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Young Justice
Young Justice is an American animated television series created by Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti for Cartoon Network. Despite its title, it is not an adaptation of Todd Dezago and Todd Nauck's Young Justice series of comics, but rather, an adaptation of the entire DC Universe with a focus on young superheroes. The series follows the lives of teenaged heroes (some of them sidekicks) who are members of a fictional covert operation team - called Young Justice - of its celebrity-level famous adult counterpart, the Justice League. The main setting is the fictional universe of Earth-16, during a time period in which superheroes are a relatively recent phenomenon. The series debuted on January 7, 2011 with a two week reairing of the first two episodes, which originally aired as an hour long special on November 26, 2010.
The pilot movie, aired as a special prior to the debut of the series, introduced four teenaged superheroes: Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Speedy. It established their desire for greater recognition and respect, namely, a promotion in their positions from sidekicks to full-fleged superheroes. Met with opposition from their mentors, who are also members of the Justice League, the protégés react in different ways. Speedy resigns from being Green Arrow's partner, whereas the majority seek to persuade their mentors of their worth by secretly taking on a Justice League mission, during which the series focuses on Superboy and his origins. In the end, Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Superboy negotiate with Batman, who organizes a covert operations team - as a practical contrast to the Justice League, whose celebrity status makes it difficult to maintain secrecy over its efforts - ultimately under the authority of the Justice League. Miss Martian makes an appearance at the end as the fifth member of the covert operations team.
There are crucial differences in the line-up of teenaged superhero sidekicks from those of Teen Titans or Young Justice series of comics. Dick Grayson and Wally West were chosen over Tim Drake and Bart Allen/Impulse because the former characters were the first incarnations of their respective superhero identities. Miss Martian, who was originally a White Martian in the comics, was added because the date of her arrival to Earth could still fit in the early DC Universe concept. Aqualad, as opposed to Robin, is established in the beginning as the leader of the team. Furthermore, the Aqualad presented in the show is an entirely new character created by Weisman and Vietti, with Bourassa responsible for the original character design. Arrowette was replaced by Artemis in the producers' desire to focus on the latter's storylines. Some of the Young Justice characters' ages are tweaked from those of their original counterparts. However, the spirit and the intent of the characters are said to be kept.
Characters who are a part of the line-up in comics will make an appearance in the show. This includes Garth, the first incarnation of Aqualad who later becomes Tempest in DC Comics; Arrowette, the archer of the team in the Young Justice comic book series; and Wonder Girl, whose legal issues originally prohibited the producers from using the character but later allowed her to be included. In the show, Garth features as the best friend of Aqualad/Kaldur'ahm.
