Nightmare Fuel / Young Justice (2010)

Animated Series

Season 1

Fireworks

• Three minors, aged 13, 15, and 16, are subjected to what is essentially torture via DNA harvestation.

Revelation

• The Joker (who else) gassing the firefighters through the giant plants, or when he takes an interest in Robin while carrying an absurdly huge knife.

Failsafe

• An entire episode of it. And it keeps. Getting. Worse.
  • Imagine if the Kobiyashi Maru was happening, except you didn't know it was a simulation.

Secrets

• The fact that the series actually averts Improbable Infant Survival with Harm murdering his sister. This itself makes Harm this, combined with his Creepy Monotone, Third-Person Person tendencies, and weird scars on his face.

Season 2 (Invasion)

Earthlings

• Miss Martian's Mind Rape, tellingly and lovingly showed where the Kroloteans twitch and drool as they were being mentally tortured.
  • She does this to Aqualad as well, not knowing he's under cover. She could fry an innocent bystander's mind simply because she was angry and not paying attention.
  • The Kroloteans get another during the raid on their escape vessel. Superman uses his heat vision to cut one of their spider-mechs in half...and the Krolotean pilot emerges, screaming in pain and covered in burns. An awful aversion of Convection, Schmonvection.

Darkest

• The Scarab can take control of Jaime's armor when it feels the need. Not only is Jaime a prisoner in his own body, but the Scarab is a Sociopathic Hero with no regard for human life whatsoever.

Before the Dawn

• Black Beetle shows how much worse the Scarab could be if it was working properly. Black Beetle isn't uncaring — he's outright sadistic.
• Also, we get a flashback on how Jaime first got the scarab. Despite us believing that it's just Power Armor, the scene just screams of Body Horror.
  • Turns out the scarab isn't just Power Armor, it is attached to his spine and actively resists removal, which puts it well into the category of Body Horror.

Cornered

• Virgil describing what happened to the kids on the Reach's ship. And then we learn that he's not a runaway, meaning many of those kids still have parents who are wondering where they are.
  Virgil: I don't know why they chose me, but I know that they wanted to break me.
  Black Canary: Why do you say that?
  Virgil: The tests. They started out small, little static shocks, but they kept upping the juice, till it felt like I was being... eaten by lightning. Still, I was one of the lucky ones. The alien creepazoids didn't seem to like the results that they got from some of the other kids. Kids I never saw again.

Intervention

• It had been revealed that, since "The Fix", The Scarab had taken over control of Jaime's body because the Green Beetle had rebooted it. If that wasn't horrifying enough, Jaime had been trapped inside his own mind, unable to control his own body for months (April 9th - June 14th) before finally being freed. He was forced to watch the Reach pretend to be him, even interacting with his own family and hurting his teammates. It's amazing that Jaime doesn't show any signs of induced trauma, on the surface at least.

Endgame

• Wally's death. Not only is he getting hit with huge amounts of energy and visibly in pain from it, but imagine what it must be like to look at your own hand and realize that you can see right through it.
  • This was one big reference to Crisis on Infinite Earths where the death is even more disturbing.

Season 3 (Outsiders)

Princes All

• Where to even begin? It opens with a 14 year-old girl with heart disease being kidnapped from the hospital by metahuman traffickers, subjected to experiments shown to be possibly fatal, while she is screaming for help. She survives but instead turns into a monster, that is then sent to fight for Apokolips in an invasion on Rann and forced to fight against the Justice League. All while she is terrified and disoriented and unable to control her own body. And when Black Lighting tries to zap the new threat, her heart gives up, killing her.
  • Not only that but Jefferson only tried to knock the creature out, he is terrified when he realizes he might have killed the creature and then he is hit with the reveal it was really a human child.
  • When the girl is forced to jump out of the plane, her landing splashes lava everywhere. A Rannian soldier is hit by it and basically vaporized in an instant in a gruesome way.
• The Meta Human Trafficking ring in general. Teenagers and children are being kidnapped, forcefully given powers if they even survive the process, and used essentially as cannon fodder.
  • And as we find out later on even the royal family of Markovia aren't safe, as Princess Tara suddenly disappeared and hasn't been seen in two years.

Eminent Threat

• Plasmus straight-up melts a girl's face off. Thankfully, this particular girl (Halo) is a metahuman with the ability to revive from death and heal completely, but that doesn't change how gruesome it is.

