Circus of Plunders

Title Card's Issue Homage

**Circus of Plunders** is the tenth episode in the first season of "The Justice League Show", introducing the Mad Hatter, as well as Control Freak, respectively.

## Synopsis

While Brainiac 5 temporarily leaves the group after a failed invention jeopardizes a latest fractal retrieval mission, the Justice League agrees to take up roles as stand-in performers at Jervis Tetch's Circus, run by the Mad Hatter.

## Plot

In a desert-like section of Hero City, Batman, the Flash, and Green Lantern are on the run with the latest Starro Fractal when Giganta bursts out of a nearby rock wall and ambushes them. No sooner, Wonder Woman appears and keeps Giganta distracted while other Leaguers fight back. Brainiac 5 then arrives to attack Giganta with his untested laser-guided Force-Blaster, but misses and triggers a rockslide that proves a hindrance to his teammates. Meanwhile, Giganta knocks Brainiac 5 cold, but Superman sneaks up from behind the giant woman and throws her back to Slaughter Swamp (by her leg) before recovering the fractal.

Brainiac tries to explain what happened to his force-blaster, but the rest of the League (except for Superman) point out how his weapon nearly killed them. As the Flash lets his paranoia run loose, Superman tries to defend Brainiac, but the guilty android admits his friends are right and quits, determined to not return to them until he has fixed his Force-Blaster. Superman tries to tell the others to go easy on Brainiac, but is interrupted by a road train nearly running them over. The driver, revealed to be Jervis Tetch, apologizes and introduces himself and his circus, Jervis Tetch's Circus of Wonders, which he owns, much to their amazement. However, Tetch tells that most of his performers, except his two stunt-bears, have gotten sick from eating bad sushi, so he will not be able to put up a show, which will disappoint the children. Sympathetic, Wonder Woman volunteers her teammates to perform in his circus; Batman refuses to participate, but instantly changes his mind when Tetch implies that Batman cannot handle the challenge of being part of his circus troupe. Superman tries contacting Brainiac with his communicator to have him join them, but Brainiac, who is at Themyscira's Hospital, ignores it while waiting for his name to be called up for weapon maintenance at the hospital's waiting room (only to end up in a brief fight with Control Freak which he lost after a bonk in the head).

At the circus, Tetch is assigning the Justice League their death-defying acts in various traps during the show: Superman remains in a solid lead inside and out without break through (even though there's kryptonite in between), Batman attempts to break out of a cage without his utility belt, Wonder Woman attempts to break out of another cage with her bracelets chained together, Green Lantern attempts to get out of a force field that uses energy from his Power Ring itself, and the Flash attempts to run out of a snow-globe shaped tank. Meanwhile, Brainiac 5's surgeon figures out what was wrong with his Force-Blaster, and he successfully tests it by destroying some "Legion of Doom" decoys. Later that night, the show at Tetch's circus begins as the ringmaster himself presents the Justice League and their challenges until Brainiac 5 arrives with his modified Force-Blaster to inform everyone that Tetch's circus was a ruse (ordered by Lex Luthor) bent on getting rid of the Justice League for good, allowing the Legion of Doom to finally secure all the Starro Fractals scattered all over Hero City without interference. Outraged by this accusation, Tetch sends his boss's LexBots on him, but the brave android, with his hands full, manages to free the League with his modified Force-Blaster, enabling them to capture the ringmaster.

After Brainiac 5 frees the Justice League, an arrested and exposed Tetch, whose alter-ego is actually the "Mad Hatter", confesses to the crime; he reveals that he's actually disposing of the Justice League on Luthor's behalf before his boss gets the chance to fulfill his destiny of reviving Starro. Before being carted off to jail, the Mad Hatter curses Brainiac 5 for foiling him, and then he soon dramatically warns other criminals around the globe to start treating androids (like Brainiac 5) as equals because they were smart enough (even smarter than a human being) to catch him and will do the same to them. Brainiac 5 is then congratulated by the League for saving them as the team heads home.

### Script

A script must be written on this free page here.

## Trivia/References

* This episode should be mainly (or loosely) based upon the sixth issue of the children's comic series, "DC Super Friends", "Challenge of the DC Super Friends".
* Before being carted off to jail for trapping the Justice League in his circus, the Mad Hatter should pay a grudging kudos to Brainiac 5 with a quote, "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for this meddling android.", a quote that is an often used line from "Scooby-Doo" that says, "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids.".
* A fist fight scene between Brainiac 5 and Control Freak should be a spoof from a fight scene in the 2000 American film, *O Brother, Where Art Thou?*, where Ulysses Everett McGill tried and failed to win back his wife, Penny Wharvey-McGill, from her new suitor, Vernon T. Waldrip.
	+ A boxing videogame, *Ready 2 Rumble Boxing*, should be portrayed as an "Easter Egg" skit on the hospital's waiting room television where Afro Thunder wins a fight against Boris "The Bear" Knokimov and then delivers his famous quote, "Somebody better call the doctor!", in which the unconscious Brainiac 5 responds with, "I'm already at the doctor...", after losing a brief fight to Control Freak.