For the animated series, see Young Justice (2010).
- Character Perception Evolution: Li'l Lobo used to be seen as The Scrappy of the team, with Dan DiDio claiming that it "nearly ruined Lobo's image". In the years to come, paired with Lobo's image being most definitely nearly ruined in the New 52 relaunch, and Young Justice being Vindicated by History, Slobo has in turn been re-analysed and, while still being a Base-Breaking Character, isn't nearly as despised now. This mostly stems from the interesting concept of having Slobo be much more genuinely friendly and well-mannered and reducing his powers from Invincible Hero-levels to Weak, but Skilled.
- Complete Monster: William "Billy" Hayes, better known as Harm, was a teenage supervillain and a complete sociopath. Adopted by loving parents, Harm initially terrified his adoptive younger sister Greta, her fears proven right when Harm murdered her in her bathtub to seal a demonic pact and give himself superpowers. His goal was to become the world's greatest murderer, and he decided to hunt down and destroy all the kid heroes before moving on to the big leagues. He captured Red Tornado and reprogrammed him as a suicide bomber against Pope John Paul II to make a name for himself in the supervillain community. When his father, realizing what he was, killed Harm with a gunshot to the back, Harm's spirit later returned. He possessed his father and used his body to enact more evil deeds, none more enjoyable to him than screwing with Greta, now the ghostly heroine Secret, by making her think her father never truly loved her. When defeated, Harm, out of sheer spite, forced his father to throw himself into one of the fire-pits of Apokolips while Harm possessed him to kill them both.
- Cult Classic: While never as popular as the Titans or the eponymous TV show, Young Justice is still massively beloved by its fandom and is considered one of the most underrated runs of the late nineties, being percieved by some as superior to any Teen Titans comic. Tellingly, to some fans, the cancellation of the comic led to an Audience-Alienating Era for the YJ4 (Outside of maybe Robin).
- Fan Nickname: The team of Tim Drake, Kon-El, Bart Allen and Cassie Sandsmark is refered as "YJ4" by fans. More broadly speaking, the 90s generation of new Younger and Hipper superheroes and Legacy Characters is often called "The Young Justice Generation", including characters who didn't join the team like Damage or characters who are canonically older than them, like Kyle Rayner or Connor Hawke.
- Harsher in Hindsight: Issue #1 had a little joke where Robin, Superboy and Impulse all had nightmares in which they either turned Darker and Edgier, or became grotesque parodies of themselves. Unfortunately, while it was meant as a joke, the nightmares would all become ominously prescient of what would happen to the three heroes in the future:
- In Robin’s case, his nightmare was supposed to just be Self-Deprecation at Peter David's own Aquaman (1994), that had precisely done just that with Arthur. However, with how Tim underwent a massive Trauma Conga Line starting with Batman: War Games and lost much of his unique traits to become Darker and Edgier, later becoming The Artifact of the Bat-titles due to poor management, the line becomes much more ominous.
"I was turning into someone unrecognizable. Grim, gritty, depressing... As if some maniacal power was doing terrible things to me just to serve some demented whim."- In Superboy’s nightmare, he ends up growing angel wings. A few years later, he would die in Infinite Crisis in a Heroic Sacrifice. In a way, he really did go to heaven with the angels.
- As for Impulse, his nightmare has him continuously change, transform and grow up until he becomes completely unrecognizable. He would later temporarily become the new Flash in The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive (2006), and get transformed into a Darker and Edgier grown-up version of himself who is barely recognizable from his younger self. Like with Robin, his line also becomes much more ominous too:
"What's happening? I'm going through...High Speed Changes...In clothes...Personality...It's getting so...Impulse…Not know who Impulse is anymore…"- And of course, when The New 52 reboot happened, all three of them would get replaced by Darker and Edgier versions of themselves, along with the rest of the DC universe.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: In issue #48, Hal Jordan as the Spectre tells Secret that everyone is evil, and among his list of evil people figures Harrison Ford. Years later, Ford would play the supervillain Red Hulk in Captain America: Brave New World.
- Ho Yay:
- Only one time, and nothing sexual, but when Arrowette and Wonder Girl's moms found out they went on a co-ed camping trip with the boys, they flipped their lids and went to give the girls what-for... only to find them asleep in their own tent, holding hands, with Secret in mist form hovering asleep around them.
