The first half of DC Universe's 'Young Justice: Outsiders' has built each episode upon each other. From the conflict and the general narrative, the 'Outsiders' have followed a pretty linear path attempting to track down the meta-human traffickers and rescue captured teens from the malevolent forces of evil. We also have all the antagonists working together in tandem, in order to serve a much bigger cause that is set by the big bad Darkseid himself.

But while fans were engrossed in the amazing story arcs of their favorite characters, and simultaneously getting to know more obscure characters, the writers of the show decided to slip in a simple coded message into their titles. Taking the first alphabet of each of the series 26-strong episode titles, we get the apocalyptic (pun intended) message of "PREPARE THE ANTI-LIFE EQUATION", the formula that our grey-baddie is constantly in search of.

The Anti-Life Equation is a transcendental mathematical formula originally said to allow those who know it to dominate the will of any sentient race, and this is the ultimate goal of Darkseid, who invades Earth on the premise that a portion of the equation lies in the subconscious minds of the human race.

What exactly the Anti-Life Equation is, is still up for debate, but the most common version is that it's some kind of mathematical construct that demonstrates the futility of life. The wielder of this formula has ultimate power over anybody and he/she is able to remove the free will of any sentient being, essentially making them their slaves. The equation is also said to have close ties with the source (a cosmic essence or being that is the "source" of all that exists) and may just be its polar opposite.

In the New 52 comics, the Anti-Life Equation is brought to life by the formula "loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + self-worth ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ misunderstanding × guilt × shame × failure × judgment n=y where y=hope and n=folly, love=lies, life=death, self=Darkseid".

It is said that by speaking the equation, Darkseid can insert the full formula into people's minds, giving them the mathematical certainty that life, hope, and freedom are all pointless, and the only reason for any existence is to bend to Darkseid's will. The coded message in the titles has one important word added to the Anti-Life Equation, "Prepare", which shows that the second half of the series sees Darkseid finally acquiring the Anti-Life Equation, if not, that particular word would have no business being present in the code.

While it may not be certain how exactly the equation will be portrayed, 'Young Justice' has done a remarkable job at explaining just how alien technology, boom tubes, and metahumans came to be, so we may just have a more "realistic" background given to the explanation of the Anti-Life Equation. The only thing that we're certain about is that our heroes are surely in trouble this time, and everyone might just turn over to the Darkseid.

DC's 'Young Justice: Outsiders' will return in June of this year, but you can stream all 13-episodes of the series exclusively on www.dcuniverse.com.