today's the day young justice is finally returning this summer so this is the perfect time to recap the series with a timeline i'm jacob with channel frederator we got you covered young justice co-developer greg wiseman keeps a rolling chronology of earth 16 that's nearly 300 pages so far and he's graciously provided fans with a whole lot of souvenirs from it it can all be a little overwhelming to tread through so i'm going to give you a timeline that's a little less whelming more whelming can you even be well what i mean is i'm going to be covering the key highlights without getting bogged down in too many unnecessary details also keep in mind that while the world of young justice doesn't have a set calendar year weissman has said that 2010 serves as a functional team year zero when backlogging dates so that's gonna be what we're sticking with so with that whole year zero disclaimer out of the way let's start suitably with uh millennia ago the distant past was a dark dark age that's when all of those ancient evils and relics are from after all many undated celestial phenomenons such as the founding of the green lantern corps or the usurpation of the old gods by the new happen sometime in these lost annals of history we can trace the rise of one villainous force though vandal savage around 48 000 bc when he was a mere prehistoric man savage became captivated by the light of a burning meteor careening to earth's surface in his pursuit of the so-called sky fire he was attacked by a bear which left him with three deep facial scars through sheer tenacity savage overcame the beast a testament to his belief in the potential of man as he reached the shimmering space rock savage was struck down by neanderthals but the radiation from the sky fire resurrected him he became the first ever meta human and subdued his rivals eventually driving them to extinction with his newfound immortality vandal savage imposed his evolutionary ideology for thousands of years to come he would take on new names such as sun tzu attila the hun and blackbeard the pirate ancient greece rose and fell the city of atlantis broke away and vanished into the depths of the ocean but savage carried on in 2000 bc savage called himself marduk and was considered a demigod under his watch babylonia was sieged by the alien creature known as starro savage alongside his son naboo and his daughter ishtar fought and defeated the invaders casting them into the sea but their victory came at a cost naboo's life in death naboo's spirit was preserved as a lord of order and sealed within his helmet henceforth known as the helmet of fate the people of babylonia declared the surviving warriors the light for guiding them through this dark hour using an artifact called the tablet of destiny marx sealed tiamat away and supposedly sacrificed himself in the process marduk went down in history as the god of gods but vandal savage lived on it was around this time four millennia ago that the insectoid extraterrestrials called the reach were the most powerful force in the cosmos their reputation of domination was so nefarious that the entire green lantern corps had to band together to stop them the conquerors were made to sign a treaty with the guardians of the universe which prevented them from invading a world without permission yet the reach still sent their scarab technology to scout out the planet earth in preparation of an eventual conquest when the denizens of the ancient bialva discovered the scarab they called upon the magical goddess isis performed a ritual and cleansed the scarab of reach influence they recorded the ritual in hieroglyphics and kept the dormant device the reach were far from the last aliens to invade earth though in the 13th century when vandal savage was known as genghis khan the earth was assaulted by insurmountable forces from the planet apocalypse led by the new god called darkseid savage and his army lost spectacularly but darkseid was so wowed by savage's power that the two warmongers made a pact dominate the galaxy side by side only when all other planets had fallen with the two finally do battle with one another a hundred or so years later rachael ghul was born using the revitalizing lazarus pits the so-called demon's head would sustain his immortal life for centuries at some point he founded the league of shadows a long-running society of assassins the ancient uprising of all of these evil men was only the beginning of their millennia-long terrorism 1800 to 1999 the 19th century kicked off a long overdue golden age of superheroes starting with the birth of jon jones aka martian manhunter in 1875. martian's age three times slower than earthlings so he's the oldest of the founding members of the justice league in 1925 princess diana aka wonder woman was sculpted from clay on themyscira the earliest recorded superheroes came about in the 1930s their names were dr occult and rose psychic although they didn't operate from the spotlight like future heroes would the first hero to do that was crimson avenger who didn't come around until 1938. even then he was considered a masked mystery man by the public more mystery men followed suit and here's where all of those ancient relics i mentioned come in in 1939 an archaeologist named dan garrett discovered the reach's cleansed scarab in bielva garrett bonded with the device believing it to be a mythical artifact and became the first blue beetle another lost relic the helmet of fate was likewise found by a man named kent nelson in 1940.
