Young Justice (animation)

The original team from left to right: Artemis, Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian, Aqualad.

"Don't call them sidekicks."

—Tagline

Young Justice is an animated television series based on DC Comics, created by Greg Weisman (Gargoyles, The Spectacular Spider-Man, WITCH) and Brandon Vietti (Batman: Under the Red Hood, Superman: Doomsday, The Batman), produced by DC Entertainment and Warner Bros Animation, and distributed by Cartoon Network.

The first season follows a group of teenaged superheroes -- Robin (Jesse McCartney), Aqualad (Khary Payton), Kid Flash (Jason Spisak), Superboy (Nolan North) and Miss Martian (Danica McKellar), later joined by Artemis (Stephanie Lemelin), Zatanna (Lacey Chabert), and Rocket (Kali Troy) -- who are members of a covert operation team under the authority of the Justice League. The Team and the League battle a cabal of supervillains known as "The Light" and its minions, though the Light goes to great lengths to make sure the heroes never discover they exist as a single organization.

The second season is set five years later with an expanded Team of old and new members. The now-adult Robin, now known as Nightwing, is still on the Team as leader and mentor to the junior members -- the new Robin, Wonder Girl, Beast Boy, Lagoon Boy, Blue Beetle and others. Superboy and Miss Martian also remain as mentors, while other members have left the team, some to join the League itself.

Members of the show's creative team include Sam Register (Teen Titans, Ben 10, Batman the Brave And The Bold) as executive producer, Phil Bourassa (Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths) as lead character designer, Jamie Thomason (Gargoyles, |Hercules) as voice and casting director, and Geoff Johns overseeing the process as DC's Chief Creative Officer.

Despite sharing the title, it is not an direct adaptation of the comic book series of the same name created by Peter David, and the storyline with The Light is original to the show. However, it does draw material from Young Justice, Teen Titans and other DC Comics series, and David is one of the scriptwriters.

The series is set in a "young DC Universe", Earth-16 of the DC Multiverse, during an era informally dubbed by the Powers That Be as the New Age of Heroes. While the series follows an episodic format, there are multiple subplots and overall story arcs weaved throughout the episodes. Though the Team's missions are the main focus, their personal lives at home and school are explored as well. The series makes use of many, many characters from the wider DC Universe as the supporting cast, including characters which had never previously been animated.

The franchise consists of the cartoon series, a tie-in comic series (also called Young Justice) and an upcoming video game called Young Justice: Legacy, set for a 2013 worldwide release for the Nintendo DS/Wii, Play Station 3 and the Xbox 360.

The first two episodes were released as a special preview in November 2010. The series properly debuted in January 2011, but it underwent several delays and hiatuses over the year. Starting March 3rd, 2012, the show began airing again as part of Cartoon Network's new DC Nation block. The first season concluded on April 21. The show was renewed for a second season which started airing on April 28, and retitled Young Justice: Invasion. The series was cancelled by Cartoon Network in 2013 but due to a strong fan campaign and high viewership-ratings on Netflix, the series was officially renewed for a third season titled Young Justice: Outsiders by Warner Bros in November 2016 and start airing in 2018 on DC's new digital platform for a total amount of 26 episodes.

Has a Recap page and, in the grand tradition of the internet, the show has its own Wiki.

Tropes used in Young Justice (animation) include:

• Absentee Actor: Each member of the Team has been absent for at least one episode. Superboy has the most appearances out of all of them, although his reveal at the end of episode one is nonspeaking.
• Actor Allusion: Josh Keaton playing a webslinger in episode 23, referencing his roles in various Spider-Man productions.
• Adaptational Badass: So far, Mister Twister, Sportsmaster, and Count Vertigo have been given revamps that have turned them into real badasses as opposed to their lame comic book counterparts.
• Adaptation Distillation: Word of God has claimed that the purpose of the series is to distill the best portions of the DCU as a whole.
• Adaptation Dye Job: The Guardian sports red hair in the series despite traditionally being a blonde in the comics.
• Adult Fear: "Misplaced" explores the terrors of parents being separated from their children to children being endangered by the sudden disappearance of their parents. In the final act, Zatara is faced with a parent's ultimate fear - losing one's child to events beyond your control. Zatanna is similarly left to deal with losing her father by the episode's end, but in this case because of her own hasty decision.
• Adults Are Useless: Largely averted, but there are a few cases where this is played straight.
  • In "Humanity", the League (which includes Batman) is completely unsuccessful in tracking down Red Tornado despite weeks of effort. The Team proceeds to find him and foil the villain's plan inside of a day.
  • In "Failsafe" the entire League is defeated by the aliens without achieving any sort of victory, whereas the Team is then successful in running numerous offensive actions. The entire point of the training simulation was to see how the Team could cope after losing the League as support.
• Aerith and Bob: Atlantean names: Kaldur'ahm, La'gaan, Orin, Tula... and Garth.
• An Aesop:
  • "Secrets" is largely meant to convey the message that secrets, especially bad ones, have a way of coming to light eventually. Artemis, however, refuses to learn that lesson.
  • "Salvage" is deals with addiction and the way it destroys your life and relationships, although instead of literal drug addiction they use the metaphor of being obsessed with finding the original Speedy.
• Airplane Arms: Cheshire. Of the Ninja Run variety.
• Affably Evil: Lex Luthor is unfailingly polite at all times.
• Air Vent Passageway:
  • Subverted in the pilot. The Team did climb into the vents, but quickly dropped out of them back into a different hallway, hacking the surveillance computers to make the villains think they were using them to escape the building.
  • Played straight in "Homefront".
• The Alcatraz: Belle Reve, a supervillain penitentiary run by Amanda Waller, strong enough to contain Superman himself. They checked. At the end of "Terrors" it falls under the control of the Light, who forment an escape plot in order to remove Waller as warden and replace her with Dr. Hugo Strange, one of their agents.
• Alien Invasion:
  • The Team fights one in "Failsafe". Though it's not real, just a mentally-induced Unwinnable Training Simulation.
  • The main plot of the second season deals with a subtle and quiet invasion of the Earth by the Kroloteans, with mention of another species out there that might get in on the action.
• Aliens Speaking English: Played with in various ways.
  • When M'gann had her memory of arriving on Earth erased by Psimon in "Bereft" she initally thinks in the Martian language, and only switches to English when she realizes she's on Earth.
  • In "Happy New Year", Lobo shows up speaking solely in Interlac, which not even the audience can understand. However, he soon activates a belt device that translates most of his speech into English.
  • Adam Strange took weeks to even discover a means of communication when he was accidentally transported to the planet Rann. Miss Martian helps bridge the language gap during her visit with a psychic link. The team discovers she has been rendered unconscious when they can no longer understand each other.
  • The Krolotean language is unintelligible to everyone but Blue Beetle, whose armor has a Universal Translator. Other characters, and the audience, cannot understand the language even when Beetle is the one speaking it.
• Aliens Steal Cable:
  • When she deduces that she is on Earth after her memory has been erased, M'gann is extremely happy to finally be here, but is slightly disappointed that it is nothing like TV. We later learn that M'gann's human appearance and mannerisms are based off of a short-lived sitcom called Hello Megan!
  • Serafin, one of the Forever People who lives on distant New Genesis, is said to be a big fan of Westerns. Thus, he wields a pair of revolvers that fire Depleted Phlebotinum Shells.
• All Just a Dream: "Failsafe". However, unlike most uses of this trope the events are shown to have lasting traumatic effects on the Team.
• All of the Other Reindeer: The other villains in Belle Reve prison constantly bully The Riddler, and will not let him eat lunch with them. He gets the last laugh when he is the only one to actually escape in the breakout attempt.
• All There in the Manual: The tie-in comic gives us background information on characters, explaining how certain team members came to become the proteges' of their respective mentors, and additional information on missions.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: "Homefront".
• All Your Powers Combined:
  • The android A.M.A.Z.O. can copy the powers of all people he encounters and use them at will, though he can only access one power set at a time.
  • In "Disordered," the five Forever People merge into the massive and powerful Infinity Man.
  • In "Performance", Parasite used multiple abilities stolen from circus performers to commit his crimes. By the end, he's stolen both Superboy and Miss Martian's powers, and uses them in tandem to fight the Team.
• Alliterative Name: A given as this IS DC Comics, though it is Lampshaded in "Targets" when Megan Morse and Conner Kent introduce themselves. When Wendy and Marvin hear Conner and Megan's names, Marvin makes a joke about "double alliteration, I like it". Wendy is voiced by Masasa Moyo, and Marvin is portrayed by Nolan North.
• Almost Kiss:
  • Between Superboy and Miss Martian in "Downtime", of the "It's still too soon for a Relationship Upgrade" variety and again in "Bereft".
  • Cheshire seems like she is going kiss Red Arrow between her cell bars in "Targets", but it turns out she was just distracting him so he did not notice she was being broken out, which he does notice when she pulls away, ducks down, and he hears the timer of a charge from the other side of the prison wall.
• Alternate Continuity: The series takes place early during the Second Age of Heroes on Earth-16 of the DC Multiverse.
• Always Save the Girl: When attacked on his crosscountry run to bring a new heart to a young girl in need of a transplant, Kid Flash decides to stop fighting Vandal Savage in order to finish delivering the heart. Unfortunately, the fifteen minutes it took him to realize that his fight was delaying his delivery was too long, as the young girl died twelve minutes before his arrival. At least, that was the story told to Kid Flash by the henchman who wanted to steal the heart to keep it from getting to the girl at all.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: With their memories of the past six months erased, Superboy is a mindless berserker (he has not been alive that long), Kid Flash & Artemis begin to mildly flirt (as opposed to their normal interactions), and Artemis believes that she is probably here because her father ordered her to kill Kid Flash.
• And I Must Scream: T.O. Morrow turns off Red Tornado's motor functions, powers and voice, leaving him a motionless shell that nonetheless can see, hear and think about everything Morrow is doing.
• And Your Little Dog, Too: Almost word-for-word.

Desaad: "Kill the boy, and his little dog, too."

• Angst? What Angst?: Becomes a plotpoint in-universe in "Failsafe" at least until Artemis's "death". In "Disordered", Conner feels intense guilt because he didn't angst one bit during "Failsafe".
• Apocalypse How: Red Volcano attempts a Class 1.
• Apologetic Attacker: Aqualad apologises to mind-controlled Aquaman after having to knock him unconscious.
• Are We Getting This?: When Cheshire attempts to assasinate Lex Luthor with an RPG, but is foiled by Red Arrow, reporter Cat Grant desperately asks her camerman if he got the shot.
• Are We There Yet?: Klarion in "Denial".
• Arm Cannon: Mercy Graves comes with one in this continuity, which impresses both North and South Rhelasia enough to get them talking peace if they can get access to the technology.
• Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Superboy explicitly states that, with his powers, he is always in control of a fight and always has the advantage. Black Canary teaches him the error of his ways.
• Arrow Catch: The Flash, under mind-control, does this with Artemis' arrows. She compensates by aiming an explosive arrow at the floor.
• Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: After a recon mission goes wildly out of control, Batman berates the Team for going against his orders... and then congratulates them for saving the day anyway and praising them for reacting well when the initial plan did not work.
• Art Shift: During Topo's story in "Downtime."
• Artistic License Geology: Yellowstone is indeed a super-volcano capable of depopulating North America and generally threatening humanity. However, the series presents it as a single, slightly-larger-than-average volcano. The Yellowstone caldera, in reality, encompasses all of Yellowstone and is the size of the state of Connecticut.
• Artificial Gill: One of the many things Robin (and likely Batman by extension) has in his Utility Belt. After nearly drowning two missions in a row, Artemis also begins carrying them.
• Artificial Human/Robot Girl:
  • This universe's version of Mercy Graves. She even has a very powerful Arm Cannon.
  • Red Inferno and Red Torpedo used to look (and think they were) human as part of T.O. Morrow's plan to have them destroy the community of superheroes from within. Red Tornado was constructed to always look like, and know he was, a robot, but he built an android body of his own so he could interact with humans as John Smith.
• As You Know:
  • In episode 14, "Revelation," after the initial giant plant attack the members of the Team together sum up the interconnected events of the earlier episodes.
  • In "Happy New Year," the first episode after the Time Skip, Lagoon Boy is sparring with Nightwing and, upon his defeat, explains (to Nightwing) Nightwing's history as Robin in order to make sure that viewers understand he changed costumed identities during the skip.
  • In "Alienated," M'gann speaks this exact phrase before explaining the mystery of of the "missing 16 hours" six members of the League lost while under Vandal Savage's mind control just before the Time Skip.
• Ascended Meme: Tie-in comics suggest The Flaming C is a TV show in Earth-16, with one kid dressed as The Flaming C during "Secrets."
• Attack! Attack! Retreat! Retreat!: A massive group of aliens is attacking our heroes! Wait, what's that? Blue Beetle's with them? Retreat! Evacuate the base! Alien women and children first! Activate the Self-Destruct Mechanism!
• Attack Drone: The Air Force of Bialya fields a large force of unmaned drones, allowing Miss Martian multiple opportunities for some nice casualty-free explosions.
• Attack Pattern Alpha: "Maneuver Seven" is used repeatedly, which involves one of the Team helping launch another member at the enemy.
• Attractive Bent Gender: Kid Flash can not help but admire Miss Martian's Rule 63 impersonation of him.
• Badass Boast: Episode "Terrors" offers us two interesting subversions:

Amanda Waller: Belle Reve's walls are thick enough to hold Superman. We know - we've checked. No one's ever escaped Belle Reve. No one ever will.
The Riddler: No one can say the Riddler goes where he's not wanted.

