Play Date

"**Play Date**" is the eleventh episode of Justice League Action.

## Summary

When Toyman captures the Justice League, Cyborg must use his gaming skills to try to prevent his colleagues from destroying one another in the villain's real-world combat game.

## Story

In the Watchtower, a horde of dangerous toys has invaded, and Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman do battle with them. When Superman takes the fight into the control room, he finds supposed guard Cyborg playing video games online with Blue Beetle. As the toys are finally being disabled, Cyborg joins the action, but, when he tries to interface with a small toy to find out who is behind all this, he fails. No sooner has Superman speculated that it must be the work of Toyman, the villain suddenly appears, mounted in a tall, walking robot. He shoots kryptonite-laced super putty which engulfs and enfeebles Superman and rockets with knockout gas that cause the other heroes to collapse unconscious.

When they awake, they find themselves in their training room, where its holographics have been used to create a video games arcade together with a real world mock-up of a known street-fighting video game called 'Blvd. Brawlers 2 JLA'. Toyman has also had their bodies covered with control devices that are linked to his games console and he tests them to show that he can control their movements. He says that, for his own amusement, he is going to make them fight one another as though they are characters in the game, all while his animated toys look on. Before he can play solo, Cyborg questions his game-playing ability and challenges him to a two-player game which Toyman agrees to, releasing the top half of his opponent's body. The diminuitive villain immediately selects to play Superman and forces Cyborg, although he considers it a mismatch, to play Batman.

As the match begins, Superman and Batman realise that they are reliant on Cyborg's gaming ability and, although Superman looks like he is going to succeed easily, Cyborg makes Batman pull a kryptonite ring from his utility belt that disables his super opponent. With Cyborg having won a round, Toyman starts a second by selecting Wonder Woman and after a long struggle Batman loses giving Toyman the win. The latter unfairly declares himself the overall winner and now retakes full control of Cyborg, sending him to fight Wonder Woman.

However, as the superheroine is about to throw the finishing punch, Toyman finds that he has suddenly lost control of the four superheroes. Cyborg points to the small toy that he had formerly failed to connect with and which is now at the base of Toyman's gaming plinth, having disabled the villain's controls. The cybernetic hero explains that he was finally able to interface with it while he was playing the game.

Toyman tries to escape, but his walking robot is destroyed by the pursuing superheroes, and when he is finally captured it is by one of his own toys - controlled by Cyborg.

## Notes

* The game Blvd Brawlers 2 JLA is a parody of Street Fighter Alpha 2, the famous fighting game and franchise.
* Superman throwing his insignia at Batman is a reference to Superman II, where Superman does the same against Non.
* Superman's intro includes him standing on the moon near an American flag, a reference to the 1957 George Reeves Superman TV series.
* Batman's intro leap is a reference to Batman's building leap from the cover of the first issue of *The Dark Knight Returns*.
* Before jumping down, Batman does a pose standing on top of a gargoyle, which is a reference to a popular comic art piece done by Jim Lee.
* Batman's game phrase of "I AM BATMAN!" is a reference to a popularly quoted line by Batman fans from the *Batman: the Animated Series* episode "Nothing to Fear" that is now synonymous with voice actor Kevin Conroy: *"I am Vengeance! I am the Night! I AM BATMAN!"*
* When Wonder Woman is selected, a small bit of the 1975 Wonder Woman TV theme song plays, albeit altered with chiptune sounds to reflect its use in a video game.
* The various levels in the game Toyman uses are based off the ones used in Injustice: Gods Among Us.
* The Batmobile that appears in Batman's fight with Wonder Woman is the Batmobile from the 1966 Batman TV Series.
* In a close up shot of Wonder Woman during her battle with Batman, viewers can see two other Batmobiles parked in the garage below the 1966 Batmobile: The 1989 Batmobile from the Tim Burton films and the 1993 Batmobile from the Animated Series.
* The Batcave game background has the display case, turbolift and Batcomputer from the Gotham Knights era of Batman the Animated Series and Batman Beyond.
* The alternate costumes for Wonder Woman in the game are:
	+ The 1975 Lynda Carter Wonder Woman outfit and scuba swimsuit.
	+ Her silver and red outfit with the pony tail she wore in the direct to video film Justice League War, which was a variant of her New 52 costume in the comics.
	+ The 1974 Cathy Lee Crosby outfit from the Wonder Woman TV movie, which was the only time Wonder Woman was depicted as having blonde hair on television.
* Some of the decorations on the reformatted Training Room walls are an alien from the Atari game Space Invaders and a Piranha Plant from Nintendo's Super Mario Bros.
* One of the robotic toys Toyman has as his personal army resembles a mash-up of Gigan and Godzilla from the popular Godzilla tokusatsu film series made by Toho.
* The Batman Doll that Cyborg controls has a violet version of Batman's cowl and cape, which is a reference to the Batman of Zur-en-Ah.
* In one frame of a still shot during the Wonder Woman vs. Batman fight, viewers can see parts of Batman's Power Suit from Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and The Dark Knight Returns in a storage case.