he donned the armor and became dr fate earth's sorcerer supreme all the previously listed figures remained independent during their superhero 10 years but not dr fate in 1940 he went on to co-found the justice society of america a forerunner of the justice league besides nelson the starting lineup consisted of jay garrix the flash alan scott's green lantern adam sandman our men and later wildcats that decade also saw the debut of a different all-star superhero team jonathan lord and sandra stanion in the silver blade that young duo co-starred in hollywood hit after hollywood hit launching not just their acting careers but their scandalous movie star romance okay back on track just a year after the formation the justice society joined the front lines of world war ii with a government sanctioned coalition of superheroes called the all-star squadron dr midnight and the newly minted wonder woman became part of the expanded team which was based out of the 1939 world's fair in new york but where they're superheroes they're super villains and so the mad scientist t. o morrow entered the picture he manufactured a line of red robots to infiltrate and destroy the justice society because villainy his first project was machine disguised as a human called red torpedo but it was incapable of meshing with the group and ultimately quit next he created firebrand who meshed too well and died heroically protecting the flash from another villain the dragon king moro's third creation red tornado was a success because it didn't pretend to be human red tornado was inducted into the justice society of america but turned its back on its creator and then became a real hero after world war ii ended in 1945 the team stayed united for six more years until its members finally retired or powered down okay there's a few more odds and ends in the back half of the 1900s jon jones missed all of the mid-century mingling by just a few years in 1955 a scientist named dr erdell accidentally transported him to earth from mars via zetabeans star labs actually named their urdell initiative after him thanks to his advancements in that field this is the earliest record of zeta beam research which would be continued on into the 21st century and prove instrumental in the justice league's transportation operations over a decade later in 1968 another leaguer got his origin story thanks to dumb science air force captain nathaniel c adams became privy to a weapons smuggling ring spearheaded by his fellow officers lieutenant henry yaro colonel wade island and general clement lamar yaro perceived lamar as a flight risk so he had a murdered and framed atoms for it killing two birds with one stone eiling presided over the hearing as judge the ultimate lynch pin for a clean conspiracy adams received a pardon for his heinous crime under the condition that he participate in a top secret quantum field experiment for the government as per the project the captain was coated in silvery alien metal and blasted with such a high volume of energy that it sprung him through time the history books say that adams killed himself in his jail cell but he would re-emerge one day as captain adam the final decades of the 20th century introduced some essential crusaders of justice for the modern era that's right hello megan the one season tv comedy ran from 1979 to 1980 and was canceled after just 22 episodes it starred maria logan as megan wheeler and featured rita farr paul sloane and legendary hollywood icons jonathan lord and sandra stanion as megan's parents even though it was a flop on earth martian manhunter's niece magon morris watched the show on mars and was enamored by the main character she even modeled her human form and stole her catchphrase okay okay but seriously the 1970s and 80s really did introduce some essential crusaders of justice for the modern era bruce wayne and clark kent the destruction of planet krypton in the late 1970s literally and figuratively launched the last kryptonian cow-el to earth he crash-landed in kansas in 1978 where he was adopted by the kent family and raised among humans young bruce wayne also had his world taken from him only figuratively this time when his parents were murdered in 1986. the two tragedies launched the man of steel and dark knight into herodom right at the turn of the century batman and superman commence their campaigns against criminality each at the age of 21.
unfortunately history repeats itself and with superheroes come super villains and it wouldn't be long before one particular clown prince began a criminal campaign of his own 2000-2009 the early 2000s were the peak of the justice league the organization was founded in 2003 by superman batman wonder woman the flash green lantern aquaman and martian manhunter in a combined effort to defeat the appalachians who were invading earth the hero stayed united after the attack with green arrow hawkman and hawk woman joining their ranks shortly thereafter thus commencing the league's practice of adding way too many members they set up shop at mount justice and rhode island their first secret sanctuary in those early years the general public didn't know about their alliance in 2004 a criminal couple called sportsmaster and huntress botched a mission with huntress getting arrested and losing the use of her legs the villainous duo were also parents the father and mother of artemis and jade when their mom was serving a six-year sentence in jail the girls were raised by their verbally abusive dad after having it out with him time and time again jade ran away from home that same year and changed her last name to her mother's maiden name nguyen artemis remained in gotham city alone with sports master two years later the justice league was ousted snapper carr the young spokesperson of the league with all-access clearance to their headquarters was tricked into revealing the base's location to the joker the villain breached mount justice and though the heroes defeated him they were forced to abandon that base the justice league went public shortly thereafter and constructed a new headquarters