Dial H for Hero #1 (2019)
by Sam Humphries & Joe Quinones
Let’s begin the very last stretch of the Dial H retrospective: the 2019 relaunch.
We are introduced with a flashback to Miguel, a kid who years ago was saved by Superman and later became a bit of an adrenalin junkie.
We catch him in the present day, where he’s stuck working for his uncle’s mayonnaise van.
As well as the co-protagonist Summer, a girl who keeps running away from home.
Miguel ends up trying to perform a stunt near a canyon, where he falls to his death.
Well he WOULD die, except a completely redesigned H-Dial shows up.
As much as I like this series, I honestly hate the new H-Dial design… it’s just a phone.
In the reboot, the dial dials you!
Bizarrely, heroes are aware that someone is using the dial.
Also Harley Quinn for some reason. Stop trying to make Harley a hero, DC, she’s less interesting that way!!!
No notes having ALFRED being the one to pick up the phone even if it’s the H-Dial. This is awesome!
I should point out that it’s not the Dial that speaks to Miguel. It’s the mysterious Operator on the other side; don’t worry, we’ll meet him soon.
One of the neat tricks of this series is that whenever the Dial is used, the artwork COMPLETELY changes to match the new hero.
In this case it’s a general 90s style, but we’ll see how crazy things get!
The only reason he’s not a Rob Liefeld character is that he doesn’t have nearly enough pouches.
Once Miguel turns back human, Summer wastes no time turning this into an adventure.
As does the Operator.
And that’s the cliffhanger!
I normally wouldn’t bother mentioning alternate covers, but I absolutely HAVE to mention this one because it shows all the transformations from the classic series!!!
Dial H for Hero #2 (2019)
by Sam Humphries & Joe Quinones
As if you couldn’t tell this series looooves the classic run, even Thunderbolt plays a role.
Turn out running away from home isn’t that simple.
Why IS Summer running away, anyway?
The Operator might want to dial someone else.
This is a good opportunity for Mr. Thunderbolt to telepathically ask one of his minions to pick up the Dial.
Especially when Miguel tosses the Dial off a bridge!!!
The two kids have more chemistry in less than two issues than Chris and Vicki had during their entire run.
Mr. Thunderbolt has so many agents everywhere that ANOTHER pawn is already on the case!!!
Hey remember when I said that whenever someone uses the dial the artwork changes?
Things get REALLY crazy when the first pawn recovers the H-Dial to transform into a manga!!!
Complete with his own origin story!!! The only thing missing is reversing the page to have it be readable right to left, but I guess it would’ve been too confusing.
Also, if you had ANY doubts that this was a Dragonball homage:
Yeah. Pretty accurate reaction, Miguel.
Mr. Thunderbolt should really get his pawns straight, because the policewoman ends up shooting at “Jobu the Zonkey King”.
Until Summer HITS HIM WITH THE MAYO VAN. Can you tell she’s already my favorite character?
This allows Miguel to use the H-Dial. Now is probably a good moment to mention that in this series, whenever you dial a phone booth suddenly appears.
Miguel transforms into Iron Deadhead, who gets his own dedicated cover inside the comic.
Who ALSO gets his origin story, and who is also a manga homage of some kind. I can’t quite put my finger on what, though.
In case you couldn’t tell, this series is COMPLETELY NUTS in the best way!
Seriously, this is so stupid it goes all the way back to being sheer genius.
But the fight isn’t here just for fun. It’s also to tie back to the theme of the 2003 series: the H-Dial is incredibly addictive and can EASILY ruin your life.
And if you though a lot of people used the Dial in that series… that was nothing.
In the middle of all this, however, the other Mr. Thunderbolt pawn manages to steal the H-Dial… and bring back an old catchphrase.
Can you believe this is THE FIRST TIME EVER that “Sockamagee” has been said by ANYONE who wasn’t Robbie!?!?
Dial H for Hero #3 (2019)
written by Sam Humphries
pencils by Joe Quinones & Arist Deyn
cover by Joe Quinones
After that cliffhanger, OF COURSE Mr. Thunderbolt wants in on the action.
Speaking of returns: the story opens with a flashback to a never-before-seen Robby adventure in Central City.
