Created in 2010, Young Justice is an animated series based on the characters of DC Comics that focuses on a covert black ops team consisting of the various sidekicks to the Justice League. The fact that they are not the major superheroes makes them the ideal candidates to be undetected by bigger threats, and along the way uncover a vast conspiracy connecting many villains in the DC Universe. The series original roster included Robin, Kid-Flash, Aqualad, Superboy, Miss Martian, and Artemis, with Zatanna and Rocket joining later in season 1 and Speedy aka Red Arrow a reluctant ally. As the series continues, the roster grows to include a wider array of young DC heroes including Static Shock, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Batgirl, and many more.

Created by Greg Weisman (Gargoyles) and Brandon Vietti (Batman: Under the Red Hood) with character design by Phil Bourassa (The Spectacular Spider-Man) and drawing from a mix of the Young Justice comic of the same name and the original Teen Titans comics from the Silver Age, Young Justice is a coming-of-age story in a world filled with superheroes. The series received critical acclaim and became a fan favorite for its rich characterizations and well-thought-out, lived-in world filled with details that make it an ultimate love letter to DC Comics, that is both inviting to newcomers while rewarding for long-time fans. There is a real sense of history in this version, with the heroes and villains having long complicated interconnected lives that weave in and out of one another in a way that captured the spirit of what their competitor Marvel would do years later with the MCU.

Young Justice has told a massive story that spans 12 years, four seasons, and three different broadcasters, with each season standing on its own with a self-contained story but also a larger narrative that showcases an evolving universe of heroes. These are all the seasons of Young Justice, ranked.

4 Season 3: The Outsiders

Young Justice - Outsiders
Warner Bros. Animation

Returning to screens six years after being canceled on Cartoon Network, fans were eagerly anticipating the return of Young Justice for the then-new DC Universe streaming app. Season 3, subtitled The Outsiders, had a lot to live up to including paying off the season 2 cliffhanger, which saw the revelation that the main antagonist of the series The Light was working with Darkseid. The threat of Darkseid is very much the cornerstone of season 3, with the first letter in the 26-episode season spelling out a hidden phrase: "Prepare the Anti-Life Equation."

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Yet instead of revisiting a lot of the familiar characters, or even some of the newer characters that were set up in season 2 but not given full storylines (like Wonder Girl or Tim Drake's Robin), season 3 did something different. This Young Justice season sidelined a good portion of the original cast except for Nightwing, who leads a new superhero team consisting of Geo-Force, Halo, and Forager, while Beast Boy started his own team of younger heroes titled The Outsiders.

The season did feature a lower budget than the previous two, meaning the series had to cut some costs. A lot of the action sequences were less dynamic and the series amped up the level of montages of still frames with audio over it to get around animating whole sequences. However, there is a trade-off, as being tied to a streaming series and no longer concerned with attracting ads during a kid's television block means that the series can address deeper things. More mature themes were addressed, like the metahuman trafficking storyline having real-world parables with human trafficking, as well as expanding the heroes of the series on a wider spectrum of sexuality, religion, and gender identity. While season 3 may not have lived up to the high expectations fans had going in, it still delivered a deep expansion of the DC Universe and gave the spotlight to a number of DC heroes that younger audiences and even some older fans may not have imagined.

3 Season 4: Phantoms

Young Justice - Phantoms
Warner Bros. Animation

The first season to premiere on HBO Max, Young Justice season 4 titled Phantoms appropriately features appearances by Phantom Girl and the Phantom Stranger and the major arc of the series will be the threat of General Zod and Krpytoninans from the Phantom Zone.

With the roster of Young Justice growing so much, season 4 decides to return the focus to the original team. The season consists of six different arcs, each focused on a particular hero from the original team and their own corner of the DC Universe. This allows each episode to be anchored by a fan-favorite character while also keeping up to date on what is going on with various heroes through their connection, like seeing Zatanna work alongside various magic-based heroes or Artemis work with characters like Orphan, Spoiler, and more. It shows how the original team has grown in the series' ten-year continuity and shows how they've gone from the young kids to established cornerstones of the universe.

While the storylines do all seem very disparate, they are all linked together by the quest to find Superboy and eventually lead into the climactic final arc which sees General Zod begin his invasion of Earth. Currently, it is unclear if the series will get a season 5, and while Young Justice ends on a cliffhanger setting up a major threat and at least three different DC adaptations, the season finale did get to end with the wedding of Superboy and Miss Martian, offering a happy ending for the series if this truly is the end.

2 Season 2: Invasion

Young Justice - Invasion
Warner Bros. Animation

While only premiering just one week after the season 1 finale, Young Justice season 2 uses that juxtaposition to shock the audience by opening on New Year's Day but revealing five years have passed, creating a sense of immediate audience engagement, using that as a hook to keep audiences coming back to see how all the major changes took place.

Season 1 was a spy espionage series, but season 2 goes for a large cosmic story expanding the universe by introducing a variety of alien worlds and species, fittingly titled Invasion. At the center is The Reach, an alien species who don't invade by force but instead is welcomed to Earth with open arms, hiding a sinister motivation.

The series shows how the original team has grown in their five years, with Robin adopting the mantle of Nightwing and becoming the team's new leader while Aqualad has fallen in with working with his villainous father Black Manta. Superboy and Miss Martian are broken up, Kid-Flash and Artemis have retired to have normal lives and Zatanna and Rocket have been upgraded to members of the Justice League.

The series also greatly expands the team roster in the five-year gap, with much of the focus being on Blue Beetle and Kid-Flash.

Season 2 sees the team step up as the Justice League is taken off the board for a majority of the season, and while they save the planet the audience is left with a heavy loss as Kid-Flash sacrifices himself. The audience's investment in these characters and relationships makes the moment land so hard and reminds the audience that these heroes put their lives on the line every day and sometimes won't come back.

1 Season 1: Young Justice

Young Justice season 1
Warner Bros. Animation

Young Justice season 1 set the tone for the series, and every subsequent series' strengths and failures all tie back to this first season, which cast a large shadow over the series. This first season got audiences invested in its six lead characters of Robin, Kid-Flash, Aqualad, Superboy, Miss Martian, and Artemis, taking these sidekicks and making them as fleshed out and iconic as their superhero mentors.

The first season is an espionage series and uses its global scale to take audiences to various corners of the DC Universe with every scene featuring a reference to the rich comic history while making a unique world all its own. Season 1 sees the team travel to various locations in the DC Universe while encountering a whole host of villains all tied together by a giant conspiracy.

Love for the spy genre even bleeds into the series' central storyline, as various characters are hiding secrets from one another about their past, and their strengths come from opening up to one another and accepting their place not only amongst a team but amongst friends. By the end of the season, when the team has to go up against the main villains of the series as well as the Justice League, these characters are no longer sidekicks but heroes in their own right who would grow into beloved fan favorites. While the DC Animated Universe may have ended and many thought the best DC Universe was over, Young Justice proved there were still great stories left to tell and a whole new way to look at this universe.