Titans #16 opened up a new era for the team. Writer John Layman and artist Peter Woods took over the book, the Flash quit, Arsenal joined, and Donna Troy stepped in as leader. The team is no longer going to be a stand in for the Justice League, but work with the team. These are all pretty big changes to the team’s status quo, and soon they would face their first for of this new era, an enemy that usually wouldn’t be able to do much to them: the Clock King. He’s able to get the drop on the team and in Titans #17 he’s using a new power against them: the power to search through their memories.
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There have been three Clock Kings over the years, and the villain is mostly known as one of the lower level foes that Batman faces. The one who defeated the Titans is the second one, William Tockman. He’s also been a member of the Suicide Squad many times over the years, and was most recently seen in Suicide Squad: Dream Team, working for Amanda Waller in the run-up to Absolute Power. Clock King never had any powers before, but all of that changed with the end of Absolute Power. The defeat of Waller’s Amazo army saw powers released into the wild and Clock King was able to gain enough power to take down a team as potent as the Titans.
Clock King’s New Power Makes Him More Dangerous Than Ever
Generally, Clock King’s villainous career is nothing to write home about. The first one is best known for the rather garish costume with a clock face for a mask. He had chronokinetic powers that allowed him to exist on a seven-second delay from the actual time, flight, and could create clock shaped energy constructs to trap his foes. Tockman’s Clock King had time travel tech and the third Clock King is a Green Arrow foe without any powers or relation to the other two. Tockman’s new powers actually make him the most formidable Clock King, and a villain who is actually pretty dangerous.
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Clock King’s new powers were first seen in Titans #16, although readers wouldn’t find out that was what happened until the next issue. Donna Troy had a vivid flashback to the first Titans Tower. Later, Arsenal would have one about when Green Arrow attacked him while he the archer was pretending to work for Waller. As the issue went on, each member of the team would experience something similar, before Raven’s made her lash out and incapacitate the whole team.
Titans #17 sees the Clock King tell the team that the end of the battle against Waller saw him gain a growth on his hippocampus that allowed him to go into people’s mind and look through their memories. Arsenal’s psychic pain over Green Arrow not trusting him with Ollie’s secret plan against Waller allowed Clock King an in and he used it to go into all of the Titans’ minds, which all have a connection. His plan was to plunder their memories for all the information he could, but they were able to use their link to beat them, all because Donna Troy was able to outsmart him. The team identified that the growth on his brain would kill him, and asked if he wanted their help, but of course he escaped them and the issue ends with him recruited by Deathstroke.
Clock King’s New Powers Are Boon And A Curse
While previously, Clock King wasn’t a villain to worry too much about, Clock King with new powers is a different story. His ability to go into the memories of his enemies makes him more dangerous than ever, allowing him to learn things that he shouldn’t. After all, information is power and for many heroes, information such as their identity and loved ones could give villains quite the upper hand. However, these new powers also have a serious drawback – they’re slowly killing him the more he uses them.
Batman villains get revamped often, and this new Clock King looks to be on his way to bigger and better things already. Deathstroke’s new plan involves getting a group together to defeat the Titans, and Clock King’s new powers have earned him a place in Deathstroke’s plan. The fact that they’re also dangerous to him adds an interesting dimension to these new powers. Will he use them until he burns out? Will Deathstroke dangle a cure in front of him and deny it? Will the Titans be able to get through to him and help him? These powers make Clock King even more interesting than ever, giving him an actual story beyond being a punching bag for Batman.
Titans #17 is available now.