Private Security

• When we first met Zatara, he looked like a standard middle-aged guy with hair that appears to be just starting to gray. Now, seven years later his hair has gone white. Is it possible that being Fate also ages him prematurely? How many more yearly visits will Zatanna have with her father?

Away Mission

• Miss Martian's discovery that her beloved brother has gone so far off the deep end that he has become (this series' version of) Ma'alefa'ak, who is resisting the oppression of white Martians by becoming a terrorist intending to start a violent revolution with no concern for collateral damage. In this episode he uses trafficked metahuman children as weapons to (successfully) foment discord between New Genesis and the Hive (who, as M'gann points out, have no connection to his oppression on Mars), and when caught and defeated, kills them purely to spite his sister. Ma'alefa'ak's treating M'gann's attempt to reach out as an I Surrender, Suckers opportunity to attack stands out among the villains we've seen, as he proves himself totally irredeemable without being the Card-Carrying Villain we normally see doing this. He is simply so consumed with bitterness towards his oppressors that he doesn't care that he's become one himself, and consciously rejects any attempt at a constructive solution in favour of causing others to suffer, meaning he can't even be called a Well-Intentioned Extremist.

Rescue Op

• Halo's Resurrective Immortality has evidently given the writers free license to kill her as much as they want. Here she gets her neck snapped a full 180, which snaps back into place when her powers kick in.

Evolution

• Kalibak launching captive Metahumans at the Starro-controlled enemy fleet as suicide bombs.
• Cassandra reads Olympia's writings about Vandal Savage's philosophies: Death is waste. It's a waste to kill someone who may serve a greater purpose. So Vandal turns around and... kills Olympia, his own daughter. Because she could thwart his purposes through her senility.

Triptych

• Shade is a minor example at the end of the episode. After being freed from Cheshire's control, what's the first thing he does? Emerge from a shadow into Simon Stagg's prison cell and get his revenge. The cold menace of his mask and red eyes, the slasher music playing throughout the scene, and Shade's shadow creeping up on Stagg's terrified face, yeesh!
  • The scene cuts back to the Justice League discussing where to go next, so we never learn what Shade did to Stagg.

Home Fires

• Orm attempts to kill the Justice League's families, including their young children. While he's stopped by Lady Shiva, she does confirm that this is the Light's "nuclear option" if they are desperate enough.
  • Shiva's appearance is enough to induce dread in anyone who's familiar with what she is capable of. The fact that she's able to kill Orm with ease is even more frightening.
  • This entire scene shows just how terrifying and overreaching the Light really is. The image of Orm's body and head dropping to the floor shifts back and forth with images and sound echoes of The Team/League's families having fun with each other, ending with Shiva, Orm and his equipment disappearing without a trace. The Light won't kill them because they believe the League won't show any mercy to them afterwards, but the simple fact that they do know about the heroes' social lives and practically have them in their hands is pure horror.
  • One of the participants of the playdate is Mera and her son. Orm hates his brother so much that he's perfectly fine killing his nephew!
• Halo dies, again. This time she takes Lobo's flail through the torso. Dr. Jace doesn't take it well, and while the others are aware it's temporary, there's still a moment of concern.
• The newest member of the Light is revealed: Granny Goodness, literally a goddess of child abuse.
  • Not only that but remember those VR goggles? "Goode" as Gretchen Goode a.k.a. Granny Goodness. Can you say uh-oh?
  • Also when the Light discuss the Outsiders Queen Bee doesn't refer to Nightwing. No, she says Grayson. The Light know who Nightwing Is!

Another Freak

• Victor Stone's body◊ (Warning:VERY graphic) after a lab explosion. The left side of his body is a wreck. The front of his torso is completely blown away, showing his heart. His left arm looks like it went through a meat grinder. An eye is missing and you can see parts of his brain. It's so bad that another scientist rather bluntly points out he's a goner and they need to let Silas say his goodbyes instead of wasting what little time he has left. This isn't depicted as the scientists being callous, anyone would come to the same conclusion with just a single glance.

Nightmare Monkeys

• The Doom Patrol GO! trip is as dark and messed up as it is hilarious. Gar is stuck in a VR headset watching a bunch of his friends die and being reminded that his mom died.