• Bad Future: "Bloodlines". The world is devastated forty years into the future, with Mount Justice a blasted crater. Impulse traveled back in time to avert it, but at the end of the episode the wasteland remains.
• Bare Your Midriff: Artemis.
• Bash Brothers: Toyed with. Sportsmaster and Cheshire have amazing combat synergy with one another, but do not like each other one bit.
• Batman Cold Open: A staple of the show. Many episodes, including the pilot, open with the Team just completing a mission before meeting up with members of the Justice League.
• Batman Gambit:
  • The entire pilot is one by Dubbilex, in order to free Superboy, the Genomorphs, and Cadmus from control of The Light.
  • In "Targets", Lex Luthor and Ra's Al Ghul pull one off to get this universe's versions of North and South Rhelesia united under Lexcorp's -- and by extension the Light's -- "guidance".
  • Kid Flash pulls this off in "Coldhearted." He realizes that Count Vertigo will always be a threat so long as he has diplomatic immunity and decides to fake the queen's death to make Vertigo think he was untouchable and admit to his attempts at killing her.
• Battle Couple:
  • Superboy and Miss Martian after "Terrors".
  • Artemis and Kid Flash get together in "Auld Acquaintance."
  • Five years later Miss Martian is now one with Lagoon Boy.
  • In "Bloodlines," Roy and Jade. And they brought their infant daughter along.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: M'gann and Psimon have a pitched battle within her mind at the end of "Bereft" and then again in "Image". The second one leaves him in a coma for five years. When they meet for a third battle, Icicle, Jr. points out that Psimon does not have a good track record against her.
• Beach Episode: "Infiltrator" includes a Beach Opening Scene, complete with loving shots of Miss Martian in a two piece swimsuit and the guys shirtless.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In "Misplaced", Zatanna told Artemis that she wished her Overprotective Dad would give her some space, and he (and the rest of the adults) disappears right then. At the end of the episode, Zatara sacrifices himself so Nabu wouldn't possess his daughter. She may never get her father back.
• Becoming the Mask: The first three Reds built by T.O. Morrow (Torpedo, Inferno, and Tornado) were all intended to infiltrate the superhero societies of their time (The Justice Society of America and the later Justice League) and destroy them from within, but all three instead decided to be heroes in truth. Red Torpedo and Red Inferno eventually die protecting humanity, since even if they were never human they were always heroes.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Kid Flash and Artemis, lampshaded by Robin in "Bereft", which saw the entire team suffer amnesia. With their memories gone, the duo spend the first half of the episode flirting with one another. The moment they get their memories back, it returns to bickering. It seems to die down once both realize Conner and M'gann are dating.
• Betty and Veronica:
  • Miss Martian serves as a Betty and Artemis a Veronica for Superboy. Superboy evenutally picks M'gann during the Relationship Upgrade in "Terrors".
  • Kid Flash serves as a Betty and Superboy a Veronica for Miss Martian. M'gann chooses Superboy in "Terrors".
• Beware the Nice Ones: M'gann is usually a very sweet and heroic character. But if you try to force her to confront her Dark Secret; you might just find yourself in a coma, like what happened to Psimon in "Image".
• Big Bad Duumvirate:
  • The Light, which consists of Vandal Savage, Lex Luthor, Ocean Master, Queen Bee, Klarion the Witch Boy, Ra's Al Ghul and The Brain.
  • As of season two, Black Manta has taken Ocean Master's place, after the latter suffered an unspecified "disgrace".
• Big Badass Wolf: Superboy has one as a pet.
• Big Damn Kiss:
  • Between Miss Martian and Superboy in "Terrors".
  • Between Kid Flash and Artemis, then Robin and Zatanna for New Years in the first season finale.
• Big Eater: Wally. He manages to empty an entire bucket of ice cream within a few seconds at Jay Garrick's birthday party. Justified considering how many calories he burns running at the ridiculous speed he does.
• Big Good: The Justice League itself, which the characters frequently mention as possible support when it looks like the situation is something they can not handle themselves.
• Bilingual Bonus: In "Misplaced", Klarion and four other Evil Sorcerers all chant a spell by saying "Wir sind die Pfeifer von Hameln" meaning "We are the whistlers of Hamelin", in reference to The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
• Biological Mashup: Intergang uses an Apokoliptian device to merge four dead Appellaxian host bodies (large, Golem-like creatures formerly animated by energy beings) into one living one.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • "Denial" has Kent Nelson befriending Kid Flash but Kent Nelson sacrifices himself so Kid Flash does not have to be Doctor Fate, meaning Kent Nelson has to wait longer to be reunited with his wife. On the plus side, the Team managed to survive fighting Klarion.
  • "Failsafe" ends with the League alive and the Team rescued from their comas, but M'gann is emotionally traumatized and weeping over what she put the Team through by accident, and the others are heavily shaken by what they've experienced.
  • "Misplaced" ends with the kids and adults of the world reuniting happily with each other after being separate from each other by magic, but Zatanna loses her father, Zatara, who becomes Doctor Fate because he does not want his daughter to be possessed by Nabu.
  • "Image" ends with Qurac being saved from being forcibly taken over by Queen Bee's nation, Bialya, which is ruled under Bee's strict regime. Garfield Logan's life is also saved after he was nearly killed. Unfortunately, M'gann is too scared to let anyone know about her being a White Martian and so Queen Bee blackmails M'gann, after planting a post-hypnotic suggestion so Garfield will harm himself if anything happens to Queen Bee.
  • "Beneath" has Miss Martian, Bumblebee, Batgirl, and Wonder Girl stop Queen Bee's minions from kidnapping a bunch of people and shipping them off to wherever. Except that was only one batch. They still have another, and Jaime's friend Tye is part of it.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Martians age about three times more slowly than humans do. So, while Miss Martian has the physical and mental maturity of a sixteen-year-old, she's really forty-eight in Earth years. And that's not even getting into her abilities...
• Blackmail: Queen Bee threatens to reveal Miss Martian's Dark Secret that she's really a White Martian if M'gann does not cooperate with her. Falls apart when M'gann reveals it to the Team herself.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Artemis trying to explain to Robin why she's in Gotham, when he clearly knows who she is.
  • The Team's taunts when captured in various deathtraps:

Kid Flash: You think Miss Martian is afraid of fire? She's bluffing! Do you have any idea how hot it gets in the caves of Mars?
Superboy: And you can't drown me! I'm a Kryptonian! We don't breathe air!

• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead:
  • A male version of the trope is in the pilot episode where the initial three team members are Aqualad (Blond), Robin (Brunet), and Kid Flash (Redhead).
  • With the addition of Zatanna in "Humanity", the Team gained a female set of Artemis (Blonde), Zatanna (Brunette) and Miss Martian (Redhead).
  • Season two gives a new set with Wonder Girl (Blonde), Bumblebee (Brunette) and Batgirl (Redhead).
• Blush Sticker: Miss Martian gets these after a compliment from Superboy. Or after he takes his shirt off.
• Body Horror:
  • Blockbuster's transformation involves his skin ripping off. When Kid Flash tries the "got your nose" trick, he does it literally.
  • Episode 4, "Drop Zone," takes it up a notch with the Blockbuster/Venom compound by having exposed muscle tissue. This is revisited in "Alpha Male", only with animals exposed to the compound this time and looking about as horrific as before.
• Book Ends: The episode "Insecurity" has opening and closing scenes taking place at night, in a bedroom, between a father and daughter, with the dads even calling their daughters by the term of endearment, "baby girl". While Mr. Jones was likely sincere in his affection towards his daughter, Sportsmaster's use of the term was straight up psychological manipulation; attempting to regress Artemis back to when he could dominate her will.
• Bookcase Passage: Played very straight in "Homefront". Lampshaded no less:

Robin: There's a secret passage behind one of these bookcases.
Artemis: Seriously? Cliche much?
Robin: You should see the Batcave...

• Bound and Gagged:
  • Used to neutralize Zatanna's vocal powers in "Secrets".
  • The Riddler is bound and gagged by an annoyed Zatanna in "Usual Suspects".
  • Used to neutralize Black Canary in "Auld Acquaintance".
• Brainwashed and Crazy/Mind Control:
  • The Guardian and Superboy suffered from this in the first episode.
  • In the final episode of Season One, it happens to the entire Justice League.
• Break the Cutie:
  • "Failsafe" is an entire episode dedicated to breaking Miss Martian and, in the next episode, revealed that it had broken Robin as well.
  • Zatanna in "Misplaced".
  • "Image" revealed Miss Martian's Dark Secret and revealed just how deeply the truth had scarred her.
• Brick Joke: In "Humanity" the kids tell Captain Marvel that they will join him outside to play with Wolf, but instead they run off on a mission. At the end of the episode he runs back into the base and asks if the kids are coming outside or not.
• Broad Strokes: The show draws material from Young Justice, Teen Titans, and other parts of the DC mythos.
• Broken Aesop: The Forever People claim that Superboy has no right to keep the New Genisphere because he views it as a possession, whereas on New Genesis she is recognized as a living, intelligent being. When Superboy protests, pointing out that he does accept the Sphere as alive, the Forever People give her to him; despite pointing out how important it is to respect the Sphere's intelligence and wishes, at no point do they ask what the Sphere wants to do.
• Broken Bird: Artemis, but she is slowly getting better.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Superboy and M'gann.
• Brown Note: The Apokoliptian reanimation machine in "Salvage" emits a signal which causes Blue Beetle great pain, evidently because the technology isn't compatible with the Scarab.
• Brought to You by The Letter "S":
  • Robin's costume has a stylized "R" over his left breast.
  • Superboy's costume, like his projenitor's, has the S-shield on his chest.
  • In "Bereft" the insignia on the uniforms and tanks of the Bialyan soldiers is an Arabic letter B.
  • Wonder Girl, who joins the cast in season two, sports a stylized "W" on her shirt.
• Bus Crash: Tula/Aquagirl and Marie Logan, Beast Boy's mother, were both killed in the five-year Time Skip seperating seasons one and two.
• Bus Full of Innocents: A recurring trope during crises in the show. For some reason, rickety bridges seem to be a magnet for trouble and buses.
• But Not Too Black:
  • Aqualad has blond hair and gray eyes. Averted for his counterpart in DC Comics, who is based on his appearance in this series, where he has dark hair and eyes.
  • Artemis is bi-racial, with naturally blonde hair despite her Vietnamese mother. Greg Weisman says this is based on a girl he knows who is half-Korean and has naturally blonde hair.
• Call a Human a Meatbag:
  • Red Volcano dismisses the Team as worthless humans. Superboy and Miss Martian both protest that they aren't human, so Volcano surmises that "meatbag" would make a better blanket term. It is later applied affectionately to Red Tornado when the group discuss how he's becoming humanized through interaction with them.
  • The Competitor Warrior in season 2 calls humans "Meat". Strangely, this seems to be part of Impulse's Future Slang, as he refers to "the meat at Comic Con" at one point.
• Call Back:
  • Robin observes in the pilot episode that people are always overwhelmed or underwhelmed, but never simply "whelmed." He makes the same observation again in "Bereft", unaware that he has made it before due to a six-month Mind Wipe. He says it again in "Misplaced", advising Zatanna to try to stay whelmed when her father vanishes with the other adults. Since then, members of the team refer to being "whelmed" so often it is almost a catch phrase.
  • In "Usual Suspects", Batman asks the Team if "this sounds familiar" as he dresses them down for hacking League systems and ignoring protocol, ending in the successful capture of several villains and revealing a hidden plot against the League. This, of course, is exactly what happened in the pilot.
  • The second season premiere ends in much the same way as the pilot: three kid superheroes rescue innocents from a secret underground facility, and watch in awe as the entire Justice League, initally silhouetted against the moon, comes to greet them. Both scenes even have the same music.
  • The mission in "Alienated" has a few parallels to the mission in "Drop-Zone." They're both recon missions to an island that the team enters in different drop-zones, with the Atlantean members going through the water beneath. This is probably how Kaldur was able to spot the team and Leaguers so quickly. Both missions go off the rails, though our heroes manage all right. "Drop-Zone" is also the episode that establishes Aqualad as reluctant leader of the team and Robin as the probable future leader. "Alienated" has two face-offs between current leader Nightwing and former leader Aqualad.
• Calling Your Attacks: Amazo announces the name of the superhero whose ability he is about to duplicate.
• The Cameo:
  • Wendy, Marvin and Snapper Carr all appear as supporting characters at Superboy and Miss Martian's school.
  • "Homefront" introduced Barbara Gordon and Bette Kane as two of Artemis' classmates.
  • "Humanity" had flashbacks to Golden Age heroes Alan Scott, Wildcat, Sandman, Firebrand and Red Torpedo.
• Canon Immigrant: As of Brightest Day #4, Aqualad is now a dread-locked black kid called Jackson Hyde (Kaldur'ahm is his Atlantean name), living in New Mexico, making his status in Young Justice official canon. Greg Weisman said that he, Vietti, and Phil Bourassa -- lead character designer of the show -- created the character, but Geoff Johns liked the new Aqualad so much that he wanted to bring him over to main continuity.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: His immigration actually happened before Young Justice even aired.
• Can't Kill You - Still Need You: When their control over the Justice League is broken, Vandal Savage tells Klarion to retreat. Klarion argues that he could beat the Team given the chance, but Savage counters that he'd probably destroy the Watchtower in doing so, and they need the League alive for the next phase of their plan.
• Carnival of Killers: "Infiltrator"
• Catch Phrase:
  • "Hello, Megan!"
  • "Souvenir!" usually towards the end of the episode, spoken by Kid Flash.
  • Beast Boy has "Noted."
• Character Development:
  • Over the course of the series, Superboy is learning to work with his teammates and accept their own personal strengths and weaknesses. He is particularly learning to appreciate their skills in relation to his own, understanding that having super strength does not automatically make him superior.
  • Aqualad emerges as the leader of the Team, although he claims it is only until Robin is ready for the position, after everybody gets in each others way trying to take charge. "Downtime" focued on his conflicting loyalties, and divided attention, between Atlantis and the surface world, as well as his final realization that, whatever he decides, he has to commit completely. The climax of "Alpha Male" has him cementing his place as the leader in the face of criticism from his teammates. This doesn't stop him from pulling a Face Heel Turn in the Time Skip between Seasons 1 and 2.
  • Red Arrow is starting to defrost. A little. He gets a big helping of humble pie at the end of season one, which unfortunately prompts a whole lot of self-hatred.
  • Artemis learns to trust her team, and become more relaxed, eventually retiring from hero-ing with her boyfriend Wally, who has also matured.
  • Miss Martian becomes more sure of herself and less submissive, eventually stepping into a leader roll in season 2. Unfortunately, she also seems to have become a little grey in morality terms, with a willingness to Mind Rape enemies.
  • By the time Season 2 rolls around, all the team members from Season 1 have become more "professional" when heroing is involved.
• Character Focus: According to Word of God, episodes 3-8 are focused on a particular member of the Team -- "Happy Harbor" was M'gann, "Drop Zone" was Robin, "Schooled" was Superboy, "Infiltrator" was Artemis, "Denial" was Kid Flash, and "Downtime" was Aqualad. Red Arrow gets his own in "Targets"
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The arrow Robin picks up and Kid Flash saves as a souvenir in "Schooled" becomes critical to the plot of "Homefront."
  • Dr. Fate's helmet from "Denial" becomes a key point in "Revelation" and returns in "Misplaced" but in "Misplaced" it does not come off.
  • Garfield Logan received a blood transfusion from from Miss Martian, with a focus on his new eye color at the close of the episode. By season two, he has gained shapeshifting powers and joined the Team as Beast Boy.
• Child Soldiers:
  • The Team becomes a black ops unit for the Justice League. The Light quickly realizes the implications of this, and it is brought up and Lampshaded repeatedly, most memorably by an almost exasperated Mr. Twister when Robin protests that they are not children while he curb stomps them.

Mr. Twister: "Objectively, you are. Have you no adult supervision? I find your presence here quite disturbing."

