World's Finest #111 - "The Crimes of the Clock King"
Published August 1960
Edited by Jack Schiff
Writen by France Harron
Art by Lee Elias
"You've heard of many kinds of clocks--but did you ever hear of a clock
that not only runs but walks as well? No--this is not a riddle but the
elusive subject of the search by those famed archers, Green Arrow and
Speedy, who attempt to stop... the Crimes of the Clock King."
------------
It's a gala night in Star City. There's a lavish costume party going on
at the elegant Ritz-Royal Hotel, and the city's wealthy and elite are
all in attendance, each clad in fantastic outfits. One of the guests is
dressed very oddly - a blue suit covered with clock faces, and a green
mask with a clock's face obscuring his own. Watching from the balcony,
the watch-wardrobed figure scans the room. He knows which women are
wearing the most valuable jewels, but is unable to identify them due to
the masks they're wearing. They'll unmask at midnight, however, that is
when he's planning his escape. He has to speed up the timetable and get
them to unmask earlier, and a plan is forming...
The clock soon strikes 12 and the patrons remove their masks. But to
their shock, the room is plunged into darkness instantly afterwards. In
the blackout, the thief snatches jewelry from his targets and escapes
hrough a window. He's succeeded in his heist and his plan was so
simple - all he did was move the minute hand forward!
Almost immediately after the theft, a glowing green arrow is fired from
the police headquarters, illuminating the sky. Oliver Queen and his
ward Roy Harper spot the signal and realize that they're needed to
fight crime as Green Arrow and Speedy. Quickly changing into their
costumes, they take the Arrowcar to the hotel where the heist took plce
and are propelled up to the rooftop, where the criminal stands by the
clock tower. But the timepiece-inspired thief isn't at all worried.
It's midnight, and the mechanical figurines are emerging from the tower
to signal the midnight hour. He can use this opportunity to make his
way down through the tower and escape. As the heroic archers' rope
arrows lasso what they percieve to be the felon, they are stunned to
see him bang the drum held by one of the figurines with a mallet.
They've been tricked! The thief put his costume around one of the
figures. With no leads to follow, the defeated heroes can do nothing
but return home.
In the following days, the Clock King carries out a series of precision
robberies. He strikes the Tick-Tock Club, the Idle Hour Inn, and the
Minute-Man Savings Bank, leaving law enforcement helpless to stop him.
Back at the base of our heroes, Speedy picks up on the fact that all of
the Clock King's robberies are involved with time... or clocks, as
Green Arrow realizes. He announces that they'll continue patroling town
in hopes of finding out the crook's pattern and stopping him.
As fortune would have it, the Clock King is active that very night,
breaking into a store specializing in rare art and antiques. But as he
pries the door open, the burglar alarm starts to blare. He isn't
worried, however, as he prepared for this contingency. As the Clock
King slips into the shop, the clocks at the jewelry store next door go
off at the same time, creating a cacophony that drowns out the alarm.
Green Arrow and Speedy arrive on the scene, and the Emerald Archer
determines that the racket is a distraction. Investigating the art
gallery aside it, they catch their foe making off with an armful of
rolled-up paintings. Stunned, the Clock King makes his escape through
the back alleys, dodging the volley of arrows followed by his two foes
until he darts into a building that serves as his hideout.
The heroic duo enter the Clock King's lair, which fittingly reflects
the criminal's MO: the walls are plastered with clocks and a giant
clock's face is painted on the floor. As Green Arrow and Speedy
approach their quarry, they cross over the floor design... and fall
through a trapdoor activated by the Clock King! The archers find
themselves in a giant hourglass with the sand quickly falling. This is
no ordinary hourglass, however - the sand is falling into a pit filled
with razor-sharp spikes, waiting to skewer the heroes once they fall
in! Thinking quickly, G.A. fires a suction-cup arrow at the ceiling. He
and Speedy climb up and force the trapdoor open. Clock King is caught
off guard by their emergence, and the archers use that to their
advantage, using their arrows to pin his cape to the wall and keep him
from moving. The Clock King's crime spree has been brought to an end -
now instead of basing his thefts around time, he'll simply be doing
time.
------------
First appearance of the Clock King, whose true name is William Tockman.
