One element in particular that’s made the Young Justice animated series intriguing is the time jumps between seasons. To cite a relevant example, season 2 saw Dick Grayson graduate to Nightwing, with Tim Drake taking up the mantle of Robin. Similarly, Kaldur’ahm has upgraded from being Aqualad to Aquaman in season 3.
Arguably, what’s happened off-screen could be seen as just as noteworthy. If you’ll recall, a hologram of a fallen Jason Todd was displayed during the show’s sophomore year letting us know that, yes, Batman had taken him under his wing at some point. Furthermore, one could only assume that Boy Wonder 2.0 was murdered by the Joker.
Similarly, Young Justice: Outsiders‘ latest batch of episodes tossed out a subtlety that some of you may not have caught. If you’re current on the series, than you likely noticed how Nightwing was communicating with Oracle on one of his recent missions, and that the two are indeed a couple outside of their superhero exploits.
Oddly enough, the Joker also factors into these developments because, in order for Barbara Gordon to transition between Batgirl and Oracle personas, she’d have to have been paralyzed by the Clown Prince of Crime’s gunfire. Granted, we may never see the specifics play out on the series itself, but comic book readers most definitely know what went down.
Admittedly, this doesn’t mean all of the events depicted in the Batman: The Killing Joke happened in this universe verbatim, but it’s safe to say the bullet points (no pun intended) did. And if you need to be brought up to speed, then it’s highly recommended you check out Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s classic graphic novel or the animated movie adapted from it. Actually, you should pick up both, but that’s just my opinion.
Young Justice: Outsiders airs on Fridays on DC Universe. For more, be sure to read our review.