• • When discussing the possibility of adding new members to the Justice League, Batman supports keeping Captain Marvel in the League, despite the reveal that he is actually only ten years old. Wonder Woman finds his support less than reassuring since he indoctrinated Robin into crimefighting at nine. Batman explains that he did that to Robin in order to keep Robin from turning out like himself.
• Children Raise You: Red Tornado reveals that while he was chosen as the Team's den mother because he had no secret identity double life to live, he grew to relish the activity as a way of learning how to act more human, since the Justice League are far too controlled and stiff to be a good representation of human interaction.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Gamma Squad in the first episode of the second season. Composed of Robin, Blue Beetle, and Lagoon Boy.
• Clark Kenting: No one on the Team (except Kid Flash) knows Robin's identity and when he is in civilian attire around them he uses a pair of sunglasses to keep them from seeing his face.
• Clear My Name: In season two, the six members of the Justice League that had been sent off-world by Vandal Savage accept a trial to prove that they were not responsible.
• Cloning Blues:
  • Superboy, being only 16 weeks old at the time of the series, but physically around his mid-teens. When discussing adding new members to the League, the adult characters discuss the issues that arise from the conflict between his biological and chronological age, and the problems stemming therefrom.
  • The first season finale reveals that the Red Arrow we have seen throughout the entire show's run is actually a clone of the real one, replaced three years before the show even began. He does not take this revelation well.
• Clothing Damage:
  • In "Bereft," after Superboy loses his memory he rips the "S" insignia off his shirt when M'gann (also suffering amnesia) wonders if he is Superman. Superboy does not have a super suit so this happens to him a lot.
  • In "Targets", Aqualad's tracksuit gets blown off by Cheshire's bomb, explosing his costume underneath.
• Combat Stilettos: Averted. Zatanna, whose normal costume includes raised heels, comments that her shoes were not made for 'chase scenes' and uses magic to change them to flat sole shoes.
• Comic Book Time: T.O. Morrow was building robotic infiltrators to destroy the Justice Society of America back during World War II, and is still building robotic infiltrators to destroy the Justice League. It turns out T.O. Morrow is actually a bed-ridden, decrepit old man, who built a robotic version of himself to continue his work.
• Compilation Movie: Independence Day was advertised as such.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like:
  • Dr. Roquette never stopped snarking while being rescued and protected.
  • When the Team makes a detour to rescue a woman and her son from a stampede caused by an invasion force, the woman points out that their interference will likely draw a stronger reprisal. Superboy also injured one of the animals. Nevertheless, she is thankful for the assistance.
• Composite Character:
  • Artemis. Arrowette and Tigress III (Artemis Crock) in one, with the motivations of Stephanie Brown (Spoiler/Robin IV/Batgirl).
  • Red Inferno, who was originally known as the heroine Firebrand before being destroyed and rebuilt. In the comics, they are two separate characters with absolutely no relation.
  • The Golden Age and modern versions of Red Torpedo were also combined into one character.
  • Queen Bee is based off the 80's JLI incarnation, but possesses the mind-control powers of the Silver Age original.
  • Klarion the Witch Boy is a composite of Klarion the Witch Boy (duh) and a Lord of Chaos known as The Child.
  • While Match uses many elements from the comic character of the same name, the black sclera and Superman-logo carved into his own chest are taken from Superboy Prime's design, and the explanation for his mental instability and backwards S from versions of Bizarro.
• Conflicting Loyalty: In "Downtime", Aqualad is torn between being on the Team and Atlantis (in particular, his crush Tula).
• Continuity Nod:
  • "Denial" shows that Kid Flash actually has a room full of shelves where he keeps the 'souvenirs' he picks up every episode. The shelf reappears in many following episodes, each time with more and more souvenirs. In Season 2, Beast Boy continues this tradition.
  • Artemis is placed in danger of drowning in the episodes "Homefront," "Alpha Male" and "Revelation," which each aired one week after the other. In each near-drowning she complains at how frequently it occurs, finally revealing that she now carries artificial gills because of what has happened.
  • In "Revelation" The Helm of Nabu is used as a last resort in the battle against the Injustice League to allow Aqualad to become Dr. Fate. Kid Flash worried that Nabu would not let Aqualad free, as he had earlier threatened to do to Kid Flash in "Denial". Later, in "Misplaced" the Helm of Nabu is used again in another desperate situation, ultimately resulting in Giovanni Zatara becoming the new Dr. Fate permanently to spare his daughter Zatanna.
  • In "Schooled", each of the Team's members were given motorcycles as part of an undercover mission, and Conner eventually abandoned his after gaining the Super-Cycle in "Disordered". Conner's motorcycle reappeared in "Secrets", where it was used by Zatanna.
  • In "Schooled", Superboy says "I hate monkeys" when fighting robot ones. He repeats this when encountering all kinds of simians, including the villainous Monsieur Mallah and Ultra-Humanite and a normal pet monkey. In season 2 Superboy fights alongside Beast Boy, who shape-shifts into a gorilla (and whose default form is a monkey-boy), softening his stance toward monkeys.
  • In "Misplaced," Kid Flash explains to Artemis that Dr. Fate previously defeated Klarion the Witch Boy by attacking Teek'l, his cat familiar ("Denial").
  • During a mission, Kid Flash suffers a broken arm and not until several episodes later does the cast come off.
  • The South Rhelasian Prime Minister from Season 1 has become Secretary-General of the United Nations in Season 2.
• Continuous Decompression: Aqualad, Artemis, and Kid Flash decompress the Watchtower cargo bay to beat Aquaman, Green Arrow, and the Flash. The resulting suction effect knocks them off their feet, then Aqualad shuts their door so they slam into it instead of getting dumped into space.
• Convection, Schmonvection:
  • The lava in Doctor Fate's tower was only a danger on direct contact with it (well, not to Superboy, but he lost his favorite boots to it). Aqualad and Miss Martian were fazed by its presence, but only because they are particularly vulnerable to heat. Of course, it's then discussed when a floor closes over the lava pit at the last second, and the Team is amazed that they're not frying just from standing on the floor inches above a lava pit. Hey, it's magic.
  • In "Humanity", the Team battles Red Volcano in the middle of an active lava flow with no negative affects until Volcano causes a flame bloom right next to M'gann.
• Cool Big Sis: Miss Martian becomes this to Beast Boy in the second season.
• Cool Bikes:
  • All of the Team had them in "Schooled".
  • Sphere can turn into one.
  • Zatanna and Artemis had them in "Secrets". Harm blew them up.
• Cool Mask:
  • Cheshire wears a stylized mask reminiscent of her namesake. It's full of cool ninja gadgetry like thermal goggles and a rebreather of course.
  • Sportmaster sports a particularly menacing hockey mask.
• Cool Starship:
  • Miss Martian owns one, which serves as the Team's main transport.
  • John Stewart's ring creates a very spiffy interstellar transport vessel at the end of "Alienated".
• Covered in Gunge: Superboy ends up on the receiving end of this when he's helping Miss Martian cook, and she tosses ingredients at him faster than he can catch.
• Crazy Enough to Work: In "Humanity," the Team reasons that Batman would have used every rational method possible to find T.O. Morrow, so they have to come up with a really stupid idea. Fortunately, Wally had one (interrogating Morrow's rival, Professor Ivo... which actually is not a crazy plan at all.)
• Creator Cameo: Greg Weisman voices Snapper Carr.
• Creepy Child: Greta Hayes, aka "Secret". Also, Klarion the Witch Boy.
• Crossover: With Conan O'Brien... sort of. The WB lets Conan use clips from the Young Justice series, with a character in each sequence edited out and replaced by Conan's alter ego, the Flaming C. (So far, across multiple clips, he's replaced Superman, Batman, Dr. Fate, Superboy, and Aqualad.)
• Culture Clash:
  • Aqualad has to tell Miss Martian to tone down the casual telepathy which, whilst common on Mars, is an invasion of privacy on Earth. Later, Black Canary also has to explain to Megan that on Earth, taking on the form of another person and snogging while dressed as them can lead to bad situations.
  • As time goes by the team adopts the Martian attitude on casual telepathy to the point where others have to tell them it is rude to be having a psychic conversation that excludes other people in the same room.
• Curb Stomp Battle:
  • The series opens with Robin, Aqualad, Speedy and Kid Flash each facing their own ice-themed villain and defeating them with ease, some might even say contempt, with their only concern being that the fight will make them late for their meeting with the Justice League. In "Terrors", Batman notes that they seemed to have been taken down just a little too easily, and the Team eventually discovers that they were planning to all get captured and sent to Belle Reve so they could stage a mass-breakout.
  • When Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Robin free Superboy in the pilot, he soundly beats all three of them unconscious within a minute.
  • When Black Canary is introduced as the Team's combat trainer both Kid Flash and Superboy believe their powers will give them the easy advantage over her. She defeats them both, knocking each to the ground with only a single move.
  • Bane is on the receiving end of two in "Drop Zone". In the first he manages to land precisely one totally ineffective punch on Mammoth who then proceeds to wipe the floor with him and in the second his master plan to blow up the YJ team ends with him being disarmed by Kid Flash, immobilized by Miss Martian and punched into the middle of next week by Superboy.
  • Red Arrow gets one from the tag team of Sportsmaster and Cheshire in "Targets".
• Curse Cut Short: From "Secrets". Doubles as an Oh Crap moment.

Harm: *notices the gas running from the stove, then Artemis' arrow lighting up in hand* Oh, that little-

• Cursed with Awesome: Due to being a clone, Superboy will never visibly age. Alanna points out that means Conner will always be good looking, but Superboy still views it as a negative. Also lampshaded by Superboy:

Superboy: Standard blessing and curse.

• Cute Machines: The robo-sphere from "Bereft."
• Danger Room Cold Open: One episode incorporates one of these as its entire plot. The Team (and therefore the viewer) doesn't know that it's fake due to the emotional distress of their psychic teammate.
• Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday: Wally goes on his first solo mission on his 16th birthday.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Artemis.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • "Failsafe," though it treated the initial defeats with a lack of gravitas, followed the team as they were slowly defeated and killed off one by one, although it was just a simulation.
  • "Secrets" was quite a large departure from the rest of the series due to its very dark ending. Specifically, the Villain of the Week murdered his own sister to gain supernatural powers. The sister's ghost could only say the word "secret", and Artemis and Zatanna find out at the end that "secret" was the very last word she saw when she died. It was also the series' Halloween episode.
  • The second season in general seems to be much darker than the first.
• Dark Reprise: The Young Justice: Invasion opening music is nearly identical to the original, but ends with a foreboding low tone compared to the original's upbeat, heroic theme.
• Dark Secret:
  • Artemis doesn't want anyone finding out about her family's ties to villainy, to the point where she let Cheshire escape to keep it a secret.
  • M'gann is terrified of everyone finding out that her true form is, to human eyes, monstrous-looking. She psi-blasted her own team and blamed it on Psimon to prevent them finding out.
• Darkskinned Blonde: Aqualad.
• Dating Catwoman: Red Arrow and Cheshire. The two eventually marry.
• Day in the Life: "Downtime," sort of, in that it focuses on the characters' home lives instead of any sort of mission. (Though Kaldur's A-plot winds up including a big battle anyway.)
• Dead Line News: In "Failsafe", this happens to Iris West-Allen. Fortunately, it wasn't real.
• Death by Irony:
  • Poachers shot dead by a gorilla with a machine gun.
  • Red Volcano was dropped into a volcano.
• Defusing the Tykebomb: Aqualad was the one to break through to Superboy and convince him to help them escape.
• Die Hard on an X: The episode "Homefront" features Robin and Artemis, the Team Badass Normals, on the run from superpowered elemental androids while trying to rescue the rest of their team.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Defied by Nightwing in "Beneath". When Batgirl claims he would never try to justify sending an all-male team on a mission ^[1], Nightwing nervously responds that there's no right way to answer that and closes the channel.
• Diplomatic Impunity: Apparently, diplomatic immunity means that you can not go to jail for teaming up with villains like The Joker and unleashing giant mutant plants upon the world, so long as your country of origin isn't affected.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set:
  • The Injustice League broadcasts their ransom demand ($10 billion) across all the world's satellite signals.
  • Robin hijacks the world's television signals to give an inspiring speech to humanity after the League is defeated in "Failsafe."
  • In "Misplaced," the Team sends a message to the kids of the world to reassure them that somebody is looking for the adults, and that they need to work together until their parents come back.
• Does Not Like Shoes: Both Aquaman and Aqualad go barefoot in costume, but when Aqualad is in civvies he wears sandals.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • The history of Rhelasia, as well as the name of North Rhelesia's leader, is based on Korea's history prior to the Korean War and Syngman Rhee, the first president of South Korea. The uniforms of the North Rhelasian soldier bodyguards are based on the uniforms worn by Korean People's Army soldiers.
  • The first we see of Red Arrow after the Time Skip, he looks like he has not shaved nor combed his hair in a while, stumbles and falls while ziplining from roof to roof, and is shown taking some of the money he stopped a robber from stealing. His comic incarnation was a former heroic addict, with this depiction matching a person currently, or recently, in an altered mental state from drug use.
• A Dog Named "Dog":
  • Wolf, the giant wolf
  • Also, a cybernetic sphere, named Sphere.
  • Garfield Logan owns a pet monkey named Monkey, which Conner refers to as a good name, before mentioning his hatred of monkeys.
• Domestic Abuse: Heavily implied in "Beneath".
• Double Entendre: Of the rare non-sexual type, in the second season Lagoon Boy, an Atlantean fish-boy, refers to someone who has just insulted him as 'Chum'.
• Double Take: Wally's reaction to seeing M'gann using her shape-shifting powers to grow extra limbs in "Schooled". He suffers a brief freak-out.
• Dressed in Layers: Aqualad does it under his standard civilian clothes, a turquoise track suit.
• Dressing as the Enemy:
  • Aqualad and Garth attempt this tactic, but they are recognized by Black Manta almost immediately (Aqualad's waterbearers gave him away).
  • Superboy and Miss Martian disguise themselves as the Terror Twins in order to infiltrate Belle Reeve Penitentiary.
  • At the end of "Alienated", Lagoon Boy boards the Bioship to see two Kroloteans manning it. They turn out to be Miss Martian and Martian Manhunter in disguise.
• Drink Order: A variation in "Schooled", where Batman and Superman meet at a restaurant and order dessert--apple pie for Superman and devil's food cake for Batman.
• Driven to Suicide: The Biological Mashup mentioned above, once freed from Intergang's control, tries to overload a nuclear power plant just to end its tortured existence. When Blue Beetle is about to get through to it, the Competitor ally of the Light destroys it, reasoning that it was better off dead than an ally of their enemies.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Speedy feels that the Justice League's decision to only give the teenage heroes access to the gym and library is evidence of their lack of respect, and the rest of the Team eventually comes to share his feelings. However, whereas the others are willing to accept that they are young and still have more to learn, Speedy feels that the four of them already earned complete equality. It is later revealed that there is a reason for his extreme reaction.
• Dying to Be Replaced: We find out that Jaime Reyes became the new Blue Beetle after Ted Kord, the previous Blue Beetle, was murdered by the Light.
• Dynamic Entry: Batman is the master of these, doing this in the pilot episode (and his first appearance) and also in the beginning of "Downtime."
• Early-Bird Cameo: Karen Beecher appears as a classmate of Superboy and Miss Martian in several episodes of season one; during the Halloween episode she is dressed as Bumblebee, the superhero identity she had in the comics which she did not assume until season two of the series.
• Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Vandal Savage believes it should be, at least.
• Easter Egg: In the episode "Image", Gar Logan has a poster of Aqualad. Seen here: ^{[dead link]} .
• Emergency Transformation: Unintentional, but in order to save the life of a dying boy, Miss Martian shapeshifts her cells to match his blood type. His eyes are shown to have changed green later on. His name is Garfield Logan.
• Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Superboy spends episode 3 uncertain on how to apologize to Miss Martian after he lashes out at her for using Telepathy.
• Enemy Mine: The Team works with Bane in order to stop Kobra. Of course, Bane betrays them.
• Engineered Public Confession: Kid Flash pulls this on Count Vertigo to get his diplomatic immunity revoked.
• Everyone Can See It: In "Revelations", Robin and Aqualad discuss the relationships of the Team and Aqualad comments that he knew M'gann and Superboy liked each other before they had figured it out themselves. They also wonder if they should let Artemis and Kid Flash know that they (Artemis and Kid Flash) like each other, as it will probably take a while for them to figure it out on their own.
• Everything's Better with Monkeys:
  • The robot minions in "Schooled," M.O.N.Q.I.s. This began a Running Gag of Superboy explaining that he hates monkeys

Professor Ivo: You have no idea how hard it was coming up with an acronym for "monkey"...

• • Beast Boy likes transforming into monkeys and gorillas, and his default form looks like a human-monkey hybrid.

Superboy: You may change my opinion of monkeys yet!

• Everything's Better with Rainbows: Lampshaded in "Denial" when Nabu blocks Klarion's attack with a rainbow shield.

Klarion: Ooh, rainbow power.

• Everything's Better with Princesses: Well, technically it's Queen Perdita, but given her age, it fits.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: In "Disordered" one of the thugs immediately places himself protectively in front of his mother^[2] when he thinks they're under attack.
• Evil vs. Evil: Bane's forces vs. the Cult of Kobra.
• Exact Words: The Sword of Beowulf only works for the pure of heart. Unfortunately, purity on either moral extreme counts.
• Exposed Extraterrestrials: The Kroleteans. Their leader wears a sash, but that's it.
• Expository Hairstyle: M'gann's shorter hairstyle is the first visual cue to the Time Skip between seasons one and two.
• Expressive Mask: About half of everyone who wears a mask, though the show makes an effort to keep it more subtle than this trope has been in the past.
• Expy: Black Spider in episode 6 bears a remarkable similarity to Spider-Man, mostly in the powerset. When he reappears in episode 23 he's even voiced by Josh Keaton.
• Extroverted Nerd: The Riddler/Edward Nigma, Mr. "Riddle Me This" himself, discovers in the Prison Episode that he is at the bottom of the Popularity Food Chain. Then again, he doesn't really have to put up with that.
• Eye Scream: Red Tornado, having been transferred to his "John Smith" body, gets the skin around his right eye blown off by Black Canary's Canary Cry.
• Face Heel Turn: In Season 2 we learn Aqualad has joined Black Manta after learning about his parentage and when Tula was killed in an earlier mission.
• False Reassurance: When questioned on Rann about their association with the Justice League, Miss Martian only states they are not members of the League.
• Familiar: Teekl, Klarion the Witch Boy's cat, is his familiar and his link to the mortal realm.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Joker gas is released from a giant plant, gassing three firefighters who fall down and die onscreen. They probably got away with this because it's never explicitly stated that Joker gas kills people, but come on, it's The Joker.
• Fantastic Drug: Luthor's "shields".
• Fantastic Racism:
  • When talking about race conflicts in class, Megan mentions to Connor that on Mars there is a lot of prejudice and discrimination against the very alien-looking white minority against the green majority. It turns out that Megan is really a white martian, who takes the green form to avoid banishment and hatred on Earth.
  • In season two, reporter G. Gordon Godfrey is trying to encourage this by suggesting that the Justice League may be harboring more aliens than the publicly accepted Martian Manhunter and Superman. It seems to be working.
  • The tie-in comic has a story revolving around a group of Atlantean extremists who try to incite violence against the citizens who do not possess human ancestry (such as Lagoon Boy and the other fish-like residents).
• Fastball Special:
  • Maneuver Seven, wherein one of the Team cups his or her hands together and throws another member of the Team at the enemy. Bonus points when you go back to "Uncanny X-Men #100", and remember that the tactic was introduced as Maneuver 7 before it became the catchier Fastball Special.
  • In "Auld Acquaintance", Superboy throws Robin at mind-controlled Batman.
  • In "Alienated", Superboy asks Superman for a "triple combo", which starts with Superman throwing him at a Spider Tank. He jumps off it, hits another one, jumps off that one to take out a third, then lands and punches out a fourth one.