Tockman was initially portrayed as a gimmick villain who wanted to get
rich quick, but later incarnations revised his origin. Believing he
only had six months to live, he wanted to amass enough money for his
invalid sister to provide for her after his death. He studied the
timing of a bank vault in order to rob it, and succeeded... but
accidentally tripped a silent alarm on his escape and was apprehended
by Green Arrow. While in prison, his sister passed away and he learned
that he was not terminally ill - the doctor had made a mistake. Tockman
snapped and escaped, taking on the mantle of Clock King and vowing
revenge against Green Lantern.
Clock King was a member of Major Disaster's unsuccessful incarnation of
the Injustice League, and later recruited for a new Suicide Squad. Not
adept at combat, however, Tockman died in his first mission.
Though initially conceived as a Green Arrow foe, Clock King has been
popularly portrayed as an enemy of Batman. In the 1960s live-action
series the criminal, portrayed by Walter Slezak, attempted a number of
clock-themed robberies and utilized various trick timepieces. In an
homage to his first comic appearance, he trapped the Dynamic Duo in a
giant hourglass and attempted to bury them alive in sand, but failed
and was arrested.
The Batman animated series of the 1990s introduced a new Clock King,
voiced by Alan Rachins. His true identity was Temple Fugate (a play
on "Tempus fugit", Latin for "time flies"), an efficiency expert
obsessed with punctuality. Fugate held a grudge against Gotham's mayor,
Hamilton Hill, because years ago Hill convinced him to abandon his
schedule before a court hearing against his to calm his nerves. He took
the suggestion, but an unfortunate series of events caused Fugate to
lose his files and arrive late to the hearing, resulting in the judge
ruling against his company for $20 million. Fugate snapped, and
embarked on revenge against Hill years later, first seeking to
discredit the mayor, then killing him for committing the worst offense -
making him late. This incarnation of the Clock King had encyclopedic
knowledge of schedules, electronics skills, and an incredible sense of
timing; he could even time how long it took Batman to throw a punch,
allowing him to dodge it.
In the series "Justice League Unlimited", Fugate returned, again voiced
by Rachins, to help Task Force X (a allusion to the Suicide Squad) lead
a raid on the Justice League Watchtower to steal an incredible weapon.
His planning and knowledge of the League's schedule made him a valuable
asset to the group, in contrast to his performance in the comics'
Suicide Squad.
Edited by Jack Schiff
Writen by France Harron
Art by Lee Elias
"You've heard of many kinds of clocks--but did you ever hear of a clock
that not only runs but walks as well? No--this is not a riddle but the
elusive subject of the search by those famed archers, Green Arrow and
Speedy, who attempt to stop... the Crimes of the Clock King."
------------
It's a gala night in Star City. There's a lavish costume party going on
at the elegant Ritz-Royal Hotel, and the city's wealthy and elite are
all in attendance, each clad in fantastic outfits. One of the guests is
dressed very oddly - a blue suit covered with clock faces, and a green
mask with a clock's face obscuring his own. Watching from the balcony,
the watch-wardrobed figure scans the room. He knows which women are
wearing the most valuable jewels, but is unable to identify them due to
the masks they're wearing. They'll unmask at midnight, however, that is
when he's planning his escape. He has to speed up the timetable and get
them to unmask earlier, and a plan is forming...
The clock soon strikes 12 and the patrons remove their masks. But to
their shock, the room is plunged into darkness instantly afterwards. In
the blackout, the thief snatches jewelry from his targets and escapes
hrough a window. He's succeeded in his heist and his plan was so
simple - all he did was move the minute hand forward!
Almost immediately after the theft, a glowing green arrow is fired from
the police headquarters, illuminating the sky. Oliver Queen and his
ward Roy Harper spot the signal and realize that they're needed to
fight crime as Green Arrow and Speedy. Quickly changing into their
costumes, they take the Arrowcar to the hotel where the heist took plce
and are propelled up to the rooftop, where the criminal stands by the
clock tower. But the timepiece-inspired thief isn't at all worried.
It's midnight, and the mechanical figurines are emerging from the tower
to signal the midnight hour. He can use this opportunity to make his
way down through the tower and escape. As the heroic archers' rope
arrows lasso what they percieve to be the felon, they are stunned to
see him bang the drum held by one of the figurines with a mallet.
They've been tricked! The thief put his costume around one of the
figures. With no leads to follow, the defeated heroes can do nothing
but return home.
