Young Justice

These developments spin off into one of the series' key events, Young Justice: Sins of Youth fifth week event in March 2000 (takes place between Young Justice issues #19 and 20), as the team's troubles come to a head when all members of Young Justice, the Justice League, the Justice Society, the Titans, and several other costumed heroes are, in a catastrophic chain of events involving Klarion the Witch-Boy, are either aged to adulthood or de-aged to adolescence, thanks to the machinations of the Agenda, headed by former wife of Lex Luthor, Contessa Erica Alexandra Del Portenza, who had been manipulating events from the beginning in an attempt to discredit all costumed super-heroes, young and old alike, by targeting Young Justice and the teen heroes as the weakest link in the chain. During this crisis, as the heroes scatter to find a reversal to Klarion's magicks, the DCU is given a glimpse of the quality of heroism that may one day arise from its youngest generation of super-heroes (much to the surprise of many within the super-heroic community, as well as a few members of Young Justice themselves), as well as a glimpse of its senior generations in their teen years or younger. Also during the event, or as indirect results of the event, Superboy's girlfriend Tana Moon is brutally murdered by an agent of the Agenda, marking a turning point in the Kid of Steel's life, Wonder Girl began to bloom into her role as a hero, even abandoning her wig. Jack Knight (Starman), impressed with the competence and intelligence he witnessed in the then-adult Courtney Whitmore, the second Star-Spangled Kid, would later pass his Cosmic Rod and the Starman mantle on to Courtney, spurring the precocious heroine to later become Stargirl. It also marked the transition between the original six and the new cast, with Empress joining right after this storyline and a newly de-aged Lobo, or Li'l Lobo, being created by it.[2]

In the aftermath of these events, negative public opinion against the young crime-fighters subsides, and the team reconciles with their friends and mentors in the Justice League and with the government. Superboy temporarily loses his powers, but regains his ability to age normally (as a result from an earlier story arc in his own title, Kon-El was permanently suspended in age as a 16-year-old). The team re-locates its headquarters to an abandoned hotel in the Catskills and takes a temporary leave of absence to recuperate, allowing for a substitute team consisting of Beast Boy, Flamebird, Batgirl, Captain Marvel Junior, and Lagoon Boy to fill in for one issue, as they intervene in a battle royale between Klarion and Li'l Lobo.

When Cissie is selected to represent the United States in the archery games for the 2000 Summer Olympics at the encouragement of her mother, the team accompanies her to Australia and thwarts an effort to sabotage the games by the criminal nation of Zandia. Cissie, a natural-born marksman, wins the gold medal for the US, effectively gaining her celebrity status without the need of her heroic identity. They team up once again with Empress, finally learning her true identity, much to Anita's chagrin. Young Justice quickly warms up to the young mystic and welcomes her within their ranks, though Cissie initially rejects Anita out of resentment towards feeling replaced.

The team later make an expedition to outer space at the behest of Doiby Dickles, former sidekick to Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott, and former member of Old Justice, to free his previous homeworld Myrg from invading forces.[3] In this adventure they encounter Li'l Lobo once again, who agrees to join them for the expectation of violence. Robin begrudgingly allows Young Justice to accept Lobo's help in this instance, primarily out of a desire for any chance of evening their odds for success. After liberating Myrg and returning home (after yet another brief excursion to New Genesis, in which Secret meets and unwittingly strikes up a rapport with the despotic Darkseid), Lobo continues to exercise his presence with Young Justice and participating in their adventures for no real reason that anyone within the group can discern; he is never officially accepted as a member. He develops an attraction for Empress; a mildly interested but mostly apathetic Anita obliges to go on a date with him at one point.