"Quadruple!"

• Fiery Redhead: Very much Speedy.
• Fighting Game: "Revelation" opens with Robin and Aqualad in a real-life fighting game as a sparring session. They are awarded points for combos, dodges and other gaming moves.
• Five-Man Band: The Team in Season 1.
  • The Hero: Aqualad
  • The Lancer: Robin
  • The Smart Guy: Kid Flash
  • The Big Guy: Superboy
  • The Chick: Miss Martian
  • Sixth Ranger: Artemis and Zatanna
  • Eleventh-Hour Ranger: Rocket
  • Team Pet: Wolf
  • Signature Team Transport: MM's ship
  • Robot Buddy: SB's Sphere which also transforms into his personalized Superbike
• Forceful Kiss: Cheshire to Red Arrow in "Insecurity."
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash go to investigate the Cadmus lab in "Independence Day", Cadmus immediately wants to clone the three sidekicks and then send the clones off as moles back to the League. We later find out that is actually what happened to the real Speedy three years before the series even began.
  • In "Targets," Sportsmaster reveals to Aqualad that he has an "inside source" on the Team, before it shows a close-up on his eye and the camera moving from Aqualad to Red Arrow.
  • Several times, for Miss Martian's true nature as a copycat of a sitcom character and as a White Martian.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: The Team's reaction to the death of the Justice League in "Failsafe". Of course, they all knew that it was a simulation.
• Four-Element Ensemble: Red Tornado, Red Torpedo, Red Inferno, Red Volcano.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: The first season finale reveals that the trigger phrase to activate the mole is "Broken Arrow," which puts Red Arrow into a trance where his handler can retrieve information and plant subconscious instructions. This phrase also works on the audience: After it was uttered, the show cut to a commercial and returned after the counter-command was given, leaving the audience unaware of what had transpired, and ignorant even of the fact that anything had happened at all.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Batman's holo-map in "Schooled" for once shows Gotham City in relation to New York and Boston.
  • In "Welcome To Happy Harbor", the camera rests for a second on the Team's screen tracking Red Tornado. If you have an HD tv you can freeze it and make-out most of RT's file detailing the Elemental Wars. This was actually unintentional and upset Greg Weisman--somebody decided to put that in for this trope, but did not realize that the Elemental Wars have not happened yet (if they will at all) according to the Universe Bible.
  • In "Downtime", you can read the rigorous screening process of Gotham Prep in Artemis' acceptance letter. The letter also reveals that her full name is "Artemis Crock", which has yet to be conveyed through dialogue.
  • In "Bereft" there is a split-second shot of a White Martian while M'Gann is restoring the Team's memories. Doubles as a Chekhov's Gun: in the episode "Usual Suspects", Superboy reveals he saw it, too.
  • An accidental one happens in "Beneath". A map of Bialya depicts the nation as encompassing the territory of Qurac, suggesting that Bialya successfully annexed its neighbor over the timeskip. Word of God says this wasn't intentional.
• From a Certain Point of View mixed with Lying Creator: Before the second season began airing, Greg Weisman stated that it would continue on minutes after the last season finale ended. While this is technically true, it is very misleading, since the scene that does take place right after the first season lasts less than a minute and is followed by a five year Time Skip.
• Fun with Acronyms: Robot monkeys? Why they are Mobile Optimal Neural Quotient Infiltrators. Ivo even lampshades it when they get destroyed.

"And after all the trouble I went through finding an acronym for monkey."

• Future Slang: Impulse has more than a few 'unusual' phrases in his vocabulary, most notable being 'crash' for something good, and 'the mode' for something...not. Possible Foreshadowing, as he comes from a post-apocalyptic future, and in the present the agents controlling Neutron refer to his controlled state as "the mode" and, when he overloads, speak of it "crashing the mode..."
• Girls' Night Out Episode:
  • "Secrets," where the male characters (and M'gann) are either at a school dance or meeting with members of the Justice League, leaving Zatanna and Artemis to spend the night fighting crime in New York City.
  • "Beneath," where Nightwing uses Queen Bee's ability to control men as a justification for Alpha Squad consisting of the all-female Miss Martian, Bumblebee, Batgirl, Wonder Girl and Bio Ship. Batgirl calls Nightwing on the implied sexism-- and the last time Dick explained Bee's powers that way, Batman called him on the heteronormative implications.
• Glamour Failure: Played with in "Disordered". M'gann suddenly changes into her human appearance during her therapy session, causing her to flip out when Black Canary points out that she just turned "white"; she calms down when she finds BC meant "Caucasian", as opposed to a White Martian.
• Glass Cannon: The alien scouts in "Failsafe" can disintegrate Superman in one shot, but can be taken down by a single one of Artemis's arrows.
• Godzilla Threshold: Using the Helm of Nabu transforms the wearer into Dr. Fate and grants them the power of a Lord of Order, but Nabu is not that keen on letting the one wearing it have their body back.
  • When Aqualad feels that he and the Team cannot defeat the Injustice League, he becomes Dr. Fate. Kent Nelson talks Nabu into backing off.
  • In "Misplaced", Kid Flash and Aqualad deem their current situation (all adults have vanished) as not quite enough reason to use the helmet. Likewise, Batman and Zatara come to the same conclusion in their childless world. In the end, Zatanna decides to take the risk. This time, however, Nabu is tired of the run-around and has no intention of releasing her. He even sent Nelson off to the afterlife when he tried to protest. Zatara has to offer himself as a replacement to free her, and he is not going to be removing the helmet.
• Gone Horribly Right: T.O.Morrow's fourth android, Red Volcano, was built with the express purpose of not having any heroic programming so that it would not be bound by morality or humanity. Red Volcano, since it had no humanity or morality, killed Morrow as soon as it was activated.
• Good Guns, Bad Guns: Inverted in the case of oppressive Bialya and progressive Qurac. The former's military uses equipment drawn to resemble Real Life American military equipment, while the latter's soldiers were shown using Kalashnikov-like guns.
• Good Is Not Nice: Nabu, a Lord of Order, is one of the world's most powerful protectors and one of the only defenses against the Lords of Chaos, but to affect the world he must inhabit the body of a mortal. If he cannot find a willing host he will take one, and if he fears that his host cannot be trusted to don the Helm of Nabu after they have been freed, he will never let them go.
• Good Parents: Wally's. Also, surprisingly, Batman, whose relationship with Dick is better than in most modern continuities.
• Good Thing You Are Invulnerable: Despite all the fighting on the show, the only member of the Team to actually receive lethal blows is Superboy, the only character that is Nigh Invulnerable.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: Zatanna, Red Arrow, Rocket, Tempest and Aquagirl (all teen heroes introduced in previous episodes) come together and form a resistance group to help the Team fight off the invading aliens in "Failsafe".
• Gory Discretion Shot: At the beginning of "Alpha Males".
• GPS Evidence: Time detection instead of location, Kid Flash is able to deduce that they have been in Bialya for at least twenty-four hours since his costume-rations have already been eaten.
• Grappling Hook Pistol: Robin, in the traditional bat-style.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language:
  • Gratuitous German: The magic chant in "Misplaced". It is a reference to The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
  • Gratuitous Greek: In "Downtime", the conversation between Aquaman and Aqualad is spoken in very bad Greek. Word of God is that it was supposed to be a dialect based on ancient Greek, which might explain why it sounded jarring to modern Greek speakers.
  • Gratuitous Spanish:
    • Bane has a tendency to do this.
    • The Hispanic Blue Beetle often refers to team members using Spanish slang.
• Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Captain Marvel has a Gravitational Cognizance moment in "Misplaced". When he transforms, shifting himself from the kid dimension to the adult one, it takes a few moments for him to realize that the plane he was in has not made the trip with him.
• Great Escape: "Terrors"
• Green Eyed Red Head: Kid Flash/Wally.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Miss Martian -- well, the PG rated version of one.
• Grenade Tag: Robin.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot:
  • In season one, the male members of the Team are either straight hand-to-hand combatants, or include hand-to-hand with their weaponry. The female members of the Team, however, have telekinesis, a bow-and-arrow, magic and technology gadgetry so they do not need to physically touch their opponents.
  • Averted in season two, where the first episode introduces Wonder Girl and Batgirl, two hand-to-hand combatants that serve as some of the members of the newer Team.
• Harmless Freezing: At least to Miss Martian, due to her Bizarre Alien Biology. Being frozen by an ice villain is implied to usually be fatal.

Miss Martian: It's pretty cold where I come from...

• He Knows Too Much: The Scarab says this word for word when Ty Longshadow's grandfather makes a vague reference to Jaime's "one on the inside". Fortunately, Jaime keeps the Scarab in check.
• Heel Face Turn: Chesire. Implied, offscreen, and possibly temporary.
• Helping Would Be Killstealing: Red Tornado wants the Team to solve problems for themselves rather than have to have the League come in when things get hairy, explaining that it is a part of their training and a natural outgrowth of their demand to be treated as equals.
• Heroes Want Redheads: Played with. The redheaded Kid Flash has a crush on the equally redheaded Miss Martian, but she likes Superboy and doesn't show an interest in Kid Flash. Aqualad has feelings for Tula, his friend from Atlantis, but she is already in a relationship with Aqualad's best friend Garth.
• Heroes Unlimited: The second season.
• Heroic BSOD: The Team spends "Disordered" in one. Except Conner, who's busy kicking ass.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • When Wally's body risks being taken from him to act as a vessel for Dr. Fate, Kent Nelson gives up his chance to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence and reunite with his wife so that Wally can keep his body and find a more suitable vessel for Dr. Fate.
  • Red Torpedo's and Red Inferno's death by melting in a volcano to restrain Red Volcano, in order to save humanity.
  • Aqualad to save Martian Manhunter in "Failsafe". Then Superboy, and finally Robin and Kid Flash.
  • In "Misplaced", Zatara sacrifices himself by becoming the new Doctor Fate so Zatanna, his daughter, doesn't have to.
• He's Just Hiding: Wally's in-universe reaction to Artemis and the rest of the Team's deaths in "Failsafe", because he thinks the beams are just transporters.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Dick Grayson (Robin I) and Wally West (Kid Flash) according to Word of God.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Mount Justice is this, by Robin and Kid Flash's admission. See Home Base below.

Robin: The bad guys know we know they know about the place, so they'd never think to look here.
Kid Flash: Uh... He means, we're hiding in plain sight.

• Holding Hands:
  • Plenty moments in "Bereft", from Wally taking Artemis's hand to support her to Superboy grabbing Megan's hand to help her in the final battle.
  • Superboy holds Miss Martian's hand when she reveals her Dark Secret: that she is really a White Martian. This is to reassure her it does not matter to him.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: Lagoon Boy admonishes Gamma Team to "stay liquid, minnows" when they are discovered infiltrating an alien base in "Happy New Year."
• Hollywood Hacking: Seems to be Robin's thing.
• Holodeck Malfunction: The Twist Ending of "Failsafe".
• Hologram: Robin can pull them up visibly with the computer in his gloves -- everything from indications of how his hacking is going to projected floor plans of the battle area.
• Home Base: The Team uses Mount Justice, which was the former base of the Justice League until it was exposed to the rest of the world. Yes, they let the covert team stay in the hideout everyone knows about.
• Hotter and Sexier: Post timeskip. Wally is living with Artemis and is greeted by her wearing nothing but a red sport jersey. The clone Roy Harper married Cheshire and now has a child named Lian.
• Homosexual Reproduction: Superboy has the DNA of both Superman and Lex Luthor.
• Hot for Teacher: Kid Flash, in true Flash style, starts to flirt with Black Canary as soon as she appears as the Team's combat trainer. He does this again as a defense mechanism when she mentions Artemis' "death" in "Disordered".
• Hour of Power: Superboy's "Shields" last about an hour before burning out.
• How We Got Here:
  • Played with in "Bereft", where the characters themselves have amnesia and spend the episode trying to find out how they got where they are.
  • Played straight in "Earthlings," which starts in the middle of the mission and then jumps back several hours to its beginning.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Mammoth and Shimmer, though they started out the same size. Mammoth became huge after taking the Venom-Blockbuster formula.
• Human Alien: Superboy and Superman, despite being Kryptonian (or in Superboy's case, half-Kryptonian), are identical in appearance to human beings.
• Humans Are Special: due to many possessing something in their DNA called "meta-genes", something quite a lot of alien races are interested in exploiting for their own ends.
• Hurl It Into the Sun: Captain Marvel deals with a giant, mutated plant this way.
• Hypocritical Humor: Dr. Fate, having possessed both Kid Flash and Aqualad at different points, supports their candidacy when the Justice League is discussing new members. Then they bring up Zatanna, whom he has also possessed, and he quickly refuses. He is immediately called on still having Zatara's protective instincts.
• I Am Not Spock: Marie Logan, the star of the teen sitcom "Hello Megan!" and who now runs an animal reserve. Miss Martian based her whole personality and appearance as a human on her. When Miss Martian starts pestering the now older Marie with questions about the show she insists and that it was just a job and that Megan "is not who I am."
• I Gave My Word: When Zatara offers himself as an alternate host, Nabu asks what guarantee he has that he won't just put the Helmet of Fate back on a shelf when it's removed. Zatara simply response, "My word." Nabu accepts this, and Zatara is true to his word, putting on the helmet and becoming the new Doctor Fate.
• I Have a Family: Said word for word by one of the female guards in "Terrors".
• I Shall Taunt You: Both Robin and Kid Flash are the "chatter until the villain gets pissed off" types.
• I Surrender, Suckers: How Artemis took down the Reds in "Homefront".
• I Was Just Joking: When Wally sarcastically asks which team member has a dramatic revelation to share with the rest of the Team next, he is shocked when M'gann steps forward.
• An Ice Person: The opening scene of the first episode involved several independent ice-themed villains (Mr. Freeze, Icicle Jr., Killer Frost and Captain Cold) attacking separate cities at once. The League considers this an unlikely coincidence and worth looking into. They were planning to be incarcerated together in Belle Reve Penitentiary to engineer an escape with the entire inmate population.
• An Ice Suit: The cold-themed villains again.
• Identity Amnesia: When Psimon erases six months worth of memories from the Team's minds in "Bereft," Superboy is left without any memory, since he'd only existed for six months. Hence, he became a wild-eyed, shirtless Berserker.
• Impairment Shot:
  • Superboy, after the MONQIs blast him in the eyes.
  • Artemis and Zatanna after Harm has attacked them.
• Implacable Man: Red Torpedo and Red Inferno.
• In the Blood: Cheshire jokingly says this of Lian Harper when Roy expresses concern that his daughter seems to enjoy watching them beat the crap out of bunch of mooks.
• In Medias Res: "Earthlings" begins right in the middle of the mission, then jumps back several hours to cover how it began.
• In-Series Nickname: Besides the classic superhero diminutives, Kid Flash nicknames Superboy "Supey."
• Incredibly Lame Pun: "Back in a flash!" By, you guessed it. This has not escaped his extended family.
• Infant Immortality: Averted in "Secrets", where the Villain-of-the-Week, Harm, is revealed to have murdered his younger sister in order to gain the purity needed to wield an Infinity+1 Sword.
• Ink Suit Actor: Professor Ivo bears an eerie resemblance to a red-haired, slightly older-looking Peter MacNicol in a sweatervest.
• Inner Monologue: Miss Martian briefly had an inner monologue in "Bereft," where she thought in Martian because she did not remember that she had traveled to Earth. It was only after she deduced where she was that she began thinking in English.
• Innocent Cohabitation: Superboy and Miss Martian, who live together in the cave simply because they have no other home on Earth. Then they began dating.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • Red Arrow is very quick to correct anyone who calls him a sidekick or by his old moniker, "Speedy".
  • Vertigo would like you to remember that he is a Count, peasant. He upgrades it to 'king' when he believes that he has killed his niece, the queen.
• Instant Runes: These appear when Klarion casts the spell at the beginning of "Misplaced".
• Interspecies Romance: Miss Martian and Kryptonian-human hybrid Superboy.
• Ironic Echo:
  • In "Drop Zone", when Robin first sees the Kobra leader he says "What's wrong, Koby? You look disconcerted." Later in the episode when he proves to be a better fighter than Robin he says "What's wrong, boy? You look disconcerted."
  • T.O. Morrow has created three separate androids that he hoped would help him destory the superheroes of the world, but each one chose to be a hero and attempt to become more human. His fourth android, Red Volcano, he made with the express intention of "No more Pinocchios..." Such were Volcano's words to Morrow right before killing him.
  • When Harm is fighting Artemis, he says "So unfocused. It can't fight Harm while fighting itself." After his Villainous Breakdown, Artemis returns the sentiment.
• Ironic Echo Cut:
  • In the pilot.

