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scans_dailyIn a recent post from espanolbot , mention is made of Dick having his own supervillains.
Now Crazy Quilt we've met in the past, but there is another name up there, who also had a criminal career versus the Boy Wonder back in the Golden Age.
Back in the day, Robin had his own stories in the pages of Star Spangled comics.
There's not a lot to tell of the story (and it's only 10 pages, so maintaining the narrative is tricky, but suffice it to say, a student film about Robin, written by Dick Grayson and guest starring the Boy Wonder himself (Dick tells his schoolmates that he doesn't want to appear IN the film as he's camera shy) accidentally includes footage (in the background of the shot) of a crime being carried out. A crime co-ordinated by a criminal genius, precise, methodical and strict (and also a snappy dresser, for the late 1940's) known only as... THE CLOCK!
Yes indeed folk you too could make anal retentive compulsiveness serve you well in the Gotham underworld...
For fun I show the sequence where Robin and one of his classmates have been captured by the Clock who is trying to retrieve the film. The Clock takes Robin's belt and locks them in a clock-filled room above another room where there is a heavy duty time bomb ticking down. Robin and the other kid seek a way out, when Robin notices a sealed water pipe... and that gives him an idea,
I love these fun, slightly silly deathtraps (as if you didn't know)
And just to hammer home his particular obsessive compulsive disorder...
It all ends with the Clock "Doing time" Ah ha ha ha! Bet you didn't see THAT pun coming did you?
Ahem, sorry. Anyway, the Clock proved to be a popular enough idea as a villain that they brought him back, and in doing so, obviously felt he wasn't "being all that he could be" and I think this might be one of the first examples of a supervillain makeover...
The Clock soon becomes a trustee within the jail, and offers to clean all the guards' wristwatches. In doing so he gimmicks them so that at a pre-appointed time they will jab the wearers with concealed drug tipped needles, and with the entire Prison Guard population having a nap, he soon escapes, but the Clock is known on sight now so he decides to change that...
That's a fun bit of design I must say, the moustache "clock hands" and the tie and belt buckle forming the pendulum. That's how they did things in the Golden Age.
And so he plans a new set of crimes... starting with this blast from the past...
Again, this is just such a fun idea, there's a grain of truth to it, but it's amped up to supervillain levels! :)
Robin intervenes but the Clock gets away with the goods. We find out that these micro-screws can only be made by specially trained engineers and, by weight, brass screws like this cost more than $100 an ounce, and these are even MORE valuable since they're made out of gold for special high specification machines (Of course, since gold is non-reactive to citric acid, the fact they're gold would mean that the orange slices would be harmless, but let's not overanalyse these things)
Whilst tracking down the Clock, Robin is, of course, captured, and the Clock shows again that he has what Gotham criminals need; obsession, creativity and a certain degree of handicraft skill.
Of course, I'm working around the fact that the way the ropes are tied, Dick could just have slipped out of that any time, but we can handwave a couple of loops under the arms we just can't see properly, which would have secured him... hey it's the Golden Age, I'll happily cut them some slack.
And turnabout is fair play, when Robin tracks the Clock down and they face off against that other Golden Age staple, a giant prop!
And again the Clock is sent to jail, with another bad bit of word play I'll use the excuse of the page limit to spare you.
The above story has an interesting follow up, inasmuch as the entire story was basically lifted verbatim and recycled as "BATMAN'S first case" in Detective Comics 265 in 1959.
Despite his more supervillainy (and colourblind) look, he's still called the Clock, the plot was the same, even the deathtrap was the same. I'd post a link to a site which discusses the comparisons, but it's been flagged as containing malware when I try to navigate to it, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
The Clock made another appearance a few months later, in a fairly forgettable story in an issue most notable for the Salvador Dali inspired cover! :)
And for those interested, the writer of all three Clock stories is unclear, but the odds are good that it's Bill Finger, which might explain why there's a certain classic Golden Age villain-ness to The Clock.
And so, when commissioning Mitch Ballard again, I felt that this unsung villain deserved his place in the sun... and as ever, Mitch took my simple idea and expanded on it rather wonderfully, as I hope you'll agree...
As ever Mitch just "gets" that whole fun-filled, over the top death-trap thing I love. And it's the details that are the fun, the gathered crowd (Gotham City tradition I should think), the terrific cityscape, the Clock having his own exit strategy planned with a base jumping parachute and an entirely appropriate demise planned for the now Teen Wonder..
espanolbot , mention is made of Dick having his own supervillains.Now Crazy Quilt we've met in the past, but there is another name up there, who also had a criminal career versus the Boy Wonder back in the Golden Age.
Back in the day, Robin had his own stories in the pages of Star Spangled comics.
There's not a lot to tell of the story (and it's only 10 pages, so maintaining the narrative is tricky, but suffice it to say, a student film about Robin, written by Dick Grayson and guest starring the Boy Wonder himself (Dick tells his schoolmates that he doesn't want to appear IN the film as he's camera shy) accidentally includes footage (in the background of the shot) of a crime being carried out. A crime co-ordinated by a criminal genius, precise, methodical and strict (and also a snappy dresser, for the late 1940's) known only as... THE CLOCK!
