Who's Chronos?

Who's This? The master of time... -related gimmicks.

The facts: Gardner Fox and Gil Kane created Chronos for The Atom #3 (November 1963) and he soon became the hero's archenemy, not only appearing in Ray Palmer's own stories, but in the JLA as well as a member of the Injustice Gang. He certainly wasn't exclusive to the Atom, also pestering Blue Beetle and Superman, among others. In the 80s' Power of the Atom, he got a make-over and from then on was technically a bigger threat. But he remains a loser, and his thunder is stolen by Lady Chronos and the heroic Chronos, Gabriel Walker.
How you could have heard of him: In the New52, David Clinton works for ARGUS, and while there's a version of him in Legends of Tomorrow, it's an inspiration more than the real thing. He was last seen post-Rebirth in the final issue of Justice League of America vol.5.
Example story: The Atom #28 (December 1966 - January 1967) "Time-Standstill Thefts!" by Gardner Fox, Gil Kane and Sid Greene
We begin our examination of entries from Who's Who's 5th volume with the fashion nightmare we call Chronos, in his third entanglement with the Atom. The story begins with a strange crime wave where a fancy watch, money in a time-locked vault and an antique pistol watch disappear into thin air in front of witnesses. Ray Palmer is working on a gravity drive for space travel (which seems a reasonable outgrowth of his experiments with dwarf star matter) when his prototype disappears too. Difference is, Palmer is more astute than other witnesses and notices he's lost 5 minutes of time, time during which the theft was committed. Suspecting Chronos more than ever, he hides inside the remote control for his device, which he's sure the villain will return for, as the Atom of course. And so...
A very Gardner Fox idea that peer review gives Chronos all his best targets. Chronos gets a punch on the nose, but deploys the buzzsaw clock shown on the cover. That is a work accident waiting to happen.
The Atom could have led it right to Chronos' neck, but instead makes it ram into a big, heavy safe where it's smashed. The Mighty Might is about to hit him again when he goes for his watch and activates the time field he used in his robberies.
Really more of a freeze ray, which tracks because Chronos couldn't really manipulate time until the 80s. Here, I would like to draw attention to the way Chronos' mask falls across his nose, because it's a lot more realistic than "spray-on masks" we often see, but also, frankly terrifying. The Atom's own mask can't be tweezed off (I thought it was an exacto knife at first, phew!) and a clock-related death trap is set up before the villain leaves so it can fail. I guess he's squeamish. So he keeps the crime wave going...
Trenchcoat and hat to go incognito, but keeps the distinctive mask... Ok, Silver Age, whatever you say. Meanwhile, the Atom wakes up in a clock, but bends it out of shape by making himself heavy. Just in time to see Chronos' flying sundial platform fly off to rejoin its master, so he hitches a ride, jumps on the villain's face and quickly smashes his freeze watch. What is Chronos without his gadgets? He'll grab whatever time piece is on hand - in this case, an ancient sundial - and try to smush our hero!
Smush or drown, depending on whether the Atom in inside the stone block or not. But one of Chronos' victims is also on his trail, grabs the stone out of the air, throws it back, and as this is a Gil Kane-drawn strip, it ends like most do:
Chronos is knocked for a loop. No wait--Chronos is knocked into next week. Ah, there, that's better.

When he finally started doing stuff with TIME in the 1980s, I cheered, because Chronos' problem was always that he was a garish Batman villain working in the wrong town. Time, to him, was a theme for his crimes and his tech, but he didn't really have a handle on the force itself. Here, he at least FAKES it.

Who's Next? A cowgirl with throwing stars.

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