based in washington dc called the hall of justice this popular tourist trap was a front for their real sanctuary called the watchtower an orbiting satellite carved into the side of an asteroid since it would have been impossible for the league to secretly build and launch a station from earth they commissioned the green lantern corps to lend them a retired base 2006 continued to be a banner year in the league's history not just because it's the year that captain adam emerged from his quantum quest but because it marked the first time a member of the league took on an apprentice when a crime boss named zuko failed to export money from jack haley's circus he instead sabotaged the circus's trapeze act nearly all of the flying graysons dick grayson's family were killed dick and his uncle rick were the only survivors but rick was paralyzed he couldn't raise his nephew seeing his own past and the boy's present batman took him in and trained him dick adopted the crime-fighting alias robin and the dynamic duo caught zuko that same year once he learned about the league vandal savage organized a network of notorious villains and groundbreaking technologies called the light he believed that by preserving the status quo the justice league was hindering human evolution he sought to force only the strongest of the species to survive one of the light's many key initiatives was dna cloning which they explored at lex luthor's facility cadmus labs the justice league inadvertently delivered them a prime test subject in 2007 when green arrow took on a new ward named roy harper aka speedy on an early mission roy was sent to investigate lexcorp where he was captured and brought to cadmus for experimentation using speedy's dna the light bioengineered two genomorphs one was sent back into the world as a sleeper agent unaware that he was programmed to infiltrate the justice league and the other was rapidly aged and made to believe he was roy's uncle jim harper aka guardian cadmus also tried to develop a prototype xenomorph of superman in an endeavor called project match but it was a failure due to the imperfect sequencing of kryptonian dna the product of that experiment a bizarro monster superman was hidden away in the depths of the lab in 2008 the justice league entered their unlimited era wherein they inducted a huge new batch of heroes the class of 2008 included zatara red tornado black canary captain adam jon stewart's green lantern and captain marvel you know uh shazam not uh not the not that captain mark anyway this was also the year aquaman and the flash picked up proteges of their own in the form of calderon aka aqualad and wally west aka kid flash calder proved himself to aquaman when ocean master attacked atlantis and beat the king the son of black manta along with another student from the conservatory of sorcery named garth held the villain back long enough for aquaman to retaliate afterward aquaman ordered the students with the opportunity to be his apprentices but only calder accepted elsewhere wally west discovered that the flash's secret identity was none other than his uncle barry allen wally tried to persuade barry to take him on his award but barry wasn't having it so using his uncle's chemistry journals while he recreated the experiment that gave the flash's powers and hospitalized himself in the process after wally's recovery barry took him on as a sidekick largely out of guilt this renaissance of sidekicks laid the foundation for the formation of the team in the coming years near the end of the decade batman was in a very different kind of partnership regial ghoul still kicking of course had personally selected batman to carry on his legacy at the top of the league of shadows he pushed the dark knight into a relationship with his daughter talia and the two fell for each other it wasn't meant to be though in august of 2009 was the end of their summer of love she refused to turn her back on her father's dastardly ways so batman called off the relationship and the two parted ways talia was spotted with a baby nine years later though so maybe they rekindled their romance down the line 2010 aka team year zero in late march cadmus labs initiated project kr their new and improved attempt to clone superman unlike project match the new xenomorph was developed using dna from both the kryptonian and lex luthor the sequencing stripped the cloned superboy of some key powers but at least to produce the stable result the project was sealed away until july when robin aqualad and kid flash broke into cadmus labs on an unsanctioned mission this trio along with the xenomorph speedy had just been brought to the hall of justice by their mentors but were outrageously and unfairly denied membership into the league speedy following his subconscious programming quit the team while the others snuck to cadmus to prove themselves they freed the superboy and escaped catching the light's attention three days later impressed by their success and unable to hinder their heroic ambition batman officially founded the team based out of the old mount justice headquarters it was a young justice league of teen titans whose starting roster included the cadmus quartet and miss martian green arrow's new protege artemis joined the team a month later the fake speedy was offered an opportunity to join but declined to pursue a solo career as red arrow aqualad was appointed the team's leader during the group's first sanction mission to santa prisca throughout the year the team carried out assignments while growing and bonding together mostly unaware that they were interfering with the lights and vandal savage's master plans their travels introduced them to the original doctor fate kent nelson before his death wally west even wore the naboo's helmet of fate for a time in late august