During 2001's "Our Worlds at War" storyline, the universe is faced with the dual threat of impending annihilation at the hands of Imperiex and conquest/enslavement at the hands of Brainiac 13. Many tenuous alliances are formed, particularly between then-US President Lex Luthor and the Justice League, not to mention Earth and the dark world Apokolips. In the midst of intergalactic war, Young Justice is drafted into the combat strictly for search and rescue purposes. As a result of the aftermath of the JLA: Tower of Babel storyline, in which Batman had been revealed to be keeping extensive and invasive dossiers on his teammates in the Justice League for purposes of neutralizing and subduing in the event of any of them going rogue, similar suspicions of Robin had begun to circulate amongst his teammates in Young Justice. When the team crash lands and is left stranded on Apokolips after Superboy took control of their shuttle in an attempt to rescue Steel from the Black Racer, tensions explode between Superboy and Robin and those suspicions are brought to light, leaving the team divided; Superboy, Wonder Girl, Impulse, and Cissie all express concerns regarding whether Robin is capable of doing the same thing to them, but Secret reaffirms her faith in Robin while Empress acknowledges Batman's reasons for developing the strategies, with Lobo dismissing it as impossible for anyone to take him out so he doesn't care. The group agree to put the matter aside for the time being as they attempt to get off of Apokolips.

The team quickly begins drawing enemy fire; Impulse is left shaken and temporarily traumatized when one of his super-speed "scouts" (vibrational "clones" Impulse learned to make of himself that could function independently for short time periods) is killed in the line of fire, giving the lackadaisical hero a harsh confrontation with his own mortality; Li'l Lobo is all but annihilated by Parademons, ultimately finished off by the Black Racer. The rest of the team is taken captive and put into the care of Granny Goodness, where she and her Female Furies subject them to various cruel forms of mental torture. Secret is taken to confer with Darkseid, who had taken an interest in the powerful, yet naive young heroine the last time they had met. Secret, who had recently begun to learn more about her powers and her connections with the afterlife and who had consequently began to ponder her true nature, is informed by Darkseid that she is "evil." Young Justice eventually breaks free from Granny's captivity and lashes out at their tormentors before making another desperate attempt at escape. Due to Li'l Lobo's ability to replicate clones of himself for every drop of his blood spilled, the team is aided by an army of Lobo clones who are unleashed on the Apokoliptian forces, as they lash out against everyone and everything around them before turning on each other and killing one another off to the last surviving Lobo. The team finally makes good their escape from Apokolips in the midst of the chaos, with the help of one additional genetically inferior teenage Lobo that had remained hidden from the fight in their spaceship. Ashamed of his perceived inferiority and cowardice, this less imposing, less threatening Lobo renames himself "Slo-Bo." The team, who had been listed as missing in action for some time finally return to Earth safely a few days after the Imperiex War had finally ended, collectively and individually jarred by their wartime experience.

In the aftermath of this adventure, for the first time frightened for his life, Impulse decides to quit the team, retiring from his super-hero life altogether. He is joined by Robin, who decides to sever ties with the team out of hurt feelings inflicted by teammates that he feels no longer trust him. After the loss of two founding members, they are joined by former Justice League mascot Snapper Carr, who agrees to assume Red Tornado's mentoring position; with his own unique form of counsel, Snapper attempts to help the remaining members get their feet back on the ground. To re-bolster their ranks, the team soon recruits the older Ray as its newest member. Meanwhile, in an effort to help Secret come to terms with her tragic past and assuage her concerns over what she considers her "true nature", Snapper arranges for Suzie to be taken in by the Spectre Hal Jordan in a mentoring capacity. The full details of her life and death are brought to light, as well as her role as a "gatekeeper" between the realm of the dead and the living. She is never shown divulging the information of her origin to her teammates, though she does supply them with her true name, Greta Hayes.

All four series featuring Young Justice characters take part in the "World Without Young Justice" crossover in April 2002. The five-part story arc features old Young Justice opponent Bedlam from "World Without Grown-Ups" returning and once again recreating the world to suit his will. In this new reality, Young Justice consists of distorted, and in some cases amoral, parodies of their proper selves. Reunited with Bart Allen and Tim Drake, Young Justice manages to defeat Bedlam once again and restore reality to its rightful state.

