As an epilogue of sorts to the Mad Hatter story that concluded last week, we find ourselves still in the UK at the beginning of this week. At a celebration honoring the dynamic duo’s capture of the Hatter, Batman is quickly distracted by an overlooked clue! Racing to the British batmobile with Robin and Alfred, the boy wonder questions where they are off to. The Dark Knight explains that during their recent battle with the Hatter and his hovercraft he noticed that Big Ben (the giant clock tower) struck twice during the chase…however it was nowhere near 2 o’clock. Batman is positive that Mad Hatter had some sort of technical accomplice and that the bell chimes were to warn him away from the clock tower. Launching their batarangs the duo begins to climb the side of the clock tower.
Meanwhile inside Big Ben, it is revealed that the Hatter’s accomplice is none other than the Clock King! The Clock King’s henchmen begin to question why they are still hanging around the tower and haven’t left London as of yet. Our villain responds that now that he is satisfied with the inner workings of the clock moving correctly they can move on. The henchmen begin to bash the Hatter on getting caught, and the Clock King is quick to defend. However the group quickly notices the silhouettes of Batman and Robin climbing the outer face of the clock. They head to the belfry to stop the duo.
Reaching the top of the tower, Batman and Robin are quickly accosted by the Clock King and his gang…as well as some mechanized soldiers to boot! The automatons quickly overwhelm the dynamic duo and the Clock King’s other henchman quickly move in for the final defeat. However, Batman and Robin quickly turn the tables and force the robots to attack the henchman rather than themselves. While cornering the final automaton with the swinging arm of the clock tower bell, they are finally defeated.
With the arrival of the officers from Scotland Yard, Batman reveals that only one person in the world could have been helping out…and reveals the Clock King’s true identity: the brother of the Mad Hatter, Morris Tetch! The issue ends as always with a quick pun, and the Clock King and his gang are off to prison.
This issue was pretty decent. I enjoyed the fact that this third issue actually tied into the main two-part story of this series. Previously the third issue has always been a one off story that never related to the first two chapters, as seen in last month’s Egghead storyline that didn’t tie in with the Joker story. So I was happy to see that this Clock King story tied in and acted as an epilogue to the Mad Hatter storyline.
As a story itself it worked quite well, Batman’s explanation about the Clock King helping out the Hatter makes sense…and those two chimes of Big Ben were in last week’s issue, I checked. So it was nice to see that these issues were plotted out quite well. I also thought the use of the robots was pretty neat, oddly fitted in quite well with the ‘60s theme of the book.
My only major issue was the art, it seemed really off and jarring at times and was noticeably different from the previous two chapters which flowed very well. It almost seemed like there was a lack of detail or that it was blurry at times.
Overall a decent issue with another successful use of “DC Squared.”
Batman '66 Chapter #12:
Reviewed by Ryan Blair
