Let’s go through the last batch of Dial H stories before focusing on the final storyline, where something will finally happen.
New Adventures of Superboy #38 (1983)
written by E.Nelson Bridwell & Bob Rozakis
pencils by Howard bender
We’re back to the readers designing civilian clothes. Still waiting the return of absurdity of having them designing furniture.
Chris turns into Trail Blazer this issue. Lately he’s been trying to launch “Hot socks!” as a catchphrase, but it’s not nearly as weird as “Sockamagee!” so don’t expect me to keep track of that.
Sorry Chris, but you’re no trail blazer.
Vicki’s friend Nick has shown up a couple times in the series, always sketching the same superheroes summoned by the H-Dials. He’s going to be important in the finale, but he’s barely a footnote so far.
New Adventures of Superboy #39 (1983)
written by E.Nelson Bridwell & Bob Rozakis
pencils by Howard bender
Chris’s father investigates a thief who stole very expensive watches, so we’re promised a potential appearance by supervillain Chronos.
But no such luck. Instead we get more heroes created by Nick.
Chris gets an interesting power that I wish wasn’t wasted on a one-off character; this would be a cool Flash villain (if he had a decent costume).
Vicki is stuck with whatever THIS is.
Also she’s super-strong and invulnerable, so what was the point of giving her rock-shaping powers as well? I swear these kids get the most random transformations.
Sadly we don’t get Chronos. The only threat the kids face is helping a bus avoid being late for a game… yes, really… and we are introduced to new villain Silhouette, who mind-controls Chris’s father.
New Adventures of Superboy #40 (1983)
written by E.Nelson Bridwell & Bob Rozakis
pencils by Howard bender
Vicki kind of rips off the Emerald Empress look to become Genesis. At least she had the good sense to avoid seriously going with “Genesister”.
Chris demonstrates that while the H-Dial tells you what your powers are, you can still be an idiot.
Silhouette is once again the villain behind everything. First The Master, now this… the kids sure have a lot of villains who act behind the scenes.
New Adventures of Superboy #41 (1983)
written by E.Nelson Bridwell & Bob Rozakis
pencils by Howard bender
Silhouette has an interesting power: he can absorb a person’s shadow to create duplicates that obey his commands.
Chris’s transformation is surprisingly tough for Silhouette…
…and once again Vicki is unhappy with the hero name chosen by the readers.
Chris’s father is ultimately the one to defeat Silhouette. What a waste of an interesting power.
New Adventures of Superboy #42 (1983)
written by E.Nelson Bridwell & Bob Rozakis
pencils by Howard bender
Silhouette was interesting, but ultimately he was the latest one in a long string of generic villains.
And then FREAKING SATAN shows up!
Okay when did this series become AWESOME???
Oh. He’s just another generic creation of The Master. Should’ve known better than giving credit to this series.
The kids show up at a comic book store where there’s a costume party, which is the excuse used to dump a bunch of reader creations that don’t get used as real transformations.
This is just cheating!!!
Out of the above heroes, only “X-Rayder” and “Lavender Sky-Writer” (WTF!?) are included in the count, because Chris and Vicki end up transforming into them.
It should be noted that the “Lavender Sky-Writer” costume was previously worn by Vicki’s friend Glinda. Don’t think too much about the fact that they should both be either 14 or 15 at this point.
What a disappointing story. We were promised FREAKING SATAN and all we got was this loser.
New Adventures of Superboy #43 (1983)
written by E.Nelson Bridwell & Bob Rozakis
pencils by Howard bender
Once again Nick creates characters that come to life. Including his Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus knockoffs!
Chris and Vicki save an arcade from being robbed by turning into Spheror and Turnabout.
They spot Nick being kidnapped by Inferior Spider-Man and Not Octopus right after dialing back to normal, which means they won’t be able to become heroes for another full hour.
It’s amazing how rarely the time limit shows up, considering it’s arguably THE greatest contribution the relaunch has on the franchise.
Nick is SOMEHOW instrumental in The Master’s plans.
And kids transform into arguable the most useless heroes ever.
The letters page gives us a great deal of information on how this series is written. At least the writers seem to be having fun.
New Adventures of Superboy #44 (1983)
written by E.Nelson Bridwell & Bob Rozakis
pencils by Howard bender
Chris has turned into the same character he played at the arcade, sort of a cross between Pac-Man and Q*Bert.
Vicki’s transformation is BY FAR the most physically useless we’ve ever seen…
…but she’s telepathic. I actually rather like the idea of a hero who is almost completely unable to move but compensates with telepathy, sort of a Professor X with much worse luck.
She’s also INCREDIBLY CREEPY.
Chris might look utterly ridiculous, but he’s also ridiculously strong.
He ends up fighting Not Octopus, which for some reason requires a panty shot for the doll.
The Master sends a new villain against them…
…who suffers one of the most terrifying defeats possible.
And the story has an anticlimactic resolution: the H-Dial simply runs out of time.
Not really sure why the kids are also sent back home, though.
Nick discovers their secret, so there’s something.
And that’s where we’re going to stop for now, because in the last five issues of the series SOMETHING WILL FINALLY HAPPEN.
Historical significance: 1/10
Nick will have SOME part in the finale, but that’s about it.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
Very random stuff throughout the stories, but nothing stands out.
Does it stand the test of time?: 3/10
Ever so slightly better than the first part of the series. At least there’s an attempt at a larger storyline, and a few of the action scenes or transformations are creative; issue #44 in particular goes out of its way to find impossible situations for the kids to overcome.
However it doesn’t solve any of the problems of the relaunch: Chris and Vicki are still blank slates, their civilian lives are utterly boring, and while the villains have improved a little they’re still not enough to save the story.
Dial K for King transformations: 74
Dial V for Vicki transformations: 69
Dial R for Robby Reed identities: 51
Both kids have seven transformations each.
I kind of wish they still did fun things like using suggestions from readers–I’m guessing the Ben Dunn credited here is the same one who went on to a comic book career?
I’m pretty sure Electric Lad was created by THE Ben Dunn from Ninja High School and Warrior Nun Areala…