Aqualad, who had taken charge during the Cadmus incident, acted as the leader of the Team,[7] though other members of the Team have acted as leader in situations where not all members are available for a mission.[8] As time passed, the ranks grew as more members of the Justice League introduced their young protégés or other young heroes to the Team.[9] Four years later, Nightwing became the new leader of the Team.[10] Aqualad resumed leadership of the Team after his mission to infiltrate the Light ended.[11] Two years later, Miss Martian had taken over as leader until she officially stepped down on February 24, 2019.[12]
The Team provides a place for young heroes to learn and do good outside the public spotlight. To that end they are typically assigned covert ops missions, leaving the more open and obvious missions to the Justice League and, later, the Outsiders.[2][12]
The Team does not require its members to have superpowers, nor is a young person having superpowers an automatic ticket to join.[13]
Ideally, underage heroes would be dissauded from heroics. Where an under-18 is determined to be a hero, someone over the age of 18[14] from the League or Team first seeks permission from the prospective member's legal guardian, and then if granted, approaches the prospective member with an offer to join.[15][16]
The Team's leader is selected by the Team membership in an informal vote.[7]
Members can be permanently removed from the Team, or temporarily benched from missions by the Team leader if they demonstrate reckless behavior.[17][18]
Prior to the formation of the Team, Robin was the first junior protégé to begin his crime fighting career, starting in 2006, at the age of nine.[21]A year later, Green Arrow introduced Speedy as his partner.[22]
Inspired by his Justice League colleagues, Aquaman offered both Garth and Kaldur'ahm a position to become his protégé after they saved him from Ocean-Master. Garth declined, but Kaldur accepted and became "Aqualad".[23]
Flash was not fond of the idea of the responsibility of a sidekick, but his nephew Wally differed. He recreated the experiment that gave his uncle his super speed power. Partly out of guilt, Flash let him become his protégé, naming him "Kid Flash".[23]
Before the Cadmus incident, the four sidekicks knew each other, and Robin had even trusted Kid Flash with his secret identity.[24] However, the four of them had never been together all at the same time.[25][26]
Last to take a protégé was Martian Manhunter. Miss Martian claimed that she had won the right to become her uncle's sidekick after winning a competition on Mars,[21] though in reality, she stowed away aboard his ship during one of his trips from his home planet.[27]
The four sidekicks were brought to the Hall of Justice as a graduation. However, it was nothing but a "glorified backstage pass", as Speedy called it. Fed up with being lied to, Speedy left. As the League members moved to the Watchtower, the others investigated a minor case: a fire at Project Cadmus. This led to the discovery of Project Kr and Superboy.[25] Cadmus's chief scientist, Mark Desmond, became Blockbuster in the hopes of destroying the intruders, but was defeated.[2]
The Justice League arrived at the scene of the destroyed Cadmus facility, and Batman was not happy. He did not, however, expect the young heroes to rebel against the League. They insisted they did good work, and wanted to work together more.[2] Batman asked for three days to plan things.[28]
Batman gathered the four in the old Justice League hideout inside Mount Justice. They would become a team, on the Justice League's terms, handling covert operation missions. They were introduced to the fifth member of the Team, Miss Martian.[2]
Kid Flash was eager to let Speedy join, but he declined, claiming their "junior Justice League" was a joke. He was not interested in fighting on the Justice League's terms, and claimed he was tired of them telling him what to do.[29]
During a solo mission, Red Arrow and Aqualad learned from Sportsmaster that there was a mole on the Team feeding information to their enemies. Both would investigate. Aqualad offered his friend membership, but Red Arrow declined; despite admitting the Team had earned his respect.[31]
Red Arrow, Aqualad and Robin discussed the mole issue with Batman. Aqualad was by now convinced Sportsmaster had only tried to sow dissent, and there was no mole.[27]
Red Arrow had been elected into the Justice League, and to set the right example, Green Arrow told him to join the Team before being inducted. This did not sit well with Artemis; Red Arrow, in the meantime, considered it a good opportunity to investigate the identity of the mole.[15] He eventually concluded there was none, and Sportsmaster deceived them.[33]
Icon's induction in the Justice League meant Rocket was added to the Team. Initially, she required a lot of catching up on vital information, though she quickly found her place.[34]
The Light tried to coerce three members—Superboy, Miss Martian, and Artemis—into joining them. They had already shared their secrets with the rest of the Team, and successfully ambushed their opponents.[34]
After they discovered the Justice League was mind-controlled by Vandal Savage, and learned Red Arrow was the mole all these months, the Team managed to neutralize the League and drive out Savage and Klarion.[35]
