By Zack Quaintance —  It’s just two issues, but I’ve so far been continuously impressed with the new Image/Top Cow comic, The Clock. As I noted in my review of the debut, this series takes real world political challenges as well as deep knowledge of current scientific research, and it blends them with a well-done character-drive comic book story. This, of course, is nothing new for writer Matt Hawkins, who has done this with several other comics in the past, most notably with the relatively long-running series Think Tank, which was largely centered on DARPA research. 

In coming back to this book for the second issue, I suppose I expected more of the same. Most creator-owned comics operate that way. The first issue establishes a strong premise with an intriguing set of stakes for characters, while the second moves us rapidly past the first major plot point and toward the second surprise. The Clock #2, however, operates just a bit differently. It doesn’t upend those traditional structural choices. It stays largely within that structure, but within that structure it goes right for the $&%#-ing heart. 

While this is still 100 percent a book about real world science, about the potentiality of cancer going viral and some bad actor weaponizing that. It’s also a book about a family, and a grieving father and a daughter who in some ways only have each other left. In this second issue, I was impressed with how the creative team made that bond so quickly, before putting it in grave danger in a way that felt heartrending and poignant, relating as it does to the ongoing threat to humanity too. 

There’s a real idea at work here about existential threats — climate change, the coronavirus (for example), global warfare — being one thing to read about, and another thing entirely when they start to have real implications for you and your family. And it’s all illustrated powerfully within this story. Speaking of illustrations, I also continue to really enjoy the artwork in The Clock, which is the work of the very underrated Colleen Doran, who is colored here by Bryan Valenza. There’s a lot being done with visual tone in this book, and that’s perhaps best evidenced by the two covers.

The Clock #1’s cover is the sort of 20,000-foot view of the story, depicting as it does the Earth with a biohazard sign, a clock, and the vines of a plant blending above it. It’s representative of the main elements of our story, save for the family dynamic. That dynamic, however, is all over the cover of The Clock #2, along with the literal heart the events of the story seem so determined to break. These sorts of visual touches are not just present on the cover, but all throughout what is shaping up to be one of the strongest new creator-owned comics of 2020 so far.

Overall: Heartrending and powerful, The Clock #2 continues to explore terrifying existential global threats and the real stakes they present to one’s family. This comic is as smart as it is engaging. 8.8/10

The Clock #2
Writer: Matt Hawkins
Artist: Colleen Doran
Colorist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Troy Peteri
Publisher: Image Comics / Top Cow
Price: $3.99

When aggressive cancer begins spreading through humanity like a virus, one scientist will sacrifice anything for answers. Is it a global eugenics conspiracy? The beginning of World War III? And can he get to the bottom of it before it takes what's left of his family?

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.