‘Young Justice: Outsiders’ Features Insane Tribute to ‘Teen Titans GO!’

The final episodes of Young Justice: Outsiders before the mid-season finale revealed a lot of new information about major changes in Beast Boy’s life, including why he left the Team behind for an acting career.

The episode “Nightmare Monkeys” also featured an insane homage to Teen Titans GO! that included all of the iconic voice actors from the series.

Warning: Spoilers for Young Justice: Outsiders below.

In the penultimate episode, fans see Beast Boy behind the scenes of his new sci-fi series and learn more about his past, including his relationship with godmother Rita Farr AKA Elasti-Girl of the Doom Patrol.

Beast Boy dons a pair of Good Goggles, which are a popular piece of tech created by the evil New God Granny Goodness unbeknownst to the world at large. He becomes infected with an agent that attempts to brainwash him, but instead forces him to deal with his past before he’s saved by his adopted sister Miss Martian.

During his hallucination, Beast Boy is forced to confront the death of his mother as well as her “Hello, Megan!” co-star Rita Farr, who is revealed to be Beast Boy’s godmother. We also learn that she was a superpowered hero and a member of the Doom Patrol.

At this point, the series adopts the popular animation style of Teen Titans GO! and shows a title sequence stylized as “Doom Patrol GO!” Voice actor Greg Cipes took over vocal duties for Beast Boy in Young Justice: Outsiders, so he reverts to his more cartoonish approach to the character that Teen Titans GO! Fans would be familiar with.

Cyborg voice actor Khary Payton is also a prominent cast member in Young Justice, voicing Aqualad and Black Lightning in the series, so it makes sense that he shows up for the “Doom Patrol GO!” segment. And he’s joined by Tara Strong, Scott Menville, and Hynden Walch to complete the family. Payton voices Robotman, Strong voices the gender-bent Negative Woman, Menville voices the Chief, and Walch voices Farr AKA Elasti-Girl.

The segment takes an absurd approach, using the ridiculous comedy of Teen Titans GO! in an ironic way that forces Beast Boy to come to terms with the death of his mother and his godmother, though he comes to embrace the family he still has in Miss Martian. And at the end of it all, he discovers Granny Goodness’ scheme and decides to rejoin his fellow superheroes.

This was one of the most surprising episodes of Young Justice so far, showing why it’s one of the most innovative and revering animated series from DC Comics. Hopefully it continues to take these kinds of risks as the third season continues.

The mid-season finale of Young Justice: Outsiders is now streaming on DC Universe.