Mark Desmond: He hacked the motion sensors.
(cut to Robin with his handheld computer)
Robin: I hacked the motion sensors!
Kid Flash: Sweet!

• • In "Humanity":

Zatanna: (responding to Robin about joining the Team) If my dad doesn't ground me for life.
(cut to Zatara and Black Canary)
Zatara: She's grounded for life!

• Irony: Red Arrow, the most adamant on finding the mole, was revealed to the be mole all along. Though, unwillingly.
• It Got Worse:
  • "Homefront" is basically one increasingly bad thing after another, culminating in Red Tornado knocking out the Team before going AWOL.
  • "Failsafe" opened with the defeat of the entire Justice League and steadily went downhill. Which was the entire point.
• It Has Been an Honor: Kid Flash and Robin share a wordless sentiment right before charging into their "final battle." It's likely that such a message was conveyed between the two best friends.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing:
  • When Superboy first awakes in Cadmus, they make a point of referring to him as "it" and "the weapon."
  • Harm calls Artemis and Zatanna "its."
• It Only Works Once:
  • Dr. Fate beats Klarion by attacking his familiar. When Kid Flash tries this during their second meeting, Klarion morphs his familiar into a giant, super-strong cat monster that can more than handle itself in combat.
  • Batman defeated Clayface in his first appearance with electric batarangs; when Robin tried it again in Clayface's second appearance, Clayface explained that that trick did not work anymore. It is a good thing the Team knew that and were only using the batarangs as a distraction.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Speedy.
• Jerkass: Superman of all people comes off as this regularly. When Batman's calling you out for your lack of empathy and being a shitty role model and father figure, you know you've fucked up somewhere along the way.
• Just Between You and Me: Subverted by Vandal Savage in the first season finale. He goes on a Motive Rant to Black Canary, Red Tornado, and Red Arrow, but he never actually gives any specific details about his plans.
• Kid Hero: The creators have promised that there will be some deconstruction of this trope on the show, especially in regards to Robin.
• Kid Sidekick: Aqualad, Kid Flash and Robin, the three founding members of the Team. Being seen as just a sidekick is be a big theme in the show, and each of the Team's members has an adult counterpart in the Justice League that serves as their mentor, role model or inspiration.
• Kill and Replace:
  • Cadmus planned to do this to Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Robin, but never got the chance.
  • "Auld Acquaintance" reveals that Roy Harper had been abducted and replaced with a clone three years before the show even began. The original is still alive, though.
  • The second season opens with an Alien Invasion where the aliens are abducting important people of earth, including the Secretary General of the United Nations, and replacing them with aliens in human suits. Bibbo Bibowski was also abducted, but he also knocks out his own duplicate.
  • Guardian is also revealed to be a victim of this. He gave up the hero identity in response.
• Killed Off for Real: Kent Nelson a.k.a. Doctor Fate. His spirit did reside in the Helmet of Fate for a while, but Fate eventually got tired of his nagging every time someone used the helmet and sent him off to the afterlife.
• Kill'Em All: "Failsafe," involves the Team being lost one by one after the Justice League has already been killed in a simulation.
• Knife Nut: The Joker
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Psimon erases the last six months of the Team's memory in "Bereft". This leaves Artemis and M'gann strangers to everybody else, Superboy completely mindless, and Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad ignorant of the current mission.
• The Last Horse Crosses the Finish Line: Wally is the last person to find out that Miss Martian and Superboy are dating.
• The Leader: Aqualad, a calm Type II. No longer true in Season 2.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • In "Terrors", during a therapy session at Belle Reve, Superboy snaps at Miss Martian that they "don't live in a fantasy world where all problems are solved in half an hour." In "Image", M'gann explains how she envies Megan from 'Hello Megan!', including the fact that all of her problems can be solved in twenty-two minutes.
  • In "Failsafe", before the Team heads off against the alien invaders.

Superboy: So what are we waiting for, a theme song?

• Leeroy Jenkins:
  • Kid Flash is guilty of this in the pilot. And also in "Drop Zone", where he shoots the Team's "stealth" orders to hell by rushing headlong into a crossfire between Bane and Kobra cultists.
  • Robin is the most frequent embodiment after the Team forms, and is one of the reasons that the leader position is eventually ceded to Aqualad.
  • In "Performance" Superboy does this in near perfect form before the final confrontation with Parasite. The one missing element is that he just screams instead of shouting his name.
• Legacy Character: Quite a few actually.
  • Barry Allen succeeded the Justice Society of America's Jay Garrick as the Flash.
  • The three current Green Lanterns of Earth, Hal Jordan, John Stewart and Guy Gardner, all succeeded the Justice Society of America's Green Lantern Alan Scott.
  • Giovanni 'John' Zatarra became host to Doctor Fate after the death of Kent Nelson, Fate's previous host.
  • After Dick Grayson became Nightwing between seasons one and two, Tim Drake succeeded him as Robin.
  • Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes, after Ted Kord was killed by the Light during the Time Skip.
• Legion of Doom: The Injustice League.
• Let's You and Him Fight: In "Disordered" this looks like this will happen between Superboy and the Forever People... but then it's promptly subverted thanks to the intervention of the Forever People's Mother Box.
• Light Is Not Good: The Big Bad of the series is actually called "The Light", and appeared for half the season simply as pure-white outlines. Glowing with unearthly radiance, no less!
• Like a Weasel: Kid Flash changes his opinion on the existence of magic, which he believes to be nothing but technology obscured with false mysticism, as soon as he hears that M'gann believes it is real.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: Word of God says the complete list of characters will increase as each season passes. Current count as of episode 24, season 1: 174 supporting characters from DC Universe alone, according to Word of God. The second series, Young Justice: Invasion features even more new characters.
• Lockdown: In "Terrors", Amanda Waller locks down Belle Reve in an attempt to stop the mass breakout.
• Love Dodecahedron: Kid Flash likes Miss Martian and "hates" Artemis. Miss Martian likes Superboy and recommends to Artemis that she should ask Kid Flash out, but Artemis also likes Superboy. Superboy eventually returns M'gann's affections and they begin dating, but Wally and Artemis are still pouting themselves. It eventually all settles itself out at the end of season one.
• Luke, I Am Your Father:
  • Aqualad's father is Black Manta. Finding out this was kept from him by Aquaman was one of the reasons for his Face Heel Turn in Season Two.
  • The half-Kryptonian, half-human Superboy was created at the behest of, and obtained half his DNA from, his human "father" Lex Luthor.
• Luminescent Blush: Miss Martian.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Alanna
• Magic From Technology: Abra Kadabra's schtick. Kid Flash believes this of all magic and fervently tries to explain everything supernatural that he encounters (well, at least in that one episode).
• Magical Native American: Tye's grandfather in "Beneath", though the Blue Beetle Scarab says that he is "unbalanced," making it possible he is just rambling and coincidentally using words suggesting he knew about the Scarab.
• Magitek: The Light seems to be fond of this, mixing magic, biotechnology, and regular technology to carry out their plans.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Black Canary plays a supporting role.
• Make-Out Kids: Megan and Conner. Fortunately, they have a giant robo-sphere that can somehow discreetly warn them before anyone sees them.
• Make Way for the New Villains: Three episodes into the second season, the villains up to that point, the Kroloteans, are wiped out by a bomb planted by the "competitor," a new partner for the Light. Since then all the team's missions have been against this partner, even if they do not know it.
• Malaproper: A German example. The spell Klarion and the sorcerers are chanting in "Misplaced" is actually "We are the whistlers of Hamelin" ("Wir sind die Pfeifer von Hameln"), instead of "We are the pipers of Hamelin" which would roughly be "Wir sind die Flötenspieler von Hameln" with "die Flötenspieler" literally meaning "the flute player". Also in actual German "the Pied Piper" was known as "the Rat Catcher" so to be more accurate with the language they should be saying "Wir sind die Rattenfänger von Hameln".
• Male Gaze: Funny how at the beginning of "Infiltrator", Miss Martian's the only one to get a leering pan-up of her in her bathing suit.
• Manchurian Agent: Red Arrow, a deep-cover operative planted three years before the show began, responding to phrases by his handler, Sportsmaster..
• Meat Moss: The lower levels of the Cadmus lab has this look. It actually serves a function however, used to incubate their bio-weapons.
• Men Are Generic, Women Are Special: Played with in "Beneath". Nightwing had a perfectly good strategic reason for sending an Amazon Brigade after Queen Bee, but Batgirl still points out that he wouldn't feel the need to "justify" an all-male team on any given mission. Nightwing cuts his losses and ends the transmission.
• The Mentor:
  • All of the kids have individual mentors in the heroes they are sidekicking to (Robin gets Batman, Kid Flash gets Flash, etc.). The Team as a whole has three mentors: Red Tornado, Black Canary and Batman.
  • In season two, Miss Martian, Superboy and Nightwing have turned down membership on the Justice League so that they can mentor the new members of the Team.
• Mind Rape:
  • In "Images," M'gann leaves Psimon drooling and unresponsive after their psychic confrontation. He's better after the Time Skip.
  • In "Earthlings," Miss Martian probes the mind of the Krolotean commander to learn what the League did in their missing sixteen hours. During the probe the Krolotean begins to drool from the mouth. After it is done the Krolotean is comatose and carried off by his compatriots, never once even responding to them carrying him. In "Alienated", she does it again to another Krolotean... right in front of Batman and Martian Manhunter.
• Mistaken Identity: In "Homefront", Artemis hears Red Tornado call out her and Robin's code names and assumes he has come to save them from the bad guys. It turns out to be Red Torpedo, who has the exact same voice as Red Tornado.
• Mobile Suit Human: The Kroloteans are kidnapping people and replacing them with Krolotean-piloted suits, which starts the season two plot of their invasion of Earth.
• The Mole: The coda of "Infiltrator" indicates there is a mole within the Team, but his or her identity is not revealed. Suspicion falls on the newer less-known members of the group, Superboy, Miss Martian, and Artemis. It is revealed in "Usual Suspects" that Red Arrow was The Mole, and even he had no idea.
• Motor Mouth: Impulse.
• Mr. Fanservice: Superboy has a number of shirtless scenes, and together with Aqualad, has the most muscled physique. Works in-universe for Miss Martian.

Superboy: (Taking off shirt to turn it inside-out and hide the symbol) Does this work?
Miss Martian: (Blushing) Works for me.