Yes indeed folk you too could make anal retentive compulsiveness serve you well in the Gotham underworld...
For fun I show the sequence where Robin and one of his classmates have been captured by the Clock who is trying to retrieve the film. The Clock takes Robin's belt and locks them in a clock-filled room above another room where there is a heavy duty time bomb ticking down. Robin and the other kid seek a way out, when Robin notices a sealed water pipe... and that gives him an idea,
I love these fun, slightly silly deathtraps (as if you didn't know)
And just to hammer home his particular obsessive compulsive disorder...
It all ends with the Clock "Doing time" Ah ha ha ha! Bet you didn't see THAT pun coming did you?
Ahem, sorry. Anyway, the Clock proved to be a popular enough idea as a villain that they brought him back, and in doing so, obviously felt he wasn't "being all that he could be" and I think this might be one of the first examples of a supervillain makeover...
The Clock soon becomes a trustee within the jail, and offers to clean all the guards' wristwatches. In doing so he gimmicks them so that at a pre-appointed time they will jab the wearers with concealed drug tipped needles, and with the entire Prison Guard population having a nap, he soon escapes, but the Clock is known on sight now so he decides to change that...
That's a fun bit of design I must say, the moustache "clock hands" and the tie and belt buckle forming the pendulum. That's how they did things in the Golden Age.
And so he plans a new set of crimes... starting with this blast from the past...
Again, this is just such a fun idea, there's a grain of truth to it, but it's amped up to supervillain levels! :)
Robin intervenes but the Clock gets away with the goods. We find out that these micro-screws can only be made by specially trained engineers and, by weight, brass screws like this cost more than $100 an ounce, and these are even MORE valuable since they're made out of gold for special high specification machines (Of course, since gold is non-reactive to citric acid, the fact they're gold would mean that the orange slices would be harmless, but let's not overanalyse these things)
Whilst tracking down the Clock, Robin is, of course, captured, and the Clock shows again that he has what Gotham criminals need; obsession, creativity and a certain degree of handicraft skill.
Of course, I'm working around the fact that the way the ropes are tied, Dick could just have slipped out of that any time, but we can handwave a couple of loops under the arms we just can't see properly, which would have secured him... hey it's the Golden Age, I'll happily cut them some slack.
And turnabout is fair play, when Robin tracks the Clock down and they face off against that other Golden Age staple, a giant prop!
And again the Clock is sent to jail, with another bad bit of word play I'll use the excuse of the page limit to spare you.
The above story has an interesting follow up, inasmuch as the entire story was basically lifted verbatim and recycled as "BATMAN'S first case" in Detective Comics 265 in 1959.
Despite his more supervillainy (and colourblind) look, he's still called the Clock, the plot was the same, even the deathtrap was the same. I'd post a link to a site which discusses the comparisons, but it's been flagged as containing malware when I try to navigate to it, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
The Clock made another appearance a few months later, in a fairly forgettable story in an issue most notable for the Salvador Dali inspired cover! :)
And for those interested, the writer of all three Clock stories is unclear, but the odds are good that it's Bill Finger, which might explain why there's a certain classic Golden Age villain-ness to The Clock.
And so, when commissioning Mitch Ballard again, I felt that this unsung villain deserved his place in the sun... and as ever, Mitch took my simple idea and expanded on it rather wonderfully, as I hope you'll agree...
As ever Mitch just "gets" that whole fun-filled, over the top death-trap thing I love. And it's the details that are the fun, the gathered crowd (Gotham City tradition I should think), the terrific cityscape, the Clock having his own exit strategy planned with a base jumping parachute and an entirely appropriate demise planned for the now Teen Wonder..
no subject
Date: 2012-11-06 11:47 pm (UTC)Are those green shorts ever not distracting ? They're worse than the boob window.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-06 11:57 pm (UTC)It's a tradition that more time obsessed people sound German/Swiss ("Clockwork" from Ben 10 being another example.)
no subject
Date: 2012-11-07 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-07 12:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-07 12:14 am (UTC)LOVE that commission. I think the new 52 should bring this guy back. Waistcoat and all. No special costume. Old school dangerous lunatic.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-07 01:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-07 03:00 am (UTC)And +1 on the orange slice panel. That's the sort of plan that only works because the villain executed it with such verve and enthusiasm that the laws of physics agreed to cut him a break.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-07 10:29 am (UTC)I guess it could be useful, but a watch combined with a circus performer outfit still strikes me as incongruous.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-07 01:10 pm (UTC)You're late for school, you're in trouble with the teacher.
You're late for work, you're in trouble with your boss.
You're late for a meeting with Batman, Gotham City is devastated by a giant whoopee cushion, or 50 foot tall robot penguins with flamethrowers are marching down Main Street.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-07 02:36 pm (UTC)Bill Finger also wrote the episode of the old Batman tv series that featured Walter Slezak as "The Clock King". Finger knew the value of a good villain concept.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-07 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-07 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-07 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-07 05:30 pm (UTC)And your commission is lovely. *happy sigh*
no subject
Date: 2012-11-08 08:54 am (UTC)