image

The Clock

The Clock

Debated to be one of the first of comics Masked Mystery Men.

Name:
The Clock
Real name:
Brian O'Brien
Aliases:
  • Brian O'Brien
Birth date:
None
Gender:
Male
Powers:
  • Agility
  • Gadgets
  • Leadership
  • Marksmanship
  • Unarmed Combat
First issue:
Funny Picture Stories (1936) #101
cover

Origin

Clock's secret identity was eventually revealed to be society man and former district attorney Brian O'Brien, whose background in college sports helped prepare him for heroism. As the Clock, he wore a three-piece suit, a fedora, and a black full-face mask (which was replaced by a domino mask years later). He usually left a calling card that bore an image of a clock and the words "The Clock Has Struck." He had two sidekicks in his superhero career: His double Pug Brady and a young girl called Butch Buchanan. His romantic interest was his fellow vigilante The Orchid.

The Character would be bought by Quality in 1940. When DC bought the rights to the Quality characters they did not renew the copyrights of the character and, thus, he fell into public domain. It would seem DC would not renew the copyrights decades later.

Malibu Comics

The Clock was revamped by Maliby comics in the 90s for the Protectors comics.

Here Brian O'Brien later on life went on to become the president of the United States of America. It was his idea to create a team of super-powered heroes that would be focused on fighting crime and wouldn't be reckless. This team became known as the Protectors.

DC Comics

DC would make references to Clock in the Starman book. Shade would reveal through the Clock's journal that his death in 1944 was a great exaggeration and that he had been actively fighting crime in Chicago. Clock would become a founding member in JLA:Destiny. The book had many of the Quality characters as founding members or as villians.

Issues

April 1959

September 1992

October 1992

January 1993

February 1993

March 1993

June 1993

July 1993

October 1993

December 1993

February 1994

May 1994

November 2008

January 2013

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013

November 2013

September 2018

Volumes

1938

1992

1993

2012

2013

2018

Died in issues

Authors

Friends

Enemies

Teams

Friendly teams

Enemy teams