• My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: In "Misplaced", Zatanna tries to use a spell against Klarion, only for it to fizzle pointlessly against his shield. He dismisses her attempt as "baby magic", then uses her type of spellcasting to send her flying.
• My Name Is Not Durwood: Kid Flash in the first episode.
• Mysterious Past: Artemis has a hidden history which is slowly explored over the first season. Red Arrow is aware that her story of being Green Arrow's niece is a lie, and her father would theoretically ask her to kill people. Her fear of the truth being discovered is a strong motivator, and she once let a villain escape after the threat of exposure.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The initial lineup of the Team (Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash) references the first incarnation of the Teen Titans.
  • In episode 5, Bruce Wayne flips back the head of a familiar bust, revealing a button used to access his costume.
  • Kid Flash's stealth costume has the same colors as the Black Flash's (the Grim Reaper in Flash form).
  • In the very first episode, the "for show" base of the Justice League that the sidekicks are brought to (as opposed to their real, space-based headquarters) is the Hall of Justice.
  • Artemis is shown carrying a small collapsible crossbow as a backup weapon. In the comic books, the adult Artemis wields a crossbow as her primary weapon.
  • In "Denial", Kent Nelson meets a scam artist named Madame Xanadu, who cons tourists with phony predictions. After mocking Xanadu and calling her a fraud, Kent remarks that despite being a faker, she does indeed have "the right aura for the job". In the comics books, Madame Xanadu is a long-lived and renowned psychic.
  • In "Downtime", Garth (the original Aqualad of the comics) chants, "I summon the power of the tempest!" while conjuring up a cyclone of magical water. Tempest is the Code Name Garth would later take up in the comics.
  • "Targets" features Marvin and Wendy as students at Happy Harbor High and an adult Snapper Carr as a teacher.
  • Cheshire wears a cheshire-cat mask which did not originate in the comics, but instead came from the Teen Titans cartoon.
  • In "Alpha Male" Captain Marvel makes friends with a wild tiger who was under the Brain's control. CM names the Tiger "Mr. Tawny". Mr. Tawny was a talking tiger who walked upright and wore a suit in the Captain Marvel comics.
  • In "Alpha Male" Wally suggests "How's about Krypto?" as a name for the white wolf that had taken a liking to Superboy. M'gann says it's taken.
  • In "Revelation", the supervillain Vertigo insists on being called by his noble title ("Count Vertigo to you, peasant.") He speaks that exact line in the DC Showcase: Green Arrow short written by Greg Weisman. Steve Blum voices him in both.
  • In "Failsafe", Robin briefly dons a chest harness that looks almost exactly like the one worn by Tim Drake, Jason Todd, and Dick Grayson when in their Red Robin identity.
  • In "Failsafe," the injured soldier Superboy saves is named Jason Bard. Pre-Crisis, Jason Bard was a Vietnam War veteran with a bad knee injury that left him open to being saved by Batgirl when it acted up. The other soldier in "Failsafe" is David Reid, a.k.a. Magog.
  • In the Halloween episode "Secrets," Mal Duncan dresses like the 1990's comic version of Superboy, describing his costume as "Superman done right", which Conner himself is quick to mock. Karen is dressed as her normal DC alterego Bumblebee, an identity she would later assume in the show. In the same episode, students dressed as Donna Troy (the original Wonder Girl) and Harley Quinn can be seen.
  • The magic shop from "Secrets" is named "Abel's House of Secrets", a reference to the 70s DC series narrated by the Biblical Abel.
  • In "Misplaced", Captain Marvel says that he was on a "World Without Grownups", an allusion to a major story arc in the Young Justice comics.
  • The place Klarion started the spell in the same episode was identified as Roanoke Island, and in Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers Klarion grew up in Limbo Town which was based on "The Lost Colony" that had once tried to settle in Roanoke Island but mysteriously disappeared.
  • The episode "Coldhearted" features the character of Perdita, Count Vertigo's niece and rightful queen of Vlatava. She was previously created for the DC Showcase: Green Arrow short by Greg Weisman, and Ariel Winter voices her in both appearances. Her Young Justice incarnation is blonde rather than brunette and she also speaks with more of a European-based accent, akin to Vertigo's.
  • A hospital setting in "Coldhearted" has a doctor named Pieter Cross, who in the comics is the second Dr. Mid-Nite.
  • In "Image", the Team saves a young boy's life by having M'gann give him a blood transfusion, granting him the powers to eventually become Beast Boy; in the original comics, he got his powers after being bitten by a wild green monkey. In the show, he keeps a rather sharp-toothed green one as a pet, and it still gnaws on him all the time.
  • In "Image", the Show Within a Show stars several actors from the comics who got costumed identities as well in that medium: Rita Farr (Elasti-Girl of the Doom Patrol), Paul Sloane (an Alternate Universe Two-Face), and Jonathan Lord (Silverblade). Another co-star, Sandra Stanyon is also from the Silverblade series.
  • In "Insecurity" Green Arrow and Artemis save a reporter named Bernell Jones from an assassin while his young daughter looks on. The girl is Cissie King-Jones/Arrowette from the original Young Justice comics, whose role as the Team's archer was given to Artemis.
  • In "Insecurity", Green Arrow stops robbers from robbing a "Save-Big" store - exactly what he did in the very first episode of Justice League Unlimited.
  • The logo of the Justice League, as seen on their membership cards in "Usual Suspects" and during G. Gordon Godfrey's talk show, is the series logo of the Justice League animated series.
  • At the end of "Auld Acquaintance", it is revealed that Red Arrow is a clone of the real Roy Harper/Speedy, who has an arm cut off. In the comics, Roy lost his arm (along with his daughter) in the miniseries Cry for Justice.
  • In "Happy New Year," when Lobo attacks the UN, he is originally speaking in an alien language that no one understands. He then taps a button on his belt, which then responds, "Translating Interlac," and can be understood in English from then on. In the Legion of Super-Heroes series, Interlac is the common language spoken between planets as issued by the United Planets in the 31st Century.
  • Jaime Reyes mentions that Captain Atom was the one who told him about Ted Kord, the previous Blue Beetle. In the comics, Captain Atom and Ted were both Charlton Comics characters, and the latter even debuted in a back-up feature in Captain Atom's series.
  • Jaime's Native American friend Tye Longshadow looks like a teenage version of Apache Chief from Superfriends, and he comes from a long line of Mescalero Apache chiefs. His last name is an allusion to Long Shadow from Justice League Unlimited, who was himself an Expy of Apache Chief.
• Naive Newcomer: Miss Martian.
• Nay Theist: Kid Flash plays this role in "Denial."
• Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy: The Light seems to have connections or acts as the mastermind with nearly every villain that the heroes have faced so far.
• Nephewism: M'gann is introduced as niece to Martian Manhunter.
• Nice to the Waiter: When the Flash and Zatarra rescue Iris West-Allen from an alien invasion in "Failsafe," the first thing Iris does, after thanking the heroes, is ask Denny, her camerman, if he is okay. She is visibly relieved, and smiles, when he gives a thumbs-up.
• No Biochemical Barriers:
  • In "Performance," Miss Martian catches the flu virus that has been making the rounds of the Team and the circus that they have been infiltrating. Robin even mentions that H. G. Wells |predicted that could happen. However, Robin also recognizes that the odds of it actually happening are so low as to be non-existent, so he begins looking for another source and discovers the power-draining Parasite.
  • Averted, as the characters explicitly point out that the biology of different alien species renders them immune to threats that would endanger the others. That is why the Light uses magically enhanced biotechnology to get around the problem.
• No Conservation of Energy: Averted. Zatanna explicitly mentions that magic can only happen when there is energy to fuel it, usually given by the spellcaster.
• No MacGuffin, No Winner: When it becomes clear to Black Manta that he won't be able to steal Starro's frozen body, he angrily declares that no one will have it and blows it up. This turned out to be the contingency plan if he couldn't steal it.
• Won't Work On Me: Red Arrow finds himself being hunted by Green Arrow, the Flash, and Aquaman. When disoriented, he takes a blind swing with his bow at the nearest silhouette, only to watch his bow splinter pointlessly on Aquaman's chest.
• No Social Skills:
  • Superboy, as a clone grown in a controlled laboratory environment, is hostile and unaware of how to work with a team of equals.
  • M'gann, who learned about Earth by watching TV, is ignorant of a lot of common social mores, and struggles to learn what is appropriate with regards to telepathy and privacy.
• Nom De Mom: Cheshire/Jade Nguyen, due to issues with her father, Sportsmaster/Lawrence Crock.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The result of the Time Skip.
• Not Quite Saved Enough: Impulse's Bad Future in "Bloodlines".
• The Not-Secret: Of the secrets revealed in "Usual Suspects", only Superboy's is truly unknown to the others. Robin had already deduced that Artemis was related to Sportsmaster and Cheshire, while Superboy found out about Miss Martian's true white form from their mind meld in Bialya.
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • Kid Flash says this in "Auld Acquaintance" when Black Canary questions why they have Red Tornado hooked up to his android alter-ego. When she points out the obvious transfer taking place, Kid Flash amends his statement to say it's exactly what it looks like.
  • Done much more seriously in "Salvage", when Red Arrow tries to defend stealing a wad of cash from a shopkeeper, specifically by pocketing it after stopping the thief who stole the rest.
• Numerological Motif: A 16-member Justice League, the setting is Earth-16, Miss Martian is 16 by Martian years, Superboy is 16 weeks old, Wally is woken up on his sixteenth birthday at sixteen minutes past the hour, the first season finale began at 00:16 hours on December 31st (and continues after the end of the opening exactly seven hours later at 07:16), and the end of the episode comes with the revelation that six members of the League, including the Big Three, were missing for 16 hours. The second season, which opens five years after the first, in the year 2016, starts at 16:16. When asked about it, Weisman's only response was "<chuckles evilly>." He gave that response on August 16.
• Odango Hair: Cheshire sports this when in disguise in "Targets."
• Oh Crap:
  • In the pilot, Kid Flash's reaction to seeing the doors close in front of him while he is at full speed and can not stop before running into them.
  • In "Targets", Red Arrow realizes the jail cell wall is going to explode about half a second before it does.
  • In "Terrors", Icicle Jr. sees the "Terror Twins" kissing and realizes that they are actually Superboy and Miss Martian in disguise and says, "Oh man, dad's gonna kill me."
  • In "Misplaced", Billy Batson's reaction to hearing that Amber, the pilot flying his plane, was about to turn 18 in the world where adults disappear. Two seconds before it happens.
  • In "Agenda", Captain Marvel gets this when the Flash and Wonder Woman begin to question his presence with the Justice League after they surmised that he was not an "adult" at all.
  • In "Usual Suspects", Red Arrow's reaction to discovering that he was the mole and while under Mind Control put the entire Justice League under Mind Control as well.
  • In "Auld Acquaintance", Vandal Savage has this reaction after realizing that Black Canary, Red Tornado, and Red Arrow weren't brought under control via the Starrotech he had just applied to them. As a result, he realizes that the Team had reverse engineered a cure and vaccine for Starrotech.
  • In "Happy New Years", Blue Beetle's mere presence convinces a group of alien tech thieves to abandon their entire operation and self-destruct their base.
• Oh My Gods: Lagoon Boy is pretty fond of "Neptune's beard!"
• Off-Screen Breakup: Superboy and Miss Martian sometime during the Time Skip. She is currently dating Lagoon Boy.
• Offscreen Teleportation
• Official Couple: Miss Martian and Superboy as of "Terrors", but apparently no longer as of "Happy New Years".
  • In Invasion, M'gann and La'gaan, Wally and Artemis, Red Arrow and Cheshire.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Light.
• One Steve Limit:
  • Averted due to Martian Manhunter's fondness for the name John. He took the name John and came up with Red Tornado's name of John Smith. With Giovanni Zatara, who sometimes Anglicizes his name as "John," and Green Lantern John Stewart, that is four Justice League members named John. Martian Manhunter suggests that Superboy should also be named John, but that idea is turned down.
  • Clark Kent and Kent Nelson, which is Lampshaded: J'onn suggests "Kent" as Superboy's last name, but since Superboy and Megan do not know Superman's secret identity they assume it is in honor of Kent Nelson.

Superboy: Shouldn't I be Conner Nelson?

• • Played with in "Disordered". When introducing themselves one of the Forever People says his name doesn't translate to anything on Earth so he goes with "Wolf"... except Superboy has a wolf named Wolf with him, so he goes with "Bear" instead.
• Only Fatal to Adults: "Misplaced" opens with Klarion and other immortal sorcerers casting a spell that causes everybody on the planet over the age of eighteen to disappear, leaving only the Team and Billy Batson (who cannot become Captain Marvel for fear of likewise being removed) to determine the cause. Halfway through the episode it is revealed that, to the adults, it looks like the kids are missing: Klarion and the other sorcerers split Earth into two separate dimensions, one with the adults and one with the children. Captain Marvel's transformation allows him to switch between worlds thanks to the age change.
• Only Known By Their Superhero Name:
  • Unlike the other members of the Team, Robin is always referred to as "Robin." It is explained that Robin was instructed by Batman to never reveal his true name in public. Jack Haly, owner of Haly's Circus, recognizes and calls him Dick. As he explains, there is no mistaking a Grayson on the trapeze.
  • Superboy, who does not have any other name, until "Targets", where he is dubbed "Conner Kent", since M'gann liked the name "Conner," after the love-interest in Hello Megan!, and J'onn suggested the last name "Kent." By season 2 Superman has since given him the Kryptonian name "Kon-El".
• Only Sane Man: Conner gets to be this in "Disordered," voicing likely viewer incredulity.
• Opponent Switch: Superboy lets Icicle. Jr. fight Mammoth and Blockbuster so he could fight Mr. Freeze.
• Order Versus Chaos: Turns up in "Denial", Dr. Fate works for the Lords of Order while Klarion is a Lord of Chaos.
• Overprotective Dad: Zatara is quite protective over his daughter Zatanna, seeing how she is a teenager and how weak she is in actual combat.
• Painful Transformation:
  • Dr. Desmond/Blockbuster's did not look at all pleasant. Helped to no end that it involves his skin ripping off.
  • After the test subject for the Blockbuster-Venom serum transforms, parts of his skin tear open and you can see exposed muscle underneath.
• Panty Shot: In episode 10, Cheshire's dress is evidently not magic.
• Le Parkour: Kid Flash, in sort of a stumbly, not-always-exactly-as-intended way. Robin, on the other hand, is the stylish one.
• Pinocchio Syndrome: Discussed and lampshaded in "Humanity". The first three members of the "Red family" ultimately get this, which leads to T.O. Morrow declaring them as failures; Red Volcano is only one designed NOT to have it, which results in him turning on his "father".

Red Volcano: No more "Pinocchios".

• Platonic Life Partners: Wendy and Marvin are "best platonic friends," according to Word of God.
• Playful Hacker: Robin.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: A variation. When the Team finds out about Red Tornado's "civilian identity" android, Zatanna magically transforms the sheet that was covering it into pants, which she felt it needed.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Superboy, who's only 16 weeks old at the start of the series, but had already been aged to an adolescent by Cadmus so they could "weaponize" him.
• Pokémon-Speak: Secret, since the last thing she saw before her brother killed her was a neon sign that said "Secret."
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: In "Targets", Lex Luthor and Red Arrow have this relationship, Luthor maintaining his unerring politeness at all times, and Red Arrow being his usual snarky, jerkass self. This actually happens between Luthor and every superhero he meets, including his own genetic son, Superboy.
• Popularity Food Chain: Lampshaded by Icicle, Jr. in the Prison Episode: there are strict groups and everyone better know his place.
• Power Glows:
  • The G-gnomes telepathy causes their horns to glow red.
  • Aqualad's tattoos
  • M'gann's eyes at times.
• Power Echoes: When Kid Flash gets stuck inside Dr Fate's helmet and meets Kent Nelson's spirit, this happens to both of them... except the echoes sound a few seconds before they start speaking. It takes you a fair while to realise something is wrong.
• Power Parasite: The Parasite, naturally. Unfortunately for him, the weaknesses and strengths come as a package deal.
• Power Perversion Potential: Miss Martian shapeshifts into Black Canary for a little roleplay with Conner, and such behavior is apparently very common on Mars since shapeshifting telepaths can't actually hide who they are from others. Green Arrow thought it was pretty funny, though Canary didn't.
• Power Tattoo: Aqualad's, and other Atlantean's, light up when he is using his hard water powers or electric powers.
• Pregnant Badass: Aquaman reveals that his wife, the Queen of Atlantis, is pregnant, and just a few minutes later she is kicking all sorts of ass when her city is attacked. Admittedly, she's only a few months along (the episode takes place in late August, and Word of God says she is due in February).
• Present Company Excluded: Comes up when Kid Flash makes a comment about aliens, then is obligated to apologize to Conner and M'gann.
• Prison Episode: "Terrors"
• Promotion to Parent: Happens to Superman with Superboy... kinda. Superman does not handle it very well. After the timeskip the two "Supers" seem to be getting along much better, with Superman referring to Superboy as "little brother."
• Properly Paranoid: In "Terrors", Batman doesn't let the Belle Reve prison staff know that Superboy and Miss Martian are going in undercover since it's possible the prison staff has been compromised. The ending reveals that the breakout was part of the prison psychiatrist Hugo Strange's scheme to become the new warden of Belle Reve.
• Psychic Link: Miss Martian often connects the Team telepathically while on missions, letting them communicate covertly over distances. Eventually, the group begins using this method of communication even outside of battle when they want to have private conversations.
• Psychic Static: Bane recites football scores in Spanish to defeat Miss Martian's attempts to read his mind.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!
  • Superboy in the pilot movie: "I... Choose... Freedom!"
  • Miss Martian: "Get! Out! Of my! Head!" in "Bereft."
• Punny Name: Wouldn't want to put yourself in Harm's way.
• Pure Is Not Good: Harm
• Put on a Bus: Eight of the League members, the majority of whom were mentors to members of the Team, leave Earth at the end of "Alienated" to face trail in an intergalactic court for the crimes they committed 5 years prior while under Mind Control.
• Qurac: The Team use Qurac itself to enter Bialya, a rogue state and another Qurac-type nation, through their shared border in "Bereft." A map shown in in the episode seems to show Bialya in the same location as Real Life Saudi Arabia, but in another map shown in "Image" Quraq and Bialya appear to be positioned similar to Iraq and Iran (based on the position of the Caspian and Black Seas on the map) and Batman mentions "baseless" claims that they used to be one country (Iraq used to be a core part of the Iran-based Persian empire and Ctesiphon, near modern Baghdad, was the empire's capital).
• Race Lift:
  • In the original comics, both Artemis Crock and her mother Paula are white. In the TV series, Paula is portrayed as an Asian, while Artemis is biracial.
  • Like in Smallville, the Martian Manhunter's "John Jones" identity is African-American.
• Rage Against the Mentor: Speedy is so outraged that the League (and by extension, Green Arrow) does not take him seriously that he essentially Ragequits. The rest of the boys threaten to do the same later, which convinces the League to make the group official.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Superboy does this against Mammoth in "Usual Suspects".
• Real Name as an Alias:
  • Artemis, whose real name is Artemis Crock.
  • Giovanni 'John' Zatara and his daughter Zatanna.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • The Guardian is this in the pilot when he is not being brainwashed.
  • Batman as a mentor of the Team.
• Recursive Adaptation: There's a comic of the show.
• Recycled Set: Or rather, recycled animation. The opening shot in episode 8 is lifted directly from Batman: Under the Red Hood. The building where YJ fights Clayface is the same one where the mobsters meet in the film.
• Redemption Equals Death: Red Torpedo and Red Inferno die stopping Red Volcano from killing most of humanity.
• Red Herring: The Injustice League; all coinciding villain toys can be traced back to them, not a hypothetical Light Is Not Good -esque group.
• Red Herring Mole: Though suspicion falls on several members of the Team, Artemis was the focus of suspicion in multiple episodes and actually assisted (Or at least stopped inhibiting) the actions of villains. Of course, the actual mole was covered in a completely separate reveal.
• Relationship Upgrade:
  • Miss Martian and Superboy as of "Terrors". Though as of the second season there has been an Off-Screen Breakup.
  • Kid Flash and Artemis also had this upgrade as of "Auld Acquaintance."
• Replacement Scrappy: The Team, particularly Kid Flash, initially considered Artemis as this for Speedy/Red Arrow in-universe.
• La Résistance: Dubbilex the DNAlien and an undisclosed number of the other Genomorphs were well aware that Project Cadmus was using them for purposes they felt were wrong, such as brainwashing the Guardian and Superboy, so they had been surreptitiously trying to get the Justice League's attention and aiding the young heroes all along.
• Ret Canon: In DC Comics' rebooted "New 52" continuity, Artemis is reintroduced in Teen Titans Annual #1 (volume 4), resembling her Young Justice incarnation more than her original comic version. However, she's killed off (or at least put out of commission) in that same issue.
• Retool: The second season was titled Young Justice: Invasion and opened with a five year Time Skip from the end of the first season. Quite a few members of the old group have joined the Justice League or moved on, many new teenage heroes have joined the Team, and some characters have changed identities.
• Robotic Reveal: In the third episode, Mister Twister is revealed to be piloted by Bromwell Stikk. Except that Bromwell Stikk is a robot controlled by the real one. Later on, T.O. Morrow turns out to be a robot, too. The flesh-and-blood Morrow is a sickly old man on his deathbed.
• Rousing Speech: The Team makes a speech to the whole world to keep hope after the Justice League was defeated in "Failsafe."
• Rubber Forehead Aliens:
  • Martian Manhunter, despite being an alien, is almost identical to humans aside from his green skin, pupil-less red eyes, and ridged eyebrows. His niece Miss Martian ditches the pupil-less eyes and eyebrow ridges, essentially resembling a green-skinned human. Miss Martian's real form is actually a white-skinned, hunched, almost bat-like shape.
  • Though in the comics the Rannians are visually indistinct from humans, in this series they have slightly different facial structures and ear shapes.
• Rule 63: Miss Martian shows off female versions of Robin and Kid Flash when asked to demonstrate her shapeshifting, since she has trouble changing gender.
• Rule of Cool: Artemis riding a motorbike whilst aiming to shoot in "Secrets".
• Rule of Three:
  • In episode 5, Miss Martian grows extra arms to fight off Ivo's robot M.O.N.Q.I.s. This scares the truck driver, Kid Flash, and then herself upon seeing Kid's reaction.
  • In "Homefront," Robin's optimistic statements being proven wrong by Red Torpedo slamming him and Artemis with a tidal wave, only for him to quip, with increasing frustration, "Or not."