the white dispatched black manta to abduct the alien starro for poseidonis's science center so that they could use its brainwashing abilities on the justice league black manta was thwarted by his son aqualad but the research center was so badly damaged that starro had to be moved to star labs in gotham city later that year the riddler retrieved the starfish sample and delivered it to the light where their scientists and magicians used it to develop mind-controlling bio implants on that same mission giovanni zattara dawn of the helmet of fate thereby becoming the new host for dr fate in december the justice league held another induction ceremony for zatara and several others including adam plastic man icon and the sleeper agent red arrow having successfully gained access to the watchtower red arrow was activated by the light and used the starro tech to brainwash the entire league with earth's mightiest heroes out of the picture vandal savage took control of the watchtower he sent six members of the justice league to the planet rim war where they went on a public rampage for 16 hours and were declared persona non-grata by every planet in the sector savage intended for the rampage to get to the reach and it certainly did back on earth thankfully the justice league's long-time savior red tornado bypassed the brainwash and warned the team about savage's plans they reverse engineered his patch technology to create a cure liberated the justice league from his control reclaimed the watchtower and sent the light packing just in time for new year's day 2011 to 2015 aka team years one through five the five years after savage's defeat were a time of transition beginning with the loss of a heroic icon hello megan former child star marie logan was allegedly killed in a car crash but that was just a front for her murder by bjalva ruler queen b her orphan's son garfield was taken in by her old co-star and his godmother rita farr aka elastigirl elastigirl was part of a team called the doom patrol consisting of the chief robot man negative woman and her husband mento garfield joined the squad but some time later most of them were killed on a mission he and mento were the only survivors okay okay but also the world really did lose a heroic icon in 2011. the original blue beetle dan garrett passed away at age 90. his trusted protege ted core took over the name but with a caveat unlike his mentor core distrusted the mysterious scarab he deduced that it was not a mythical artifact but rather an alien parasite so he kept the technology locked up and entered service as a pure-blooded human being red arrow was still reeling from the truth of his own namesake following his ousting as a sleeper agent he embarked on a quest to find the original roy harper he teamed up with the other clone jim harper but their efforts were fruitless eventually jim moved on and red arrow set his sights on infiltrating the league of shadows this would bring him one step closer to the light so he used the assassin cheshire aka jade nguyen as his ticket in by 2013 he was successfully initiated but it wasn't long before his cover was blown he and sheshar fled from the league's headquarters on infinity island and continued the hunt for speedy eventually she left in two but not before they conceived a child together liam nguyen harper was born in september of 2015.
meanwhile the team added 10 young recruits to their ranks including garfield logan now known as beast boy due to that lineup increase members were divided into smaller groups labeled alpha beta gamma delta and zeta squad dick grayson graduated from the mantle of robin and adopted a new alias nightwing his old title was taken by a boy named jason todd who was killed under yet unknown circumstances though in the comics he was killed by the joker the third robin tim drake was initiated in early 2015 shortly before a mission that would have lasting effects on the team's legacy for years to come that february the light abducted an archaeologist named helena sandsmark after she found a babylonian relic fragment in olympia it was a piece of the statue of tiamat which the villains intended to use to resurrect the chaos creature with help from aqua girl the team tracked down the statue fragments before the light could but they were deceived by clarion he unleashed the monstrous weapon and though the young heroes were able to suppress it they couldn't fully defeat it aqua girl sacrificed herself to seal away the ancient threat as she thought martic would have done in days of old following tula's death aqualad resigned from the team leaving nightwing as its leader he then joined his father black manta as part of a top secret mission to take down the light from the inside out over the summer the light sent sports master and deathstroke to court industries to retrieve the scarab from ted kord the current blue beetle their attack resulted in an explosion that killed cord and flung the scarab onto an unsuspecting jaime reyes the scarab bonded with him thus transforming him into the third blue beetle he joined the team that same year oblivious to the true origin of the reach technology he used toward the end of 2015 alien competitors of the reach called the crelodians launched their own stealthy takeover of earth they abducted the secretary-general the united nations and held them hostage in new orleans while a robotic double took his place the reach already had their sights set on the planet so they employed the bounty hunter lobo to seek out and destroy the impersonator as both races drew closer to earth 2016 aka team year six the next significant time period was bookmarked by multiple hostile invasions of earth on new year's day lobo located the impostor secretary general and demolished him in front of wonder girl and batgirl now