Writer – Steve Ahlquist
Artist – Andrew Murphy
Inker – David Lee Ingersoll
Letters – Mike Sagara

Earth has a Tik-Tok problem, and while Detective Angleton and Agent Dot Gale try to sort out who has the authority to hunt him down, the robot is currently taking out the gangs in New York City and consolidating power. He does so with robots based on his own design, and word is getting around to those left that need to look out before they find themselves six feet under. Thankfully, it is not very long before Dorothy and the rest of the squad find themselves at Tik-Tok’s door, just before he makes a hasty retreat. They question those within and find out where he might be hiding out, not realizing that there is a trap waiting for them when they get there. As it is, they rush in to stop a fake Tik-Tok from creating more robots, and that is when the trap is sprung, with the group fighting for their lives. Steve Ahlquist and Andrew Murphy create another fun-filled issue, one that is packed with intrigue and action and so much more. The most interesting part of it all is not seeing Tik-Tok as this mobster-like mastermind or the operation he has constructed in such a short amount of time; instead, it is the tragedy of Scarecrow, which really hammers home the damage to his psyche while endearing him to the readers. As he battles one of Tik-Tok’s henchwomen, she uses a flamethrower on him, elevating his stress levels but it is only when she says the word scraps that something within him breaks and he thinks back to Scraps, the Patchwork Girl and how she was burned to death by Baron Munchausen during the Nazi occupation of Oz. In a truly epic scene, Scarecrow soaks himself through and through with gasoline and takes the fight to the woman attacking him, ensuring that if she should fire on him one more time, they will both die. It is a sequence filled with various emotions from rage to sadness to madness, and it packs a wallop more than anything else found in this book. By the end of it all, Tik-Tok is still on the loose, and the heroes are no closer to capturing him than they were when it all started out. Wonderful pencils from Murphy highlight this great story from Ahlquist, and once again, it leaves everyone wanting more from this very imaginative take on Oz.

4 out of 5