Artemis: "Will you please stop saying that!"

• Running Gag:
  • Robin's obsession with prefixes and his tendency to create back-formations by removing them.
  • Kid Flash's habit of claiming certain items as souvenirs in season one; Beast Boy continues the tradition in season two.
  • Superboy's hatred of monkeys.
  • People pointing out how Speedy's code name makes no sense.
  • Artemis nearly drowning.
  • Shimmer being easily dispatched before being able to join in the action.
  • Beast Boy saying "noted" whenever someone tells him something he didn't know.
• Samus Is a Girl: The Sphere.
• Save the Villain: Superman tries this with the Kroleteans about to be destroyed by a bomb hidden in their volcano base. They don't believe him and keep attacking, so he fails.
• Schedule Slip: In the US, Cartoon Network took over a year (January 2011 - April 2012) to air the 26 episodes of the first season (not counting a two-episode preview in late 2010). Other countries even finished airing them months before the US did.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Speedy quits being an apprentice to Green Arrow, and refuses to join the new team, because he feels insulted and slighted that the Justice League does not already consider him their equal. He views all subsequent attempts to get him to return to either position as the adults disrespecting, minimizing and attempting to control him.
• Secret Identity Identity: Miss Martian wants everyone to know her through her shapeshifted "Megan" identity. Mostly this is to get away from the White vs. Green Martian classism on her home planet, especially since she's really a White Martian who works closely with the green Martian Manhunter, and White Martians are far less humanoid than Green Martians so she fears rejection from her human teammates if they knew.
• Secret Relationship:
  • Superboy and Miss Martian try to keep their romance from the team, at least initially.
  • Red Arrow and Cheshire also clearly developed one during the Time Skip, to the point of marriage and a kid.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Impulse travels back in time forty years to prevent a worldwide disaster, which was caused by a (now former) villain named Neutron. With the reformed villain's help, he is able to cure Neutron before he can do any lasting damage. However, all that seems to have accomplished is to shift the cause of the disaster, instead of averting it.
• Sexy Shirt Switch: Of the "before anything happens" variety. In "Salvage", Artemis is walking around wearing only a shirt while talking to Wally.
• Shapeshifting Squick: In the opening of "Images", Megan takes on Black Canary's form during a training session with Connor for a little roleplaying. Black Canary gently but firmly makes Megan understand that what she did was highly inappropriate.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • In "Denial" Artemis and Miss Martian take turns explaining why the other should date one of the boys on the team, but it is apparently to turn each other away from their mutual interest: Superboy.
  • Kent Nelson seems to ship Wally/Artemis, though Wally misses the point and decides to interpret it as advice to date Megan.
  • In "Earthlings," Beast Boy tries to get Superboy and Miss Martian to remember when they flirted and dated while visiting him.
• Shirtless Scene:
  • Aqualad gets one near the end of "Welcome To Happy Harbor."
  • All the boys are shirtless in "Infiltrator."
  • Superboy gets one while sparring in "Denial," and another one in "Berefit" where he rips off his shirt and in "Target" and... well he's just a Walking Shirtless Scene really.
• Short Run in Peru: Both Turkey and Brazil finished airing the first season long before the US.
• Shout-Out:
  • Guardian: "These aren't your normal meddling kids."
  • Kid Flash taunts the villain in the pilot by calling him an "incredible bulk."
  • Wally: "Guy knows a little advanced science and Dumbledores it up to scare the bad guys and impress the babes."
  • Doctor Fate is called "Earth's Sorcerer Supreme."
  • Psimon: "Simon says: forget!"
  • Robin: "You need to hack our minds in order to grok what happened to us. Got it. Go."
  • Wally: "Get your hands off her you darn dirty ape!"
  • Judging from Wally's Halloween costume, he is a fan of Teen Wolf.
  • In "Secrets", Miss Martian's "Martian" form is a slightly distorted Marvin the Martian with Godzilla's roar. The prankster that she is counter-pranking is even named Marvin.
  • Captain Marvel is dressed as a Captain 'Marvel Zombie' in "Secrets".
  • When Miss Martian finds out that Billy is Captain Marvel, Kid Flash remarks "Yeah, and I'm Speedy Gonzales."
  • Green Arrow and Artemis use a blue police box as their Justice League teleporter.
  • The villain Black Spider was retooled to resemble Spider-Man, and is voiced by Josh Keaton who played Spider-Man in The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, which was also created by Greg Weisman.

Black Spider: I don't suppose you'll let me finish off Jones and let me go on my web-slinging way?

• • In "Schooled", Miss Martian briefly uses her shapeshifting powers to become a four-armed green-skinned Martian, reminiscent in form (though not in dress) of John Carter of Mars.
  • In "Performance," when Miss Martian catches the flu that has been affecting so many of the people around her, Robin mentions that H. G. Wells |predicted there could be such a cross-species disease.
  • In "Earthlings", Adam Strange quotes Lewis Carroll in order to get some Rannian policemen to chase him, specifically Jabberwocky and Alice in Wonderland. Later Alanna, who obviously has never heard this tale and does not speak English, tries to do this to Kroleteans:

Alanna: Bewore tha Jabarwok!

• • Bumblebee's line after discovering the ancient ruins in "Beneath":

Bumblebee: Can you say "Temple of Doom?"

• Show Within a Show:
  • Evidently there is a Saved by the Bell-esque show called "Hello Megan" that M'gann got her catchphrase from. It's mentioned briefly at Artemis's home in Episode 8 and appears in one of M'gann's flashbacks in Episode 9. Has its own fabricated page now. Clips, including the opening sequence, are seen in "Image."
  • The Flaming C is apparently a Cartoon in Earth-16.
• Shown Their Work:
  • In the 4th Episode "Drop Zone" when Kid Flash and Robin are discussing chemical formulas, models of them appear on screen. They are the general representations of a steroid and a DNA purine.
  • The maps and locations given in the show are accurate to North East geography. Though why Batman thought Patterson, New York (population 11,306), was important enough to include on the map is a mystery.
  • In "Homefront" Robin asks Kid Flash to give instructions for constructing an EMP device. The components Kid Flash mentions are actual electrical devices and can be used in the construction of such a device. The Vircator is a vacuum tube that can generate pulses of either X-rays or EMPs, hence it being located in an x-ray machine, and Kid Flash's reference about it being a "stone" with a ten to the twelfth wattage is actually an accurate power level.
• Sidekick: It is not quite a Berserk Button, but Speedy in particular and the others do not really like being referred to as such.
• Sidekick Graduations Stick: As of the beginning of season two, Dick Grayson has become Nightwing while Zatanna and Rocket have officially joined the Justice League alongside their former mentors.
• Sincerity Mode: There's a moment in "Insecurity" where Wally drops the jokes and snark to honestly tell Artemis that she belongs on the Team and she shouldn't be worried about Red Arrow replacing her.
• Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer: The preview for the pilot does not feature the two main female characters (Artemis and Miss Martian), since Artemis doesn't actually appear at all in that pilot episode, and Miss Martian only arrives in the coda.
• Smitten Teenage Girl: Miss Martian is quite smitten over Superboy.
• The Smurfette Principle: Briefly plaid straight at the beginning of the series, but soon averted by the team itself. As of the end of the first season, there are eight members, half of whom are female, but every team that appears for only one episode (Whether as heroes or villains) has exactly one female member.
  • The Reds have Red Inferno, an android programmed to believe she was a human female.
  • The Injustice League had Poison Ivy.
  • The Forever People have Dreamer.
  • Intergang has Whisper.
  • The Light has only one female member, Queen Bee.
• So Proud of You: In "Performance," Robin and other members of the Team go undercover at Haly's Circus, where Dick Grayson performed with his parents as the Flying Graysons Trapeze Artists before his parents were murdered and he went to live with Bruce Wayne. Despite identifying himself as "Dan Danger," Jack Haly recognizes and calls him Dick, commeting that he has grown, but that there is simply no way to disguise a Grayson on the trapeze, and asks him for one final performance.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Lex Luthor, interestingly enough--even when directly confronted he never drops his soft, smarmy politeness.
• Something Only They Would Say:
  • Billy Batson convinces Kid Flash that he's Captain Marvel by recalling Kid Flash's request for nachos after he had broken his arm.
  • In "Auld Acquaintance", Red Arrow is in hiding at one of his equipment caches, hiding from the mind-controlled Justice League, when Aqualad finds him. Just to make sure that he can trust Aqualad, Arrow asks Aqualad "Who broke your heart?" Aqualad answers with Tula... and Red Arrow himself, one of Aqualad's best friends, who was aiming an arrow at his chest the whole time.
• Something They Would Never Say: Batman refers to the Team as "kids" in the beginning of "Auld Acquaintance," which Robin recognizes is something he never does.
• Speak of the Devil:
  • In "Secrets":

Zatanna: There easier ways to take them...
Artemis: They had it coming! No harm done. (motorcycles blow up; enter Harm)
Harm: Indeed, Harm is not done...

• • When the Forever People are explaining who Desaad works for to Superboy, the refuse to speak Darkseid's name. Amusingly, Dreamer's projection of Desaad is the one that says "unspeakable", as if it has a mind of its own for that particular moment.
• Spanner in the Works: Even though the Light has a lot of contingency plans and generally manages to keep their gambit running, the Team has a very good track record of foiling their primary plans. It's safe to say they'd be in a much better position if not for the Team.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Captain Marvel seems to have the ability to communicate with animals, as he has an entire conversation with a tiger that he dubs "Mr. Tawny" in "Alpha Male;" in the comics, Tawky Tawny is a tiger companion of Captain Marvel capable of human speech.
• Spoiler Opening: Miss Martian and Artemis appear in the opening credits of every episode. Miss Martian does not actually appear until the very end of the pilot (putting her in the second episode when it was split into two parts for the show's regular time slot) and Artemis does not appear until several episodes into the show's run. Also, scenes from that particular episode will flicker briefly right before the Team Shot.
• Spotting the Thread:
  • Black Manta proves Dangerously Genre Savvy when he notices that Aqualad forgot to conceal his water-bearers when he and Garth stole the uniforms of two of his men.
  • When the Justice League was mind-controlled by Vandal Savage, one of the things that alerted the Team was Batman calling them "kids".
  • Spiritual Successor: to Teen Titans
• Squishy Wizard: Zatanna is the only member of the Team who never does hand-to-hand combat.
• Stealth Hi Bye:
  • Robin appears to have inherited Batman's tendency for this, and the other members of the Team find it extremely frustrating.

Kid Flash: "I forgot how much I hate it when he does the ninja thing."

• • In "Downtime", Aqualad demonstrates to Garth that he seems to have picked up on this trait from Robin.
  • Villains in general are very good at disappearing quickly when visibility is impaired.
  • In season 2, when Black Manta II fires a small missile at Aquaman, Lagoon Boy, Superboy, Superman and Nightwing. When the smoke clears, he, Superboy, and Nightwing have all vanished, and Nightwing actually beat him to his getaway route.
  • In "Beneath", Wonder Girl, Batgirl, Bumblebee and Miss Martian are hanging out on a dune. Wonder Girl looks away for a second, and when she looks back, all three are gone.
  • In that same episode, Batgirl does this to Bumblebee.
• Stealth Insult: In season two when someone untrustful of Lagoon Boy, an Atlantean, relents, Lagoon Boy replies "No hard feelings... Chum." Hm... what else could chum mean?
• Stealth Pun: In his first scene in the pilot, Wally gets given the "cold shoulder" by Captain Cold.
• Stock Scream: Not even Young Justice is safe from Wilhelm! For the curious, it occurs in "Drop Zone", when Superboy tosses Mammoth into the Kobra thugs.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: In "Humanity", Zatanna shares Robin's Running Gag tendency for backformations.

Robin: "Look, I'm trying to all nonchalant here..."
Zatanna: "Why? Be as chalant as you like."

• Suicide Mission: "Failsafe" ends with an invasion of the alien mothership that Superboy, at least, knows is going to be a one-way trip. Robin and Kid Flash, though they had hoped to survive, were trapped within the ship and caught in the explosion.
• Super-Hero Speciation: Averted with both featured superhero teams.
  • The sixteen-member Justice League has Hawkman and Hawkwoman, and two Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan and John Stewart--with Guy Gardner also on Earth and willing to pick up any slack.
  • Defied by the Team itself; though they accept Artemis into group, Kaldur points out that they do not have "a quota on archers" and that Roy is still free to join whenever he wants. Even moreso in season two, where the Team expands its roster and has Batgirl, Robin, and Nightwing (Badass Normal with gadgets), as well as Superboy and Wonder Girl (Flying (or Jumping) Bricks)
• Super Human Trafficking
• Superhuman Transfusion: In "Images", Garfield Logan gained shpeshifting powers after receiving a blood transfusion from Miss Martian.
• Super Serum:
  • The Venom-Blockbuster formula.
  • Superboy is given a sort of Superer Serum in "Agendas". His human father, Lex Luthor, gives him a pack of "Shields", slap-on patches that suppress his human DNA, allowing him to use flight, heat-vision, and his full Kryptonian speed and strength for about an hour.
• Super Speed: Kid Flash
• Super Strength: Superboy is the strongest member of the team, but Aqualad and Miss Martian also have strength beyond that of a normal human.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: When Superboy needs a civilian last name, Martian Manhunter suggests Kent. Not being privy to Superman's secret identity, Miss Martian and Superboy assume that he's referring to the late Kent Nelson, who they've met.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Artemis in "Alpha Male"

Artemis: "And you know they'd hate it if we kept secrets from them. Not that we'd do that. Never."