Sadly we don’t get to see him fighting Grodd.
The kids followed the policewoman to Central City, where they try to get Flash’s attention.
And failing spectacularly.
We also learn in a flashback why Summer keeps running away from home: her mother keeps trying to make her a beauty pageant.
Also the policewoman gets her own backstory. Told you the H-Dial got around in this version!
She tells this to the Operator, who is able to talk to anyone using the H-Dial.
She uses the dial again, and things are about to get weird.
Well, weirdER.
This time the homage is a Vertigo book.
Which triggers more flashbacks about Summer’s terrible mother.
So, remembering the last time she escaped the closed where she was locked in by her mother…
…Summer also dials into a hero.
She’s definitely a homage to some indie comic, but I don’t know what.
Her style makes me think of Tank Girl, but I don’t think that’s it.
Also, this part of the book has a very creative layout: not only the “Lo Lo Kick You” scenes are flipped 90 degrees from the rest of the book, but the first page literally rips it in half to do so.
Again: COMPLETELY nuts, but dripping with creativity.
Honestly at this point Summer feels more the protagonist than the supposed co-protagonist.
But speaking of protagonists: in the last page we see more of the Operator, who might be responsible for the existence of Mr. Thunderbolt…
…and who drops a bombshell. He’s Robby!!!
Dial H for Hero #4 (2019)
by Sam Humphries & Joe Quinones
Let’s close off the first part of this series.
With a trip to the Detroit base of the Justice League, complete with robots.
And complete with Snapper Carr!
Meanwhile Robby is, uhm, he’s not feeling that great.
There’s also the spirit of Mr. Thunderbolt. His body is trapped in the “Heroverse” with Robby, but his mind is free to move around.
And to activate the Justice League robots to attack Snapper and the kids.
Summer is transformed into a Frank Miller inspired “Chimp Change”.
A were-gorilla woman? Why isn’t that an actual comic book???
Snapper changes into Ice Cream Man. Is that a spoof of Moebius?
And poor Miguel… gets the only transformation more embarrassing than Mighty Moppet.
Summer and Snapper at least try to fight.
Honestly, can you blame Miguel?
This is not his day.
I’m counting all these newspaper strip inspired transformations as separate, by the way.
Mr. Thunderbolt uses this to convince Miguel to use the Dial one last time…
…to dial S for Sockamagee (!!!)
Which A) undoes everyone’s transformation B) brings back Mr. Thunderbolt.
Who then retreats to the Heroverse, where Miguel follows him.
And that’s a good moment to pause. Trust me, the series only gets MORE insane from here!
Historical significance: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This series is too recent to tell.
Silver Age-ness: 7/10
Definitely too meta to get a higher score, but man does this get insane!
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
Well duh, it’s barely five years old.
But even besides that, holy crap is this a fantastic series! The energy and creativity are miles ahead of any previous relaunch. The only minor complains I have so far is that Miguel isn’t a particularly interesting co-protagonist (but thankfully Summer picks up the slack), and that I really don’t like the H-Dial redesign.
Dial V for Vicki transformations: 78
Dial K for King transformations: 77
Dial R for Robby Reed identities: 57
Dial Z for Hero Cruz identities: 15
Dial J for Jerry identities: 17
Dial N for Nick identities: 4
Dial M for Miscellaneous identities: 67
Adding the Snapper Carr transformation, plus six Miguel identities (which include four separate versions of Lil Miguelito) and two transformations from Summer.
Dial T for Thunderbolt: 3
Just three transformations from the two Thunderbolt Club members. That’s going to increase, A LOT.
Dial S for SOCKAMAGEE! : 106
4 new catchprase, for the first time used by someone other than Robbie!!!
Dial D for dialing options: 10
Dialing S.O.C.K.A.M.A.G.E.E. reverses all other transformations and opens a portal to the Heroverse.
One of the better uses of this technique was the Planetary story where the encounter Batman, but which version keeps changing…
I know you’re not including the 2012 Dial H series in this retrospective, but it bears mentioning that the notion that H-dials are connected to telephone dials and that there’s an “operator” (or multiple operators) comes from that iteration.