DC Comics has a long history of featuring stories of their younger hero teams, with such titles as Teen Titans and The Legion of Super-heroes. In the late 90s, the publisher went a new direction with a group of sidekicks initially starring the three most popular young heroes, Robin The Boy Wonder, Superboy, and Impulse, coming together to form Young Justice.
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Created by writer Peter David, who wrote all 57 issues of the main series and art by Todd Nauck, the team was initially formed by Robin, Superboy, and Impulse, who had established friendships through adventures in their solo titles. The young trinity was soon joined by other established young heroes such as Wonder Girl, Arrowette, with characters such as Secret and Empress created explicitly for the series.
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10 Robin The Boy Wonder & Team Leader
Tim Drake, the third sidekick of Batman, became the de facto leader of Young Justice after they officially formedand was the reason the three young heroes met in the first place. By the time the three began their adventures together, Tim had already stepped out from the shadow of Batman, striking out on his own following the events of Knightfall and Azrael taking over for Bruce Wayne as Batman.
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Like his mentor in the Justice League, Robin is the only non-powered member of the original group. However, Robin's martial arts training, arsenal gadgets, and level of maturity made him the ideal person to lead the team and help Superboy and Impulse focus on the missions' tasks.
9 Superboy / Kon-El
Superboy, who at the time the team formed was going by Kon-El, is the clone of Superman who appeared on the scene after the creature known as Doomsday killed Superman. Following Superman's return, Superboy spent time in Hawaii, had some adventures in the future with the Legion, and worked with Cadmus, the lab where he was created. Superboy first teamed up with Robin when the Boy wonder asked for help in dealing with Metallo, who was after a decommissioned submarine in the Gotham City Harbor. Because of the friendship that he formed with Robin, Superboy was a founding member of the team.
8 Impulse / Bart Allen
Born in the late 30th Century and raised in a virtual reality simulator to keep pace with his accelerated growth, Bart Allen found himself in the past (the present DCU) by his grandmother, Iris Allen. She hoped that Wally West could help him control his hyperspeed metabolism. Once in the present DCU, Bart's hyper-accelerated growth normalized but was too much for Wally to deal with, so Speed Force Zen Master Max Mercury took over the job of teaching young Bart to control his actions, which had earned him the name Impulse.
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Like Superboy, Impulse and Robin teamed up against a former KGB agent and the militia group White Heat who attempted to steal a cache of nuclear weapons. Impulse served as the comic relief for the team while lending the benefits of his speed abilities to the other two's brains and brawn.
7 Arrowette / Cissie King-Jones
Arrowette, whose civilian name is Cissie King-Jones, is Bonnie King's daughter, the original Miss Arrowette. Before joining Young Justice in issue #4, Arrowette appeared in Impulse #59, attending Bart's school Valentine's dance as his date. Her initial foray as a superhero was cut short when her mother was charged with child endangerment. Still, Cissy later resumed being Arrowette after being convinced that she could be a better hero than her mother.
Arrowette joined Young Justice after an encounter with the villain Harm wounded her with her own arrows, seriously injuring her shoulder. Cissie would later retire from being Arrowette, occasionally returning to aid the team as their field medic.
6 Wonder Girl / Cassie Sandsmark
Cassandra "Cassie" Sandsmark is the third and present holder of the Wonder Girl title. Created by John Byrne and making her first appearance in Wonder Woman #105 as a supporting character. She would go on to become one of the most highly recognized and trusted young heroes once joining Young Justice in issue #4, serving both as a member and eventually as the team leader.
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Cassie joined Young Justice in issue #4, the same time as Arrowette and The Secret. During her tenure with Young Justice and subsequent Teen Titans series, Wonder Girl's journey has been defined by changes to both her superhero and secret identities. These changespositioned herto take the leadership role of Young Justice once Robin stepped down from the position.
5 The Secret /Greta Hayes
The Secret, born Greta Hayes,was created by Todd Dezago, Todd Nauck, and Peter David, was first introduced during the Girlfrenzy event of 1998 in Girlfrenzy: The Secret, which also marked the first adventure of Robin, Superboy, Impulse before the ongoing series started. The three young heroes offer to help the D.E.O.after they are told that they are after a dangerous entity. They soon discover that the gaseous creature is actually a young girl, who turns out was part of the experiments by the D.E.O. and help her fake her death.
In issue #4, Secret returns to the Young Justice base in Happy Harbor and joins the team along with Arrowette and Wonder Girl after discovering that Harm is her brother, transforming her into the ghost-like creature.
4 Lagoon Boy / La'gaan
La'gaan aka Lagoon Boy first appeared in Young Justice in No Man's Land Special written by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty in 1998 before becoming a reserve member of the team in Young Justice #21. In the No Man's Land special, Superboy and Impulse try to cheer up Robin by entering Gotham and helping the earthquake ridden city. In order to get in, they call Lagoon Boy and the Land Lubbers to sneak them into the city.
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Lagoon Boy would later become a reserve member (along with Beast Boy, Changeling, Flamebird, Captain Marvel Jr., and Batgirl) and aid the team against Klarion and during the Sins of Youth storyline. After these appearances, he would resurface during Infinite Crisis and Teen Titans East before his untimely death at The Sanctuary during Heroes In Crisis.
3 Lil' Lobo / Slo-Bo
DC's Main Man and bounty hunter Lobo, The Last Czarnian, joined Young Justice after the Sins of Youth event that left him dead thanks to Klarion the Witch Boy's machinations. After this encounter with Klarion, Lobo found himself trapped in the body of a teenager after it was discovered that he was immune to Klarion's magic, even after forcing Klarion to return him to his original age. Lobo embraced his newfound youth, declaring himself the "top teen" and allying himself with Young Justice (Issue #25), even adhering to Robin's "no-kill" rule.
During the Young Justice's mission to Apokolips during the Our Worlds At War event, Lobo was killed by an army of Parademons and the Black Racer, only to regenerate as a bunch of clones from drops of his blood.
2 Empress /Anita Fite
Anita Fite, who under the guise of Empress, first appeared in Young Justice #16, finally joining the team in issue #25. The daughter of Donald Fite, a member of the secret government agency the All-Purpose Enforcement Squad (A.P.E.S.), and Oshi, a priestess of the mystical art of Vodun (Voodoo), Anita was inspired to fight and save lives using her considerable fighting skills and the mystic art of vodoun as Empress, inspired by Arrowette.
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Following her mother's murder, she and her father moved to Happy Harbor, home of the Young Justice headquarters. During her time with Young Justice, Anita got her chance to avenge her mother's death and left the superhero life to raise her mother and father, who had been cloned using a fusion of vodoun mysticism and modern science.
1 The Ray /Raymond Terrill
Raymond " The Ray" Terrill was the last to join the Young Justice team doing so in issue #41, following a stint as a Justice League member and starring in his solo series. After learning that his father was the original Golden Age Ray and being kept hidden away snd told exposure to direct sunlight would result in his death, Ray learns about his father's true powers in a death bed confession.
Ray joins the team after saving a boy's life while the team is on a tram car to F.D.R. Island and aiding the team with their assault on Zandia as a favor to Empress, staying on until the team disbanded following the death of Donna Troy during the Young Justice/Titans: Graduation Day event.
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