The increase in size required organization, and the Team would be split up into smaller groups—Alpha Squad, Beta Squad, Gamma Squad, Delta Squad, and occasionally others—like Zeta—which would be supervised from the Cave by Mal Duncan.[46]
After assisting in preventing the Collector of Worlds from taking Metropolis, Blue Beetle told Wonder Girl he would join the Team, though his scarab strenuously disagreed.[49]
Nightwing unsuccessfully attempted to allay Mal Duncan's suspicions that the Team would have to take care of Impulse and the original Roy Harper. Artemis temporarily rejoined the Team.[10]
Artemis had joined Kaldur'ahm under cover as Tigress. They captured Blue Beetle, Impulse and Beast Boy, before destroying Mount Justice with an alien bomb.[3]
The Team succeeded in rescuing the four captive members, as well as a number of abducted teens, from a Reach ship. In the process, Miss Martian psychically attacked Kaldur's mind in revenge for Artemis's "murder", discovering too late that it was all a ruse.[51]
While the Team operated out of the Hall of Justice's basement, Nightwing arranged a warehouse to provide temporary accommodation for those who lived at the Cave full-time.[4]
When the Hall of Justice was sealed off by Despero, Mal donned Jim Harper's old Guardian costume to help fight the alien warrior.[4] He would keep the identity and officially join the Team.[52] Though Despero and his major domo L-Ron were defeated, the Hall of Justice was destroyed.[4]
Green Beetle and Blue Beetle claimed that Green had permanently silenced Blue's scarab.[5] In fact, Green had put it back on-mode, making Blue the Reach's slave.[53]
Blue Beetle attacked the rest of the Team, leading to the capture of Superboy, Robin, Batgirl, Guardian, Bumblebee, Beast Boy, Impulse, Wonder Girl and Wolf. Arsenal was able to escape, thanks to recklessly venting the atmosphere. Sphere was blown into space.[54]
While searching for the Team, Nightwing and Miss Martian were reunited with Sphere. Arsenal and four superpowered, former Reach captives rescued the captive Team members. Once the two parties met and retreated, Nightwing offered the runaways membership of the Team. They ultimately rejected the offer after Nightwing expelled Arsenal from the Team for endangering lives.[17]
Artemis had decided to return to the Team as Tigress. Impulse became the new Kid Flash. Virgil Hawkins joined the Team as Static. Nightwing told Aqualad he would be taking a leave of absence from the Team; Batgirl would step up in his place as second-in-command. Batman informed the Team they would now operate from the Watchtower, side by side with the League.[6]
After a few months on trial, four new members were welcomed into the Team: Markovian exiled royals Geo-Force and Terra, Motherbox-powered Halo, and the banished bugForager. Superboy and Tigress rejoined. The Team, which had been understaffed since the departure of Robin, Arowette, and Spoiler, was now more than doubled. Beast Boy also rejoined to spite Granny Goodness.[59]
Dissatisfied with the secrets and lies of operating covertly and seeing his popularity on social media, Beast Boy decides to go public. Blue Beetle, Geo-Force, Kid Flash, Static and Wonder Girl joined him as the Outsiders, operating outside of the Light's spin. Aquaman and Miss Martian organized the new group to still report to the League and Team. Forager, Halo, Terra and Thirteen remain on the Team.[67]
Using his own money, Beast Boy set up a new base of operations, the Premiere Building, on the top floors of the Premiere Building. It also allowed living quarters for several members of the Team who, until that time, had been staying with team members in Star City and Happy Harbor. Helga Jace volunteered as denmother.[67]
Following the election of Black Lightning as leader of the Justice League, Nightwing, Robin, Spoiler and Arrowette rejoined the team, Orphan joined the team, and Miss Martian stepped down as leader.[12]Tigress became leader of the team[1]following Miss Martian's resignation.[69]
With help from Oracle, Onyx and Tigress, Orphan was freed and returned home. Savage revealed that her attempt to infiltrate the Team was just a ruse to gain access to the Justice League's computer data.[76]
As of January 2016, there have been at least twenty-two members, past and present.[46] Some of them have died or left the Team, either to join the Justice League or for other reasons.[45][77]
Mal Duncan, who was not active as a superhero, acted primarily as an ops manager and com coordinator during field missions but later became Guardian.[46]
Leaders
Nightwing (July 5, 2010 – July 22, 2010; February 18, 2015 – June 19, 2016)
Aqualad (July 22, 2010 – February 18, 2015; June 19, 2016 – Prior to July 27, 2018)
Miss Martian (Prior to July 27, 2018 – February 24, 2019)
Robin (Dick Grayson):[2] Was the most experienced crime fighter, yet youngest of the original Team. Robin is Batman's protégé and an expert in all things technology.[25]
Superboy (Conner Kent):[2] A binary clone of Superman and Lex Luthor.[78] Throughout his first year, Superboy struggled to come to terms with his hidden aspirations to gain the respect and love of the Man of Steel himself, whom he saw as his father.[79]