aware that the real general had been abducted the team's gamma squad traveled to new orleans to rescue him while zeta squad departed for planet run to find means to stop the krolodian invasion the team subdued the crelodian forces but the species competitor posed a much bigger threat that threat was so overwhelming that in late february a mysterious youth appeared from a future of despair impulse aka bart allen grandson of barry allen he traveled back in time to prevent the reaches apocalyptic conquest meanwhile after years of searching red arrow found the original roy harper he freed him from his cryogenic chamber and brought him to a hospital where he spent a month in recovery though his near decade in confinement cost him his childhood and his arm the og roy forgave red arrow and joined the team adopting a new alias of his own arsenal aqualad adopted a new alias too manta still undercover with his father black manta as of march 2016 he faked artemis's death and covertly enlisted her as a new lieutenant with the moniker tigress the two spies and their cronies kidnapped blue beetle and some other young recruits then bombed mount justice now believing that his son was a proven ally of the light black manta brought him to meet their partner the reach manta handed over his captives so the reach scientists could study their meta genes during this time blue beetle learned that his ancient scarab was reached technology and that its activation would turn him into the future dictator of earth the team freed their friends and tried to warn the world of the reaches danger but they were too late the insectoid conquerors already positioned themselves in a favorable light with the united nations forging an alliance with secretary general tseng captain adam representing the justice league pushed back against the reaches ambassador but the league's credibility was wavering in a completely unrelated extraterrestrial attack the hall of justice was destroyed by an alien warlord called the sparrow the word of 2016 apparently is invasion the reach ambassador sees that opportunity to save captives from the ruined hall and in doing so revealed to the secretary general that it was only a decoy for the as of now still secret watchtower this discredited the justice league even further in june aqualad's undercover mission paid off when he obtained evidence of the collusion between the reach and the light captain adam relayed that evidence to the united nations who revoked their alliance with the aliens in an emergency summit the high court of rimbour exonerated the justice league from the charges of their 2010 rampage and in a last-ditch effort to hide their scheming from the green lantern corps the reach distributed 21 magnetic field disruptors across the globe the young blue beetle redeemed his future self by helping lex luthor nullify 20 of the disruptors but the last one in the north pole was found too late flash kid flash and impulse used their speed to defuse the remaining mfd at the cost of wally west's life in the aftermath of the invasion secretary general sang resigned from the un and the light used tv personality g gordon godfrey to advocate for lex luthor as his replacement with the cave destroyed the team began to operate from the watchtower alongside the justice league bart allen took up the mantle of kid flash in wally's honor and artemis maintained her covert alias tigress nightwing took a leave of absence to mourn his deceased friend in july princess terra markov of the eastern european country marcoya was abducted by a meta-human trafficking ring called the bedlam syndicate run by her uncle baron delam they activated her meta-human gene and shipped her to the league of shadows around this time she was enlisted by the league's new leader deathstroke 2017-2018 aka team year 7 and 8. the years after wally west's death brought sizable changes to the team the world and the galaxy at large among them aqualad ascended to the mantle of aquaman while miss martian became the team's new leader the fake roy harper changed his name to will and went off duty to focus on raising lien the reach demonstrated the possibilities of meta gene weaponization so other bad actors picked up where they left off trafficking of powered teens became an epidemic with the resignation of secretary general saying from the u. n lex luthor was appointed as the next secretary general of the united nations he instituted numerous policies that nerfed the justice league's ability to function without lengthy bureaucratic approval frustrated by the league's impotence in the face of crisis batman and several other members of the league and the team resigned they formed a covert vigilante group of outsiders mockingly labelled batman incorporated by black lightning in late july king victor markov and queen ilona de lam markov were assassinated by a meta human after announcing a humanitarian program to end meta-human trafficking the queen's brother baron delam seized power which sparked friction between the royal sons brian and gregor with help from the outsiders the lamb was overthrown but brian was still exiled for political reasons he was welcomed back to america along with a royal servant named halo who survived the metahuman attack on the palace with the aid of a mother box they joined a new team led by nightwing also consisting of superboy black lightning tigress and an alien named forager brian now known as geoforce insisted that the team continue to investigate his sister's disappearance on halloween after nearly two and a half years of searching they located princess tara markov aka tara at a meta-human auction in the greater bialva area and rescued her now just to cover our bases i'm gonna touch on the dark possible future that bart allen traveled back from cool cool 2056.
