“AMERICA’S #1 TIME-TWISTIN’, COFFEE-SWILLIN’ ANDROID HERO.” It’s about time! The Man of the Hour embarks on an honest-to-goodness crime-fighting career, concocting a secret identity and placing an ad in the paper advertising his super-services! But if this guy can turn ordering coffee into a cosmic crisis, what can the people of Happy Harbor expect from their new protector?
Snapper Carr arrives at the Happy Harbor bus terminal, and runs into a beggar asking for money. Snapper gives him $5, and tells him if he wants to hang someplace same, to head to the Mad Yak Café. The beggar disappears, and when Snapper investigates, he finds the beggar being sucked into a black portal by a creature calling himself the Snatcher.
Hourman shows up, and pushes himself, Snatcher, and the beggar into the portal. They blip out a few seconds later, and Hourman pulls the Snatcher from his realm back to the bus station. Hourman continues the fight, but the Snatcher escapes. Hourman is about to leave in pursuit, but Snapper stops him. Snapper asks why Hourman has been secretive lately, and Hourman promises that he, Snapper, and Bethany will all talk later.
Snapper finds out via the newspaper that Hourman has joined the Justice Society, and that he is now advertising himself as a super-hero. Snapper informs Bethany, and though Bethany is rude, she follows Snapper to the Mad Yak Café. Once there, they find the beggar also there, playing with some JLA toys. The beggar gives up his name as Matthew. As Bethany tries to cheer up Matthew, the three of them are pulled into the hellish world of the Snatcher. Bethany calls out for Matthew to help them. She rips open Matthew’s shirt to reveal Hourman’s costume. Bethany had realized that, in idolizing the Justice Society, that Hourman had also created a secret identity for himself.
Hourman uses is power to disperse the Snatcher’s realm, which they find out is actually a retail “hell” operation working out of a shopping mall. Hourman apologizes to Bethany, and the two make up. However, while Hourman is kissing Bethany, Snapper is snatched by the Snatcher and his boss into another “retail hell.”
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