True Heroes

• Cyborg being fully possessed by the Fatherbox belongs in a horror movie. Not only is there the change over him (previously it would amp up his own anger into homicidal rage, this time it is cold and sadistic and clearly a completely different entity), but him chasing a suddenly-powerless Violet around the darkened house while she can only run and hide comes straight out of a slasher movie. There are two factors that make this even worse; firstly, the Fatherbox only attempted this after Violet has been de-powered by her new human emotions and clearly knew in advance that she would not be able to cleanse Victor this time (meaning that it has never been dormant, simply watching and waiting for an opportunity to strike), and secondly, the fact that Victor is briefly able to regain control proves that he is fully conscious inside his possessed body, but the Fatherbox's control is simply too powerful to resist for more than a moment.

Early Warning

• Klarion has been activating the meta-gene in kids via painful-looking magic, branding their souls to control them, and then using them to construct a homunculus flesh monster, inside of which they are all conscious and in pain.

Unknown Factors

• After watching Violet cleanse Dick and Jeff of brainwashing, Granny calls Darkseid with the following words.
  Granny Goodness: Good news sire. Tonight I found the Anti-Life Equation.

Antisocial Pathologies

• Helga being The Mole is one thing, but when exposed to the Anti-Life Equation her monologue reveals just how much of an insane, manipulating creature she is.
  • In short, she purposefully turned Tara into a metahuman. From this point on, Helga considered Tara her own daughter, the old Tara Markov being dead and replaced with a new superior meta-human. She then repeated this attachment to Brion and Violet... at least until she learned Violet was simply merged with a Motherbox, and not a meta. At which point she was more than eager to turn her over to Darkseid. She's also the one who killed Gabrielle, simply for not having a metagene, and only using a morphine overdose because shooting her outright would have been messy.
  • Her final plan was to take the Markovs off the grid, force them to obey via control chips until Stockholm Syndrome kicked in, then use the resources the Light granted her to create even more "children". You know you're an Evil Matriarch when Granny Goodness herself compliments your parenting.
• Halo IS the Anti-Life equation. When Granny demonstrates its power on Helga, the effects persist when Halo finishes. Her free-will is gone.
• There is more than one Granny Goodness.
• Granny boom tubes Halo to Apokolips, which means Darkseid now has the Anti-Life Equation within his grasp. What makes this even more alarming is that when Ultra Humanite mentions this with the other members of the Light, Vandal Savage looks completely horrified upon hearing it.
  • This YouTube comment really helps put this into perspective:
    If a man that�s lived for centuries with a heart of stone and experience that makes it difficult to unnerve him has THAT worried look on his face, you know something absolutely horrifying is coming

Terminus

• We learn the purpose of Granny's device. It creates a X-Pit in the real world and can spread it over an entire solar system at least. Combined with Halo's powers, the Orphanage can be used to enslave entire star systems before the population can ever hope to mount a counterattack. And by the end of the episode, most of Earth's heavy-hitters have fallen victim to it.

Into The Breach

• Granny Goodness's refusion is pretty much an homage to the Two-Headed Thing and seemingly very painful for her.

Nevermore

• Baron Bedlam begins gloating to Geo-Force that he will survive and continue to antagonize the Markovs. Geo-Force's response?

Baron Bedlam: It will never be over, prince! Not as long as I draw breath!

Geo-Force: Uncle... I believe you.

• And at that moment, he slams his hand onto the Baron's face... pouring lava into his mouth and nasal cavities until it pours out of his eyes and ears, suffocating the villain to death. It is a brutal, haunting moment that illustrates Brion's rage consuming him... which is made even worse with the revelation that...
  • Ambassador Zvaid Baazovi has the ability to subtly psychically manipulate others to their worst impulses. The fact that even after all of his Character Development, that Brion had this much hatred and anger in him, is rather unnerving.

Season 4 (Phantoms)

Inhospitable

Needful

Volatile

Odnu!

• This episode reveals in a Flashback how Savage and Klarion met. While Savage was out traveling the world, Klarion made a visit to the man's village and SLAUGHTERED them. Savage is devastated to see the end results while Klarion just laughs, sitting on top a mountain of corpses. Had Savage not made a deal with the Witch Boy, Metahuman kind would have been extinct.
  • Savage did try to kill Klarion but Klarion easily took Savage down... with a snap of his fingers. If that wasn't enough, Klarion then tortures Savage 299 more times!