- Tim Drake and Conner Kent/Kon-El. Full stop.
- Empress is very protective of Cissie, and seems kind of like a Stalker with a Crush towards her.
- Fite n' Maad live together, and have plenty of Like an Old Married Couple moments.
- Jerkass Woobie: Superboy may be abrasive, arrogant, and displays Skewed Priorities, but even his long-suffering teammates realize that he's a Stepford Smiler with serious problems.
- My Real Daddy:
- Peter David is this for Cassie Sandsmark, Wonder Girl. Prior to YJ, she'd been regarded as something of The Scrappy. After YJ ended, and she joined Teen Titans, she became a Creator's Pet. But during David's YJ, she gained enough demonstrable popularity that when David staged a readers' poll to elect the next YJ leader, Cassie won despite being the only candidate who'd never had her own solo series.
- Really, this kind of fits every member of the "YJ4" (a nickname given to Tim, Kon, Bart, and Cassie after their transfer to Teen Titans) alongside Only the Creator Does It Right; while Peter David didn't create any of them, he did construct the chemistry and interactions that made this comic successful while still adhering to their portrayals at the time in their own books. In contrast, Geoff Johns and other creators are often accused of not understanding the appeal of the relationships and frequently retconed their pasts and personalities. While some may argue that Johns managed to pull it off, almost no other writer has ever managed to make Young Justice fans happy. For evidence, go to the Teen Titans YMMV page and check out how Cassie is back in The Scrappy category.
- Narm Charm: Harm looks and acts much like the most stereotypical edgelord villain, but still manages to be terrifying. Probably helped by Harm being a teenager, so this is probably his conception of how "cool and scary" looks.
- Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Sandsmark originated in the much reviled John Byrne run on Wonder Woman (1987), where she was portrayed as a milquetoast Replacement Scrappy for Donna Troy. Peter David then wrote her as an awkward go-getter kid with a big crush on Superboy, contrasting the well-mannered and shy Secret and the snappy Deadpan Snarker Arrowette, and who later develops into a much more self-assured and confident team leader, granting David My Real Daddy status over Cassie.
- The Scrappy: Slobo/Lil' Lobo was a polarizing figure among fans and writers. The final issue of the series saw him transformed turned into a living statue and he has not been seen or mentioned since. DC editor-in-chief Dan DiDio reportedly despised the character, and claimed that he nearly ruined the original Lobo. Of course, DiDio disliking a character hasn't always translated to similar feelings among fans, but unlike most, there has been very little fan outrage due to this grudge.
- Values Resonance: The storyarc involving Arrowette's hunt for vengeance against the man who murdered her guidance counselor features an obnoxious senator who tries to take advantage of the situation to continue his platform against "moral decay in society" by espousing how such tragedies are caused by violent media and the like. Cissie explodes on the bastard, screaming how the senator has purposefully voted against every single gun control law he had a say in while acting as though the problems are TV and video games. She states how the same thing will happen as always, as people will get upset and talk about how things need to change, and then do nothing until the next shooting happens. This was released in 1999, a few months after the events of Columbine, and still remains true nearly twenty years later as elected officials still refuse to enact stricter gun control laws despite the increase of mass shootings in America.
- Vindicated by History: Young Justice initially recieved heat from fans of the Teen Titans because of the fact they were meant to replace the team, which made them a Replacement Scrappy in the eyes of many. The fact that it was much more Denser and Wackier than pretty much any comic DC was publishing at the time, or that it starred Cassie Sandsmark (originating from the mediocre John Byrne run on Wonder Woman), didn't do it any favours either. While the series gained a decent cult following, it didn't last longer than five years, and was relaunched as the much higher-profile Teen Titans (2003). However, fans would eventually begin to look back at the comic more fondly, noticing the tons of Character Development Wonder Girl recieved, re-evaluating Slobo more positively, and appreciating the lighthearted approach to the DCU in a time when it was beginning to slip back towards Darker and Edgier (helped by the fact the YJ4 were some of the characters affected the worse by this True Art Is Angsty trend). Tellingly, while it's agreed that Identity Crisis (2004) was the patient zero for the darkening of the DCU, Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day, which broke up Young Justice, is seen as something of an even earlier herald.
