The Team[nb 1] is a teenage superhero team assigned to undertake covert operations on behalf of the Justice League.
The Team was based in Mount Justice, the original headquarters of the Justice League.[1] Following the mountain's destruction,[2] the Team briefly operated out of the Hall of Justice, before that too was destroyed. They then used a modified warehouse in Blüdhaven[3] and STAR LabsTaos[4] until the end of the Reach invasion, after which they operated from the Watchtower.[5]
Aqualad, who had taken charge during the Cadmus incident, acted as the leader of the Team,[6] though other members of the Team have acted as leader in situations where not all members are available for a mission.[7] As time passed, the ranks grew as more members of the Justice League introduced their young protégés or other young heroes to the Team.[8] Four years later, Nightwing became the new leader of the Team.[9] Aqualad resumed leadership of the Team after his mission to infiltrate the Light ended.[10]
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.[11]A year later, Green Arrow introduced Speedy as his partner.[12]
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. Kaldur became Aqualad.[13]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.[13]
Before the Cadmus incident, the four sidekicks knew each other; and Robin entrusted Kid Flash with his secret identity.[14] However, the four of them had never been together all at the same time.[15][16]
Last to take a protégé was Martian Manhunter. Miss Martian claimed she had won the right to become her uncle's sidekick after winning a competition on Mars,[11] though in reality, she stowed away aboard his ship after one of his trips to his home planet.[17]
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.[15] Cadmus's chief scientist, Mark Desmond, became Blockbuster in the hopes of destroying the intruders, but was defeated.[1]
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.[1] Batman asked for three days to plan things.[18]
Batman gathered the four in the old Justice League hideout inside Mount Justice. They would become a team, on Justice League's terms, handling covert ops missions. They were introduced to the fifth member of the Team, Miss Martian.[1]
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.[19]
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 he declined; he did change his opinion about the Team.[21]
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.[17]
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 who was the mole.[23] He eventually concluded there was none, and Sportsmaster deceived them.[24]
Icon's induction in the Justice League meant Rocket was added to the Team. Initially, she required a lot of information, though she quickly found her place.[25]
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.[25]
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.[26]
2011-2015
The Team underwent drastic change. Some left; some joined. Zatanna and Rocket graduated into the Justice League. Aqualad apparently defected from the Team,[27] but was in fact acting as a double agent to infiltrate the Light.[9]Nightwing assumed the role of leader, and declined membership of the League. Superboy and Miss Martian also decided to stay with the Team.[28]Kid Flash left the Team to attend college with Artemis.[29]
They started training a number of young heroes; thirteen members joined in four years time. This new format 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.[28]
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.[31]
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.[9]
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.[2]
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' "murder", discovering too late that it was all a ruse.[33]
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.[3]
When the Hall of Justice was sealed off by Despero, Mal donned Jim Harper's old Guardian costume to help fight the alien warrior.[3] He would keep the identity and officially join the Team.[34] Though Despero and his major domo L-Ron were defeated, the Hall of Justice was destroyed.[3]
Green Beetle and Blue Beetle claimed that Green had permanently silenced Blue's scarab.[4] In fact, Green had put it back on-mode, making Blue the Reach's slave.[35]
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.[36]
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.[38]
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. Batman informed the Team they would now operate from the Watchtower, side-by-side with the League.[5]
As of January 2016, there have been at least twenty-two members, past and present.[28] Some of them have died or left the Team, either to join the Justice League or for other reasons.[27][29]
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.[28]
Robin (Dick Grayson):[1] Was the most experienced crime fighter, yet youngest of the original Team. Robin is Batman's protégé and an expert in all things technology.[15]
Superboy (Conner Kent):[1] A genetic hybrid clone of Superman and Lex Luthor.[40] 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.[41]
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.[8]
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,[9] but once his mission was over he was reinstated as leader by Nightwing.[10]
Kid Flash (Bart Allen): After a failure to return to the future, he joined the Team as Impulse in March 2016.[2] Bart later assumed the mantle of Kid Flash after Wally's death in June 2016.[5]
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.[28]
Superboy (Conner Kent): 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.[28]
Tigress (Artemis Crock): Part of the original team, she quit the Team to attend college with Kid Flash.[29] She later returned only to fake her death and start working undercover on a new mission as Tigress.[9] After Wally died saving the world, she decided to join the Team again, as Tigress.[5]
Arsenal (Roy Harper): Joined shortly after his release from captivity.[34] He was dismissed for endangering the lives of his teammates for his own personal goals, and his lack of teamwork skills.[38] He was later invited to return, but declined, preferring to stay solo.[5]
Kid Flash (Wally West): one of the founding members, he quit the hero life and left the Team.[29] He came out of temporary retirement to help Aqualad and Artemis finish their deep cover mission,[10] and stop the Reach invasion. He died saving the world.[5]
Nightwing (Dick Grayson): The original Robin and former second-in-command 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.[28] Nightwing was the leader of the Team for a year, while Aqualad was on a deep-cover mission,[9] and stepped down when Aqualad returned.[10] Following the death of Wally West, Nightwing decided to leave the team citing "a leave of absence".[5]
Red Arrow (Roy Harper's clone): was offered a position in the Team as a founding member, but declined.[19]Green Arrow convinced him to briefly join the Team to set a good example before becoming a member of the Justice League.[23] He had been looking for the real Roy Harper for the last five years.[29]
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.[1]
Batman: Batman is the supervisor of the Team and is responsible for briefing and deploying them on covert missions.[1]
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.[43]
Black Canary: Black Canary works as the Team's hand-to-hand combat instructor and trainer.[1][41] She also acted as a third replacement "den-mother" for a week.[43] 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.[53]
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/protege. B04 and B05 indicate the order of introduction to the other founders. Speedy, later Red Arrow, was given the designation of B06 to indicate his open invitation, which he eventually, though briefly, accepted. B07 and onward indicate the order in which they joined the Team.
The following designation numbers of the Team are known:
↑Although known to fans as "Young Justice" (based on the name of the series and by comparison to the comic book team after whom the series is named) this term has never been used within the series itself. This team is referred to purely as "The Team". 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 refer to the Team as Young Justice.