• Sympathy for the Devil:
  • Conner empathizes with Icicle, Jr. over living in their respective fathers' shadows.
  • At the end of "Humanity", Red Tornado decides to care for the real T.O. Morrow, now a bedridden old man on life support. Despite Morrow's past sins, Tornado still considers him his father/creator.
• Tagalong Kid: Captain Marvel, despite never being a kid at the time.
• Take Me Instead!: In "Misplaced", Zatara gives himself to Dr. Fate in order to save his daughter.
• Taking the Bullet: Tula for Garth. She gets better.
• Taking You with Me: In the climax of "Revelation," The Joker attempts to release his Joker venom and kill the Injustice League and the Justice League en masse after the Justice League arrives to apprehend him and the rest of the villains.
• Tattooed Crook:
  • Inverted with Aqualad, who has very large and noticeable tattoos on both arms but is one of the good guys. At first
  • Played straight with Devastation, who is covered in thorn tattoos.
• Team Pet:
  • The robo-sphere the Team found in Bialya, which "lives" with the group in their headquarters.

Superboy: Can I keep it?

• • The giant wolf found in India, which goes with the Team on missions.
• Technology Marches On: In "Image" when Superboy, Kid Flash and Robin wonder what "Hello Megan!" is that Miss Martian is referring to, Garfield Logan shows them an old videotape of the sitcom his mother starred in years before. Kid Flash snarks "Woah, you still have VHS. Where's your 8 track?"
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Cheshire and Sportsmaster, who very plainly hate one another.
• Tele Frag: Superboy defeats Amazo by punching through his intangible head right before it turns solid again, causing Amazo's head to explode.
• Teleporters and Transporters:
  • Zeta-beam tubes are commonly used by the title team and the League. They make it possible for Aqualad, Kid Flash, Artemis, and Robin to live outside the hideout at their individual homes in Atlantis (it's a country in this universe, not a city according to Word of God), Central City, and Gotham respectively.
  • A "Boom Tube," the preferred means of transportation for the New Gods, appears in "Bereft" and "Disordered".
• That Came Out Wrong:
  • A non-sexual one in "Homefront" when Robin and Artemis are watching the footage of the security cameras of their friends being ambushed and the four cameras are wiped out.

Robin: "That's it. All four are dead."
(Artemis looks at him in horror)
Robin: (hurriedly) "The cameras! I meant the cameras."

• • Played straight in "Humanity" in this conversation between Robin and Zatanna with a good helping of Ship Tease.

Zatanna: Tornado never knew my moves!
Robin: And I bet you've got some good ones!
(beat)
Robin: Whoa! Sorry, that may have come off a little too Wally.
Zatanna: I don't mind.

• That Makes Me Feel Angry: Superboy in "Schooled." Using those exact words.
• That Thing Is Not My Child: See "Well Done, Son" Guy below.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. After "Failsafe" the Team members get a much needed therapy session with Black Canary.
• There Was a Door: In "Misplaced" Billy scales a 10 foot chain fence to enter an airport, despite the fact a wide open gate is situated only twenty feet further down the fence.
• Third Person Person: "We get it! Your name is Harm!"
• Three Amigos:
  • The series opens with Aqualad, Robin, and Kid Flash already cooperating and working as a team.
  • In his backstory, Aqualad with friends Garth and Tula
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Ostensibly, the position taken by the Team, being subordinates to the Justice League.
• Time Skip: Five years (and sixteen hours) between the first season and the second. Note that the Batman Cold Open of the second season's first episode is set up to fool the viewer into thinking it continues directly from the previous episode.
• Title In: Locations are introduced in this way and so are the dates.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: It seems Artemis and Miss Martian are fitting this dynamic.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Red Arrow was the most gung-ho about finding the mole, only to find out that he was unknowningly the mole the entire time. Even worse, he is actually a clone of the original Roy Harper, who was kidnapped by the Light three years prior.
• Took a Level in Badass/Taught By Experience: All the original members of the Team have done this to some extent or another during the Time Skip between the seasons. They have gained not just combat skill, but maturity and intelligence as well, and are now trying to pass that wisdom on to the next batch of teen heroes.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The commercial still during the debut spoiled that Miss Martian and Artemis would join the Team.
• Training from Hell: The scenario from "Failsafe" was an unintended example on the part of the Justice League, when Miss Martian began to believe it was real and that belief overrode the rest of the Team's conscious knowledge it was fake.
• Tracking Device: Amazo has these built in. So do Red Arrow's arrow heads.
• Translator Microbes:
  • Blue Beetle's scarab armor can translate the Krolotean language for Beetle, and can even automatically translate Beetle's English (With occasional Spanish) into the Krolotean language. To everybody else present it is unintelligible gibberish.
  • In "Earthlings," it is revealed that Miss Martian can function as a translator if she is able to set up a psychic link between multiple parties. Each still speaks his or her own language, but everybody else hears the words in their own tongue. Superboy specifies that it is subconscious on her part once she sets up the initial link, so she cannot "hear" what you are saying if you are out of earshot.
• Trigger Phrase:
  • Lex Luthor can temporarily neutralize Superboy with the words "Red Sun".
  • Red Arrow can be put into a pliant state with the words "Broken Arrow".
• Troubled Fetal Position: Artemis, towards the end of "Homefront," when facing the prospects of every friend she has dying and her being unable to do anything about it.
• True Companions: Artemis says this to Cheshire's mask in "Homefront," calling the Team her real family.
• Truncated Theme Tune: Young Justice returned from its last hiatus with the theme song reduced to a five second bit of the tune and its title card, rather than the 20 second one that introduced all characters. This was at least partly to make room for the DC Nation shorts that appear before/during/after the show. Foreign broadcasts keep the extended theme song.
• Truth-Telling Session: "Usual Suspects". It's set up to look like Connor, M'Gann and Artemis are ALL selling the Team out for different reasons... and then a three-stage flashback shows them opening up about their issues one-by-one.

Wally: So, uh, who's next?
M'Gann: I am.
Wally: I swear I was kidding!

• Turn Out Like His Mentor: Batman explicitly states that the reason he indoctrinated Robin into crimefighting at age nine was not to create a successor, but to help Robin bring his parents' killers to justice so that he could deal with his past and not turn into a jaded, bitter fanatic like Batman. He succeeded.
• Twincest: Sort of. Superboy and Miss Martian start making out while undercover as the Terror Twins in "Terrors". Icicle Jr. isn't too pleased.
• Twin Telepathy: Superboy and Miss Martian pretended to have this while undercover in "Terrors".
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Many episodes alternate between two plots, one with more action, and one with more character moments.
• Tyke Bomb: Superboy.
• Underestimating Badassery: The Riddler is the laughingstock of Belle Reve penitentiary, excluded even from eating lunch at the same table as the other prisoners, but is the only prisoner to manage to escape at the end of "Terrors."
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Kaldur likes Tula, who likes Garth instead.
• Unskilled but Strong:
  • Superboy, at least in the early episodes. With training, his hand-to-hand ability improves until we see that he is able to defeat Aqualad in at least one training session.
  • In "Failsafe," Martian Manhunter claims that Miss Martian's raw psychic power is far greater than his own, just untrained.
• Unrobotic Reveal: Mister Twister turns out to be a guy in Powered Armor instead of a robot. But then that guy is a robot. But then, that guy actually exists back at the villains' base, controlling a robot version of himself which in turn controls the Mister Twister armor.
• Unwinnable Training Simulation: The plot of "Failsafe" is revealed to be one of these.
• Utility Belt: You are aware this universe has Batman in it, right?
• Verbal Tic: Robin's tendency to ponder words and their prefixes ("whelmed", for example) and giggling when he joins battle. Episode 5 shows that he actually puts in a lot of thought to it, and that the rest of the Team is picking up on it and using it.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Madame Xanadu in "Denial".
• Villain Exit Stage Left: Played straight usually.
• Virtual Training Simulation: "Revelation" opens with Robin and Aqualad in a real-life Fighting Game as a sparring session. They are even awarded points for combos, dodges and other gaming moves.
• Visible Invisibility: An interesting variety. Miss Martian's ship is usually completely invisible in camouflage mode except when they want the audience to see it. Miss Martian's own power of invisibility, however, is more Predator-like, making it so that she can be spotted in-universe if she moves too much.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Robin and Kid Flash are a mild form of Type 2.
• Voice of the Legion: Occurs whenever someone puts on the Helmet of Nabu to become Dr. Fate.
• Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: The creators say that the Team will be dealing with normal adolescent obstacles such as romantic struggles and of course school, in addition to being a superhero team.
• Walk in Chime In: Happens a few times, usually when someone enters the room via boom tube or flies into a conversation. Robin is frequently guilty, excusable in that he's a ninja.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Superboy's shirt usually ends up ripped in whatever episode he's in, when he bothers to wear one at all.
• Weak but Skilled: Black Canary serves as the Team's combat trainer and, despite lacking any super-powers in hand-to-hand combat, defeats both Kid Flash and Superboy (easily) because of her superior training and experience.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy:
  • Superboy wants to learn from Superman, but Supes distanced himself from the kid until the New Year's episode.

Bruce Wayne: That boy needs his father.
Clark Kent: (angrily) I am not his father!

• • Robin shows some signs of this as well, being visibly jealous when Batman asks to speak to "Just Aqualad" after a failed training mission. Fortunately, Batman is fairly Genre Savvy, and as soon as he notices Robin's hurt feelings he invites him outside for a father-son basketball game. He refers to it as "training" but his real intentions are obvious.
  • Icicle, Jr. wants to earn the respect of his father, Icicle, Sr., who is the dominant prisoner in Belle Reve.
• We Need a Distraction: The Light often stages some sort of elaborate attack in order to disguise their true motives.
• Wham! Episode: In "Usual Suspects", it turns out that Red Arrow is The Mole via mind control, and he has not only allowed The Light access to the Watchtower, but has also infected the entire Justice League with mind-controlling nanotechnology.
• Wham! Line: The Title In from "Happy New Year"

FIVE YEARS LATER

• What Is This Thing You Call Love?: When the Team kisses one another at midnight on New Years Eve, Red Tornado comments that "human customs still elude me."
• What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Miss Martian fears what will happen when her true appearance is discovered, as her natural form is huge and monstrous. The Team points out that they are not so shallow as to judge her by her appearance.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Miss Martian "kills" the robotic mannequin controlling Mister Twister. The others only complain because they did not know he was a robot, and once that is revealed they drop the subject.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • The rest of the Team's reaction to Megan apparently killing Mister Twister's pilot. Of course, they promptly retract their objections when they find out he's Just a Machine...
  • Bruce Wayne to Clark Kent for avoiding contact with Superboy, who views Superman as a father figure while he doesn't respond in kind.
  • Nabu to Kent Nelson for not putting his powers to their full use. Kent telling Nabu that he can't keep Kid Flash's body as his host.
  • Aqualad gets one from the rest of the Team in "Alpha Male" for not telling them there was a mole. They later apologize for overreacting and admit his reasons were justified.
  • In "Failsafe", when Aqualad is apparently killed and Robin takes over, he selects Conner for a suicide mission to provide a distraction. Miss Martian calls him on it, saying that Aqualad wouldn't do that. Robin counters that Aqualad would sacrifice himself, which is why he's dead and they have no leader.
  • In "Agendas", Captain Marvel calls out Nabu for his actions in "Misplaced" that resulted in Zatara's Heroic Sacrifice and questions whether someone willing to do that belongs on the Justice League. Green Arrow and Red Tornado agree with his position.
  • Kid Flash does this to Artemis in "Insecurity", when she seemingly misled the Team simply to prove herself better than Red Arrow, who had just agreed to join the Team.
  • Superboy looks like he's about to do this in "Earthlings" in regards to M'Gann's Mind Rape of the Kroletean leader, but she cuts him off before he can finish since there are more important things to focus on.
• What Would X Do?: Aqualad manages to get Superboy on his side in the pilot by asking "What Would Superman Do?"
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Averted (which is strange for a show based on The DC Universe):
  • Gotham City is clearly shown on a map to be in Connecticut, approximately where the real city of Bridgeport is located. Bonus points as Bridgeport in Real Life has a reputation as a troubled city. Incidentally, there was "Springfield" somewhere north of Gotham, a real city in Massachusetts.
  • Happy Harbor (where Mount Justice is located) is somewhere in Rhode Island. This is from the comics.
  • Central City is fittingly in Missouri, complete with its own expy of the Gateway Arch.
• White Sheep: About half the Team, which despite their families ended up superheroes.
  • Superboy was a living weapon created by Project Cadmus to destroy Superman. Also, his human "father" is Lex Luthor, and his "brother" Match is a clinically insane monster.
  • Artemis' father and sister are League of Assassins members Sportsmaster and Cheshire respectively.
  • Aqualad's father is the supervillain Black Manta. In season two he joins Black Manta.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The main plot of "Coldhearted" is taken directly from the comic book "The Flash Vol. 2 #1", the issue where Wally became The Flash for the first time after his career as Kid Flash.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: When Desaad uses the Father Box to reprogram Infinity Man and make him attack Superboy, a mook asks why Infinity Man (obviously the superior combatant) doesn't just kill Superboy outright. Desaad explains that he is not one to end things so quickly, and the Father Box is designed to emulate his mindset.
• The Wiki Rule: Now has a Wiki here.
• Worf Had the Flu: When fighting the mind-controlled Justice League, Artemis is amazed that they haven't been killed already. Wally points out that since the mind-control is more like remote-control, the League's actions have to be controlled by someone, Klarion. Klarion has to micro-manage every member, and this bottlenecks their performance to a threat that the Team can hope to survive.
• Working with the Ex: After the Time Skip, Miss Martian and Lagoon Boy are now dating. Conner has voluntarily chosen to stay on the same team with M'gann, even though he has the option of joining the Justice League, but he is clearly uncomfortable with their relationship.
• A Worldwide Punomenon:
  • A liberal use in the pilot though not quite enough for a Hurricane of Puns...yet.

Green Arrow: [re: Icicle Jr.] Heh. Kid had a glass jaw.
Robin: [upon running out of zipline] ... I'm at the end of my rope.

• • "Psimon says forget!"
  • Sportsmaster refers to getting his hands on the Blockbuster/Venom formula as a "game changer".
• Would Hit a Girl: Both heroes and villains treat their opponents the same regardless of gender, and no character has shown qualms about striking a woman in any episode.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • None of the villains so far have any qualms about attacking minors with lethal force. Mr. Twister commented on the fact that he was fighting children, and found the fact that the Justice League was using children to be disturbing, but he didn't hold back because of it.
  • In episode 18, "Secrets", Harm is revealed to have murdered his younger sister to obtain power and purity of heart.
  • In "Coldhearted", Count Vertigo plots to kill his own ten year old niece to take control of his country, as his niece is currently Queen, by withholding a heart transplant from her. Fortunately, Kid Flash stops his plot and Vertigo ends up humiliated in Belle Reve.
• Written-In Absence: Robin does not appear in "Denial" because he is "doing the Dynamic Duo thing with the Batman in Gotham". Aqualad gets a similar excuse in "Image".
• Xanatos Gambit: Even after almost every defeat of their operatives, "The Light" manages some sort of victory and one step closer towards their endgame. This show is run by the man who created David Xanatos, after all.
• X-Ray Sparks: The alien weapons in "Failsafe" cause anyone hit by them to light up, revealing their skeleton before disintegrating the victim.
• You Have Got to Be Kidding Me!: Superboy's basic reaction to "Bear" threatening him as a thief one moment... and less than a minute later declaring that they "embrace him as a friend, ally, and noble warrior!" ...It's understandable.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: "Failsafe," which was supposed to be just a mental training mission, suddenly became life threatening when Artemis "died" in the mission. M'gann, though she knew it was fake, was so overcome by seeing Artemis die that her telepathic powers actually rewrote her own memories, and the memories of the rest of the Team, so they each believed the simulation was reality and slipped into a coma upon "death."

1. ↑ The mission is to Bialya, which is run by Queen Bee, who can mind-control most men and some women.
2. ↑ except, it's not really her