DC Comics Presents #44

DC Comics Presents #44 (1982)
written by Bob Rozakis & E. Nelson Bridwell
pencils by Irv Novick
cover by Ross Andru

With the end of the Adventure Comics run, “Dial H for HERO” will move to the backup feature of “The new adventures of Superboy”.
But to publicize that, they first team up with Superman.

We begin with Clark Kent being sent to Fairfax, the town where the Dial H kids live, because there have been tons of superheroes seen there.
Superman mentions visiting the place earlier; there is no footnote for it and it doesn’t ring a bell.

In this period, Clark works for Morgan Edge as an anchorman. But confusingly enough he ALSO ends up working for the Daily Planet quite often.

Meanwhile, Chris is trying to see what else he can spell on the dial, since it only has 4 letters H–E–R– O. He settles with dialing H.O.R.R.O.R.
Possibly because the Comics Code will not allow an underage boy to dial H.O.E.
(I am not sorry)

This ends up transforming him into the subtly named Beast Maniac.

He ends up attacking the helicopter carrying Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen, because of course he does.

Vicki is witnessing this from street level, so she ditches her uninteresting supporting cast to transform.

She assumes “Superman” is actually a transformed Chris. Too bad she doesn’t know there is a precedent for the H-Dial transforming you into a pre-existing hero.

She quickly figures out this is the real Superman, and identifies Chris by his dial.
I’ve complained before that her medallion SHOULD help people figure out that all those super-heroines are the same person, but HE is the one being recognized.
Also, where DOES she keep her medallion with that costume?

First suggestion that the H-Dial could be magical in nature. Up to this point it’s been considered exclusively super-science.

I like her transformation into Sphera. Kind of a discount version of Green Lantern.

She tries to dial O-R-E-H to turn the beast back into Chris, but it doesn’t work.

Superman knocks Beast Maniac out, and soon his one hour time limit comes up.

Chris is canonically 14 in this period, so genuine question: would he REALLY be saying “I mada a boo-boo” at that age? It sounds WAY more childish to me.

Chris tries to come up with a fake origin story, but he’s immediately shut down by Vicki.

There’s a lot to unpack from this panel.
Superman thinking the dial must be magical.
The reference to the origin story.
The fact that the continuity insert from Silver Age doesn’t work with this, because Superman should be aware of the H-Dial if we consider that story.

Superman DOES have a legitimate question here. There have been a hundred new heroes in Fairfax and they’ve all been from these two kids.
But there have also been a couple dozen supervillains.

This story attempts to retcon ALL the supervillains showing up in the Adventure Comics run as having been creations of The Master.
I’ve skipped over 95% of these stories, but let me assure that this DOES NOT WORK: most of those villains had their own completely separate origins!!!

A pity, because the idea that The Master has been mass-producing supervillains is a great idea.
This links The Master to the DNA Project, better known as Project Cadmus. When we will get a proper origin for The Master at the end of the relaunch, this will be COMPLETELY contradicted.
(once again: no spoilers in the comments from those who already know who The Master is).

He ends up creating The Nullifier, who will be our villain for the issue.

Jimmy and Clark soon bump into him, with the latter wasting no time figuring out how he’s NOT another Chris transformation.

Speaking of the kids, they’re already there to deal with The Nullifier.
Nevermind Vicki’s previous transformation: where could she POSSIBLY keep the medallion in this form??? That is some 70s Legion costume design.
Also: VICKI IS FOURTEEN.

I do admit her power is pretty creative.

Chris’s transformation can conveniently absorb and return energy, but so can The Nullifier, so this turns into an annoying game of hot potato.

The Nullifier is basically untouchable.

Not sure why this works the second time, wasn’t Cris already trying this before?

Superman has a looooong tradition of not considering beings as alive when they don’t have a biological origin. This isn’t too different from him allowing the death of Bizarros because “they don’t count”.

Superman has to leave to take care of some other emergency, so the kids end up following Jimmy back to the DNA Project.

And OF COURSE he immediately gets captured. It’s been so long since I’ve reviewed a Jimmy Olsen comic that I forgot how crappy he can be.

Enough time has passed for the kids to transform again, and they take care of things easily.

And then The Master BLOWS UP THE ENTIRE COMPLEX.

Vicki’s transformations are REALLY impressive this time around: she saves them by SCREAMING AWAY AN ENTIRE MOUNTAIN.
Too bad the Superman crossover didn’t happen with Robby, because we missed the chance to have two of the lamest catchphrases ever in the same comic: “Sockamagee!” and “I’ll be a Kryptonian babootch”.

The Master is still alive, though, because that must have been a Masterbot or something.

Superman is such a nice guy that he covers for the kids, not telling the Daily Planet what he learned.

After all, he told the kids earlier in the story:

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Historical significance: 3/10
This establishes The Master as the kids’ nemesis. But his origin doesn’t stick.

Silver Age-ness: 7/10
You would think Superman would do a better job at keeping track of these gigantic underground bunkers of Evil Science.

Does it stand the test of time?: 6/10
What a difference having 25 whole pages can make. Even with Superman guest-starring and multiple transformations, at least we get a full story that doesn’t rush TOO much.
Nothing spectacular, and Superman might be a little too casual about these fourteen year olds having those powers, but it’s far from out of character for him to have a positive attitude.

Dial K for King transformations: 59
Dial V for Vicki transformations: 53
Dial R for Robby Reed identities: 51
“Beast-Maniac” does not count, since he’s not a superHERO.
This means Chris dials into 2 heroes and Vicki in 3 heroines, so now she’s surpassed Robby as well.

Dial D for dialing options: 7
Adding H.O.R.R.O.R. to the combinations. Chris returns to his human form when the hour limit expires, but there’s strong indication that dialing R.O.R.R.O.H. reverses it so I’m still counting it.

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Interesting letters: not from this issue, of course. But the response in #49 was positive.

This is a legitimate question I hadn’t thought about. What happens if you dial O.R.E.H. when you’re not a hero? And the answer is… nothing, if you transformed into anything but a hero.

Still, I wonder: what if you dial O.R.E.H. before anything else? Would you turn into the opposite of a superhero? Because…