the former child star actress (Ariel Winter) who voiced Princess Pardita (who came up in one of these scenes) would be likely to voice the character if she appeared in a speaking role, now that she's much older. Then again, I was surprised to learn that she came back to voice Mog from Final Fantasy two games later, so who knows. Again, this was a Greg Weisman nod; the character originated in a Green Arrow DVD short.
I'm fully expecting if Klarion the Witch Boy shows he won't be Lexington anymore, and Joker won't be Brent Spiner (though A. I didn't particularly like Spiner's version, and 2. Ha ha, fat chance, like DC will let them use the Joker again; then again, JL Action). If Queen Bee shows up will be still be voiced by Mirina "Counselor Troy/Demona" Sirtis (though, she made a cameo in Titans, soooo maybe?)
But the biggest problem on the voice actor front is Khary Payton. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE ME some Khary Payton. The dude kills it as Cyborg and as King Ezekiel on The Walking Dead, as in Metal Gear Solid 4, and probably some other stuff I forgot. And he's quite good as ol' Jefferson Pierce (who the creators clearly had referencing the Black Lightning Tv Series with his very similar-looking family. Wonder why that could be wink wink?) The problem is he's the exact same voice actor playing Aqualad and they have almost the exact same front-flipping voice! It's understandable with a minor character (Kevin Micheal Richardson voicing John Stewart in addition to J'onn J'onzz and Mal Duncan, for example) since sometimes they come back in a bigger role (though some shows do recast in that case, see Rain Wilson replacing Blum as Lex Luthor, AND Sam Witwer replacing Blum as Orm in the current DVD movies) but here it's such a misguided choice it's the kind of things jaded fans (like myself) would joke about a good year before the real castings come out. Speaking of which: dude, get Sam Witwer to voice a villain in this. He's always good in those kind of roles. There's a suggestion from me to the creators. As a voice acting buff (I'm clearly not subtle about this) this show's castle is totes disappointing.
And to sum up, as I alluded much earlier, There's soo much Outsiders in this, to the detriment of the YJ stuff (seriously, there's surprisingly little YJ stuff in here, it's all breif, spread out stuff like the Reach soft drink reference and the scene with Connor and M'gann, or the scene with Roy and Lian (Yay Lian!) That I am 100% confident DC had a hand in it. BL and the Outsiders are everywhere these days. Live action, cartoons AND the comics. That's not a coincidence, DC and Marvel have never been subtle about this kind of thing (remember Ultimate Spider-Man?) Even if Weisman himself said it was his idea, I'd still believe some DC suit discussed it with him early on and was super into it (hell, it's probably the only reason we HAVE a season 3).