• Child may look like a normal, little girl but if Klarion's reaction is anything to go by, she's even more powerful than the Witch Boy. Even worse is that she's more malicious than him as she has a man skinned alive because she was curious.

Teg Ydaer

• Child has Flaw snap Teekl's neck. And with that, sends Klarion back to the stars. And then she looks at the Tower of Fate with a menacing look. Zatanna and her team are shocked, along with Nabu.

Og Hitrof Dna Reuqnoc!

• The school bus that’s been flying around and appearing in strange places? Apparently it was the same one first seen in an incident involving Superman and Superboy in season one, ten years prior in universe. A decorporialized Klarion chose it as his new anchor and proceeded to take it and it’s passengers across space and time to find help to beat Child. It’s passengers have been warping from one perilous event in the show’s history to another, with little rest, from the incident when reality was split between kids and adults, to nearly hitting Baby in space. Even when it seems like the kids have managed to get off the bus, they end up warped again. They have been stuck traveling from one disaster to another, while Klarion is apathetic to them.
• The Child creates pillars of fire all over the world, natural disasters to join them, and even some unnatural ones like reversed gravity and a hell pit. She follows that up by easily defeating and then freezing Dr. Fate, summing up the threat she represents with a cutesy boast:
  The Child: You can't kill me, you can't kill me, you can't kill me... but I can kill every living thing on this world.

Kaerb Ym Traeh!

• While Khalid was content with being a part-time host for Nabu, just as his uncle Kent Nelson was, he does question the true morality and intentions of Zatanna's proposal for Doctor Fate to be a rotating position. Did she truly train Khalid, Traci and Mary to be sorcerers in their own right, or did she groom them to be hosts just so she can have her dad back? That fact that she ignores answering the question only only leans towards the latter.
• In The Stinger, it looks as though Darkseid has given Granny Goodness another chance, and wastes no time somehow giving Mary a Breaking Speech after her recklessness and power-addiction cost her a position as Doctor Fate. Convincing her to say the one word she swore she'd never say again.
  Granny: I understand your grief. These so-called heroes, your so-called friends are jealous of your strength and grace. Twice they've denied you power, power that is your birthright. You owe them nothing, my dear, for they only seek to turn you into nothing, into a nobody. Why listen to these petty fools, who wish to keep you down? They force you to be unimpressive, only that they might seem more impressive in the absence of your true glory? You must see there is no longer any need to obey their rules, their strictures; advice they claim to offer for your sake was always just a ploy to minimize you. To keep you small. Say it, child. Say the word. You know you want to.
  Mary: Shazam.

Ego and Superego

• The way Zviad Baazovi effortlessly manipulates everyone. He gets Lizard Johnny to go from wanting to be left alone to joining the Infinitors with a few choice words and psychic backing. The sheer way he constantly manipulates Brion, and even the way Brion seems to crumble to him, and the way Baazovi uses his power to make Markovia into an ethnostate while running off people who are genuinely trying to help but suffer the crime of being meta negative. And still, Baazovi flies under the radar.

Zenith and Abyss

• The reveal of just what and who the Kaiser Thrall is. It was once Danny Chase, a boy who was found to be a metahuman, and taken to Apokolips, where Desaad took his brain and put it into the Thrall. Every time the Thrall is used it slowly kills what's left of Danny. Even if the original Danny Chase was extremely unlikable, no-one deserves to have that happened to them.

Death and Rebirth

• Lor-Zod's death. Even if he deserved it, being disintegrated down to the bone (by his own Kryptonite bomb, no less) is still a painful way to go.
• Despite the league saving the day, the season ends on 2 very ominous notes due to some dangerous developments frmo the still active villains.
  • The Light has taken control of Zod's followers from the phantom zone. This means they essentially have a kryptonian army in reserve for whenever they want to mess up something in the future.
  • And as for Darkseid, he only wanted a single kryptonian for his furies. But now he has 2 new ones thanks to the manipulations of his servants. One is Black Marvel: Mary in a corrupted form. The other: Kara Zor-El!

Tie-in Comics

• The tie-in comics gave us the Purists, a radical cult that work for Ocean Master. Essentially they're against any human/sea-life hybrids and wish to kill them all. Basically, they're the Atlantean Nazis. They even brand innocent Atlanteans like Topo!

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