With Young Justice once again in full force, the team decides to take a vote on who should become team leader, due to the feeling that despite Robin's return, they question whether or not he deserves the position of leader, particularly in light of having quit the team so abruptly. In the end, Wonder Girl, having blossomed into a competent, level-headed heroine since her more awkward days hiding under her wig and goggles, and also having stuck with the team through thick and thin since close to its beginning, wins the election, and is given full blessings from former leader, Robin. Though Robin loses his leadership position, he continues to act as the team's chief tactical mind, similar to Batman's role with the JLA.

Wonder Girl assumes responsibility just in time to lead Young Justice to its next challenge. When Empress's father is kidnapped and murdered by her super-villain grandfather, Agua Sin Gaaz, a prominent and powerful resident of the nation of Zandia, populated primarily with criminals, Young Justice assembles a legion of young heroes from across the DCU to assist in Sin Gaaz's apprehension, including Stargirl, Jakeem Thunder, Lagoon Boy, Kid Devil, The Wonder Twins, and dozens of others. The assault on Zandia is met with an equally staggering assemblage of villains, resulting in an all-out battle royale. Empress confronts Sin Gaaz, but the villain is defeated and murdered by Arrowette – not Cissie, but her mother, Bonnie King-Jones, passing off as her own daughter. After Sin Gaaz's demise, Empress is left in the care of two newborn infants suddenly created in his lab – the reincarnations of Anita's own deceased parents.

The final storyline of the series witnesses the building subplot of Secret's dark side coming to light. As Young Justice prepares to boost its image and expand by agreeing to star in a new reality show, Secret learns that her father is to soon be sentenced to death for the murder of her brother, Harm. She pleas for her teammates help in breaking him out of jail. When they refuse and later condemn her after freeing her father anyway, a betrayed Secret erupts in a fit of anger, violently attacks her friends, and agrees to leave Earth for Apokolips with Darkseid, at last giving in to his offer of tutelage. With Secret now in service to one of humanity's greatest adversaries, and now totally in control of her vast power linking her to the abyss, the team apprehensively prepares to face their former friend. Impulse confesses his fear over his own lack of regard for his own life; Empress, now left to care for two newborn infants faces the possibility that her career as a super-hero may be over; Slo-Bo, with his physically inferior body, is slowly beginning to degrade; Cissie at last establishes peace with her mother; and Superboy and Wonder Girl finally confess their feelings for one another. When Secret finally attacks in a final confrontation condemning her friends for failing her, Robin admits their failings and appeals to Secret's reason and inner goodness. Upon breaking down in tears and giving up the people she had previously consumed, Secret is confronted and scorned by an angered Darkseid. Slo-Bo attempts to attack the New God but is seemingly obliterated by a shot of Darkseid's Omega Effect. Darkseid then uses his Omega Effect to strip Secret of her immortality and her power, rendering her "normal" as punishment for her betrayal; ironically, being "normal" was all Secret really yearned for all along. The last page reveals that Slo-Bo, rather than being killed by Darkseid, was instead flung into the far future, where he is (consciously) imprisoned as a statue in the Young Justice of the 853rd Century's cave headquarters.

The team is next seen in the Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day mini-series. A casual business meeting with a potential money source and the Titans goes awry when the two teams are attacked by an android (see Indigo) from the future, leaving Empress, Argent, Cyborg and Jesse Quick hospitalized. The Ray is absent, but unmentioned. Upon further pursuance of the situation, the unwitting android activates a dormant Superman replicate android that had been left in the care of STAR Labs. The Superman android turns out to be hostile, and the resulting clash leads to the deaths of long-time Titans Lilith and Donna Troy (who, unknown to the Titans and Young Justice, was resurrected by the Titans of Myth), leaving both teams devastated. Wonder Girl, enraged at being unable to save either of them and particularly saddened by the loss of her friend and predecessor, has come to see herself and Young Justice ineffective as heroes, and turns away from her teammates. Young Justice finally dissolves. The kids, choosing to shoulder the weight of the responsibility for the fiasco, drop out of communication with one another until Wonder Girl, Robin, Superboy, and Impulse are brought back together by Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy to form the new Teen Titans.