Artemis (Artemis Crock): A master archer, she claimed to be the niece and protégé of Green Arrow, and became the sixth member of the original Team on that premise.[9]
Aqualad (Kaldur'ahm): One of the founding members and the original leader. He left the Team to work undercover in the ranks of his father, Black Manta,[10] but once his mission was over he was reinstated as leader by Nightwing.[11]
Kid Flash (Bart Allen): He joined the Team as Impulse in March 2016, on a secret mission from the future to prevent Blue Beetle from turning on humanity.[3] Bart later assumed the mantle of Kid Flash after Wally's death in June 2016.[6]
Miss Martian (M'gann M'orzz): One of the senior members of the Team. She has been offered membership of the Justice League, but has turned it down. She still has an open invitation to join the League.[46]
Superboy (Conner Kent/Kon-El): One of the senior members of the Team. He has been offered membership of the Justice League, but has turned it down. He still has an open invitation to join the League.[46]
Tigress (Artemis Crock): Part of the original team under the alias Artemis, she quit the Team to attend college with Kid Flash.[45] She later returned only to fake her death and start working undercover on a new mission as Tigress.[10] After Wally died saving the world, she decided to join the Team again, as Tigress.[6]
Nightwing (Dick Grayson) Following the death of Wally West, Nightwing decided to leave the Team citing "a leave of absence".[6] He rejoined the team on February 24, 2019.[12]
Aqualad (Kaldur'ahm): One of the founding members of the team and original leader. Left in December 2017 to join the Justice League as Aquaman.[60][61]
Batgirl/Oracle (Barbara Gordon): After being paralysed in January 2018,[63] Barbara left the Team, but took on the identity of Oracle, an expert computer hacker, and has continued to support the Team in that capacity.[64]
Beast Boy (Garfield Logan): He briefly rejoined the Team on November 6, 2018.[59] He later left again to form another team, the Outsiders, to inspire the public, give hope for meta-teens and to go against the restrictions placed by Lex Luthor.[67]
Kid Flash (Wally West): One of the founding members, he quit the hero life and left the Team.[45] He came out of temporary retirement to help Aqualad and Artemis finish their deep cover mission,[11] and stop the Reach invasion. He died saving the world.[6]
Red Arrow (Roy Harper's clone): Was offered a position in the Team as a founding member, but declined.[29]Green Arrow convinced him to briefly join the Team to set a good example before becoming a member of the Justice League.[15] Red Arrow took a leave of absence to look for Roy and being a dad.[85]
The Outsiders: are a part of the Team that operates on a public front, mostly consisting of more recognizable young heroes. Aquaman allows them to operate unaffiliated with the League, on the condition that they report covertly through Miss Martian.[67] The Outsiders later assist the Team by providing public cover against the BIF attack on the U.N. climate conference in Bwunda while the Team operates out of sight.[18]
The Justice League: is made up of the Team's mentors, and provides assistance should the Team need it, as well as supplying anything the Team needs.[2]
Batman: Batman is the supervisor of the Team and is responsible for briefing and deploying them on covert missions.[2]
Red Tornado: Red Tornado volunteered to stay at Mount Justice to watch over the Team as sort of "den-mother", or rather den robot. He has maintained that he will not interfere in the middle of a Team mission for support. After an attack on the Cave by his "siblings", Red Torpedo and Red Inferno, Red Tornado temporarily left the Team to pursue his creator, but returned after they found him, claiming he has grown fond of the Team.[81]
Black Canary: Black Canary works as the Team's hand-to-hand combat instructor and trainer.[2][79] She also acted as a third replacement "den-mother" for a week.[81] On one occasion she even took the role of counselor, after a disastrous psychic training exercise took place in which all six teenaged members of the Team were killed in action.[91]
Each member of the Team, as well as Red Arrow, has a membership number, which is read out when they use the Zeta-Tubes to enter the Cave located in Mount Justice. The first three designation numbers indicate the order in which the individual became active as a hero/protégé. B-04 and B-05 indicate the order of introduction to the other founders. Speedy, later Red Arrow, was given the designation of B-06 to indicate his open invitation, which he eventually, though briefly, accepted. B-07 and onward indicate the order in which they joined the Team.
The following designation numbers of the Team are known:
↑Although sometimes referred to by fans as "Young Justice" (based on the name of the series and the team from the older comic books after which the series is named), the group's name is simply "The Team," and it is referred to only as such within the series. Greg Weisman has confirmed that the group's official name is "The Team," since it is not a public team and doesn't require a "fancy name" (source). The blurb from the DVD releases, however, incorrectly refers to the team as "Young Justice."
