House of Mystery #158 (1966)
by Dave Wood & Jim Mooney
We break tradition for the first time, with only one hero being shown on the cover.
We begin with some criminals robbing the town by creating a deafening sound.
The villain of this story is going to be Daffy Dagan.
Yes, you read that right.
In this issue, we fight Daffy.
Robby transforms into a new hero to deal with the situation: Quake-Master.
Because I guess earthquakes are the best way to fight crime.
So far most of Robby’s transformations had the additional power of flight, quite randomly. At least Quake-Master has a somewhat believable way to do this.
Jokes aside, Quake-Master is probably Robby’s most useful and versatile transformation so far.
If only he had a decent costume.
Unfortunately Robby doesn’t control this transformation very well, leading him to knock himself out.
Now… you would expect Daffy to either shoot the unconscious Quake-Master, or to unmask him, or to run away. But for some reason he starts to play with the H-Dial.
Not only that, but he RANDOMLY dials “V.I.L.L.A.I.N.” and turns into this monstrosity.
Too bad he didn’t dial H.E.R.O.
And that is how Daffy Dagan became Daffy The Great.
Daffy The Great is quite powerful, being able to cut through metal with some kind of laser.
Even when Robby eventually manages to recover enough from his wounds to catch up to him, Daffy The Great remains untouchable.
Notice there is no time limit to the transformation: without the H-Dial, it could be permanent.
In addition to powers, apparently the H-Dial can give you gadgets like this Spider-Tracer™ Vibration Disc(patent pending).
There are, however, some downsides to being Daffy The Great. Like being stuck as a giant red glowing rock monster.
Sneaking into his base, Robby barely manages to steal the H-Dial back.
This early in the series, characters sometimes need to figure out the powers and sometimes they know them as soon as they transform. Daffy seems to be in the latter category.
Another thing consistent from this period: every issue HAS to include a scene where Robby is late for dinner.
We only have TWO superheroes this time: meet The Squid. Who has nothing to do with squids.
The Squid is weird even by Dial H standards, WHICH IS SAYING SOMETHING.
Daffy’s force field proves to be too much for The Squid, but there’s a solution: throw poison at him (!!!) so that he’ll die as soon as he drops the field.
So he drops the field and gets knocked out, turning human once Robby has him dialing N.I.A.L.LI.V.
You probably saw from a mile away the twist that there was no poison, but did you think The Squid had the power to shoot sound-generating liquids?
Historical significance: 3/10
Daffy The Great will never show up again, but the idea that other people can transform into other things if they dial something will return.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Does it stand the test of time? 2/10
Extremely simplistic, even for the times, and full of things that just happen… like Daffy randomly dialing V.I.L.L.A.I.N, or even Robby figuring that out. Even the story potential of Robby fearing he’s stuck in his new form doesn’t go anywhere after a single panel.
Props for breaking the formula and for a good villain design, but you can’t do this today.
Dial S for SOCKAMAGEE! : 16
Tied with the first issue with the number of times, six, that Robby uses his catchphrase.
Dial I for superhero identities: 8
Adding Quake-Master and Squid. I should probably clarify that I’m only counting identities and superpowers that Robby gets.
Dial C for the superpowers count: 13
Quake-Master obviously adds his seismic powers; he’s one of the MANY hero identities with the power of flight, but for once it’s not a separate power but it’s a clever use of his main ability.
The Squid is… complicated. He has four buttons on his suit that do INCREDIBLY specific things; should I count this as a superpower? Should it count as four separate superpowers? Can he change the effects of the liquids? I’m going to assume he can, because otherwise I’d have to count four separate superpowers with one of them being “power to shoot a harmless green liquid that generates sound”… so I’ll just count “liquid matter manipulation”.
Who would’ve thought the freaking Squid would be so complicated!?
Dial D for dialing options: 4
You can apparently also dial V.I.L.L.A.I.N. completely by accident. But you also have the option to dial N.I.A.L.L.I.V. to reverse the effect.
I’d be curious to see what a modern/postmodern treatment of “Dial H” would look like. Like, where did the dial come from? Who made it? (My answer would be a trickster god, like Coyote or Loki.) Did Robby really decipher the language on the dial, or did the dial “help” him? Are there any settings beside HERO and VILLAIN? For that matter, how many letters/holes are on the dial? (At least 9.) How come the markings on the dial exactly correspond to the Latin alphabet? What happens if a person who is good by nature dials VILLAIN? What would happen if Daffy dialled HERO? Maybe it doesn’t matter what you dial as the dial reads your morality and gives you a shape to fit? Maybe dialling HERO tells the dial to give you a really dorky outfit – because let’s face it, while monstrous, Daffy’s VILLAIN form looks better than any HERO form so far. One more question: Was the Squid the prototype for Condiment King?
The series “Dial H” by China Mieville might be exactly what you’re looking for. (Though it’s post-Flashpoint, so I wouldn’t consider it Robby Reed canon, but in its own milieu it explores the aspect of H-Dialing that you’re asking about.)
Thanks! I had no idea that series existed.