- Cover by Mike Allred
- Written by Jeff Parker
- Art by Sandy Jarrell
- Colours by Rico Renzi
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BEWARE OF SPOILERS
There’s a pleasant surprise waiting for you inside this issue of ‘Batman ‘66’ where the usual back-up story would be, this week we have a mashup of a part 3 to the Mad Hatter tale which also works as its own back-up.
‘The Clock King Strikes’ continues the story of Batman and Robin’s trip to Londinium and the aftermath of last weeks ‘A Chase in London Town’ which ended with Mad Hatter locked up by the Londinium equivalents of Gordon and O’Hara.
Whilst attending a celebratory dinner in their honour something doesn’t quite ring true (pardon the pun) with Batman. Big ben struck twice as the Hatter and his crew were making their escape and it was neither half past the hour or 2 o’clock in the day. Coming to the realisation that a third party was behind the scenes all along Batman and Robin are once again off to fight crime.
I have to hand it to Parker that he’s come up with a great way to integrate the back-up story in to the previous two issues. It stands on its own as a singular tale about Clock King but fits in so well to the continuity setup so far in Londinium.
Due to the nature of the story only taking place in one issue there’s once again only a couple of locations on show in this issue with most of the action taking place inside Big Ben. The story is a little far fetched with the King having been the mastermind behind stealing the jewels and also having creating robots to fight the dynamic duo but none of it matters when the book is put together so well.
Jonathan Case has taken a backseat for this story and Sandy Jarrell has stepped back behind the pencil to draw this issue. The artwork matches up well with the beginnings of this three issue arc but without trying to copy the style. Yes Jarrell’s art is less kitschy but it still suits this book really well.
The animation is still being put to great use in this issue but I’m just glad it has come so far beyond it that it’s just a great addition rather than a requirement.
You don’t necessarily need to have picked up the last two chapters in order to understand what is going on here but it does make a great closing chapter to the Dynamic Duo’s trip to Great Britain.
7/10