Meanwhile, Ray joins the new Freedom Fighters, while Snapper Car joins Checkmate. Secret, without powers retires from the superhero world to attend school with Cissie and Wonder Girl. Empress also goes into semi-retirement but would occasionally re-don her costume during the Infinite Crisis, and during a brief team-up with Supergirl. She apparently came out of retirement in Final Crisis, joining Mas y Menos and Sparx in forming a Teen Titans spin-off known as the "League of Titans". The League is easily defeated by Mirror Master and Arthur Light, and are last seen recuperating at the Hall of Justice. Red Tornado meanwhile later rejoins the Justice League. After over a year of inactivity, Lagoon Boy is recruited by Cyborg for his new Titans East roster, only to be severely injured and rendered comatose on the team's first training exercise. The Super-Cycle meanwhile has disappeared without a trace.

A short Young Justice story is added into Teen Titans #50, where Wonder Girl and Robin remembering their old Young Justice days, and in particular the newly deceased Bart Allen. The pair would share stories about how Bart would impulsively make mistakes such as causing an international incident in Gorilla City, failing to realize his teammates were badly-made robots and publishing the team's secret identities in a Young Justice comic book.

In the Wonder Girl mini series, the then living remaining core members of Young Justice, consisting of Wonder Girl, Robin, Empress, and Arrowette (Secret was absent due to her powers being gone and Superboy and Kid Flash had not yet been resurrected), along with Hercules, teamed up to defeat Granny Goodness and her Female Furies.

In the first six issues of Adventure Comics (collected in Superboy: The Boy of Steel), Wonder Girl, Red Robin (Tim Drake), and Kid Flash come together in Smallville to offer Superboy support after an incident with Lex Luthor.

In the years following DC's The New 52 and DC Rebirth soft reboots, a new Young Justice series was launched in January 2019 as part of DC's teen-oriented Wonder Comics imprint, written by the imprint's curator Brian Michael Bendis.[4][5] The first story arc featured the reunion of original team members Robin (Tim Drake), Superboy (Conner Kent), Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) and Impulse (Bart Allen). They were joined by new team members Teen Lantern (Keli Quintana), a young girl who managed to hack a Green Lantern Corps power battery; Jinny Hex, the descendant of Jonah Hex; and Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld. This series saw the reintroduction of the pre-New-52 Conner Kent and Bart Allen to the main DC continuity, apart from the latter's one-page reappearance in The Flash vol. 5 #51.

The team initially came together in Metropolis, when responding to an incursion from the forces of the Dark Lord Opal from Gemworld. Being drawn into Gemworld after the retreating invaders, the team were reunited with Superboy – who had been marooned on Gemworld for some time, and so had been unaffected by the cosmic reboots that had altered continuity since his last appearance – and introduced to Amethyst. After defeating the Dark Lord Opal, the team were set adrift in the multiverse and travelled through a variety of alternate realities in their attempt to get home. While on Earth-Three, on Impulse's encouragement Robin took up the new codename Drake.

Upon returning to their home reality, the team encountered Naomi McDuffie, main character of the Wonder Comics series Naomi. Soon afterwards, Superboy was again sent to an alternate reality by the villainous S.T.A.R. Labs scientists who had initially sent him to Gemworld, this time ending up on Skartaris. In their effort to find out what happened to him, Young Justice teamed up with Naomi, along with Jayna & Zan from Wonder Twins and Miguel Montez & Summer Pickens from Dial H For Hero (both series also under the Wonder Comics imprint).

David F Walker became co-writer of the series as of issue #13. More allies were recruited for the mission to recover Superboy, including Spoiler (Stephanie Brown), Aqualad (Jackson Hyde), Sideways (Derek James) and original team member Arrowette (Cissie King-Jones). After the defeat of the S.T.A.R. Labs scientists and Superboy's return, the team decided to accept all their allies on the mission as new members, transforming Young Justice from a self-contained team into a broadly-connected network of young superheroes.