In the following days, the Clock King carries out a series of precision
robberies. He strikes the Tick-Tock Club, the Idle Hour Inn, and the
Minute-Man Savings Bank, leaving law enforcement helpless to stop him.
Back at the base of our heroes, Speedy picks up on the fact that all of
the Clock King's robberies are involved with time... or clocks, as
Green Arrow realizes. He announces that they'll continue patroling town
in hopes of finding out the crook's pattern and stopping him.
As fortune would have it, the Clock King is active that very night,
breaking into a store specializing in rare art and antiques. But as he
pries the door open, the burglar alarm starts to blare. He isn't
worried, however, as he prepared for this contingency. As the Clock
King slips into the shop, the clocks at the jewelry store next door go
off at the same time, creating a cacophony that drowns out the alarm.
Green Arrow and Speedy arrive on the scene, and the Emerald Archer
determines that the racket is a distraction. Investigating the art
gallery aside it, they catch their foe making off with an armful of
rolled-up paintings. Stunned, the Clock King makes his escape through
the back alleys, dodging the volley of arrows followed by his two foes
until he darts into a building that serves as his hideout.
The heroic duo enter the Clock King's lair, which fittingly reflects
the criminal's MO: the walls are plastered with clocks and a giant
clock's face is painted on the floor. As Green Arrow and Speedy
approach their quarry, they cross over the floor design... and fall
through a trapdoor activated by the Clock King! The archers find
themselves in a giant hourglass with the sand quickly falling. This is
no ordinary hourglass, however - the sand is falling into a pit filled
with razor-sharp spikes, waiting to skewer the heroes once they fall
in! Thinking quickly, G.A. fires a suction-cup arrow at the ceiling. He
and Speedy climb up and force the trapdoor open. Clock King is caught
off guard by their emergence, and the archers use that to their
advantage, using their arrows to pin his cape to the wall and keep him
from moving. The Clock King's crime spree has been brought to an end -
now instead of basing his thefts around time, he'll simply be doing
time.
------------
First appearance of the Clock King, whose true name is William Tockman.
Tockman was initially portrayed as a gimmick villain who wanted to get
rich quick, but later incarnations revised his origin. Believing he
only had six months to live, he wanted to amass enough money for his
invalid sister to provide for her after his death. He studied the
timing of a bank vault in order to rob it, and succeeded... but
accidentally tripped a silent alarm on his escape and was apprehended
by Green Arrow. While in prison, his sister passed away and he learned
that he was not terminally ill - the doctor had made a mistake. Tockman
snapped and escaped, taking on the mantle of Clock King and vowing
revenge against Green Lantern.
Clock King was a member of Major Disaster's unsuccessful incarnation of
the Injustice League, and later recruited for a new Suicide Squad. Not
adept at combat, however, Tockman died in his first mission.
Though initially conceived as a Green Arrow foe, Clock King has been
popularly portrayed as an enemy of Batman. In the 1960s live-action
series the criminal, portrayed by Walter Slezak, attempted a number of
clock-themed robberies and utilized various trick timepieces. In an
homage to his first comic appearance, he trapped the Dynamic Duo in a
giant hourglass and attempted to bury them alive in sand, but failed
and was arrested.
The Batman animated series of the 1990s introduced a new Clock King,
voiced by Alan Rachins. His true identity was Temple Fugate (a play
on "Tempus fugit", Latin for "time flies"), an efficiency expert
obsessed with punctuality. Fugate held a grudge against Gotham's mayor,
Hamilton Hill, because years ago Hill convinced him to abandon his
schedule before a court hearing against his to calm his nerves. He took
the suggestion, but an unfortunate series of events caused Fugate to
lose his files and arrive late to the hearing, resulting in the judge
ruling against his company for $20 million. Fugate snapped, and
embarked on revenge against Hill years later, first seeking to
discredit the mayor, then killing him for committing the worst offense -
making him late. This incarnation of the Clock King had encyclopedic
knowledge of schedules, electronics skills, and an incredible sense of
timing; he could even time how long it took Batman to throw a punch,
allowing him to dodge it.
In the series "Justice League Unlimited", Fugate returned, again voiced
by Rachins, to help Task Force X (a allusion to the Suicide Squad) lead
a raid on the Justice League Watchtower to steal an incredible weapon.
His planning and knowledge of the League's schedule made him a valuable
asset to the group, in contrast to his performance in the comics'
Suicide Squad.
