George Brenner created some loser superheroes like 711, Destiny, and Just'n'Right, not to mention the laughable villain Brick Bat, but he did make the original super mecha Bozo The Robot, plus the very first comic book costumed superhero known as The Clock, so you have to take the bad with the good. One such bad character was shafted into The Clock's adventures was the boyish Little Orphan Annie wannabe, Butch. The Clock himself was Brian O'Brien, your average rich socialite who fought crime in his secret identity which is just a fine gentlemen's outfit with a black mask draped over his face. This might sound like dozens of other superheroes like Batman, but The Clock was the original character to use this motif in comics, bridging the gap between pulp fiction and comic book heroes. The Clock did have a partner nicknamed Pug who oddly enough looked similar to O'Brien, which would've been helpful if The Clock ever needed a stand-in to publicly pose as his civilian identity, plus Pug sometimes joined him on cases wearing a trendy handkerchief over his mouth as if he was a train robber. However, after 17 issues of Crack Comics, Pug disappeared, and then in Issue #21 The Clock got a freckle-faced new flunky. After bashing a couple of thugs on the waterfront, a gunshot Clock wanders into what he thinks is a vacant hovel, but the homeless Butch Buchanan was using this ramshackle shack as a place to squat. Butch does some "clock repair" as she first thinks that O'Brien is just another wounded gangster, and that she wants to be his moll which was her life's ambition and follows him as he puts his mask back on to repay the hood who shot him. O'Brien explains that he's not a gangster but a masked crimefighter, but Butch still declares herself as The Clock's moll, albeit a very young one, so O'Brien adopts her as his youthful ward just two years after a certain Boy Wonder. Their working relationship wasn't free of controversy as he would threaten to spank her at home if she didn't behave, and for some reason he started wearing a new domino mask that exposed half his face which isn't tactically the best decision if you want to keep your secret identity. The addition of Butch to The Clock comic might be seen as chasing the sidekick trend of the early 40s, but despite appearances her antics did actually pay off most of the time, plus she threatened to leave him to work for The Shadow if she didn't get her way.
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