There’s a few random Dial-H adjacent stories in the 2000s.
So, for completion’s sake…
JSA Classified #25 (2007)
by Tony Bedard & Dennis Calero
cover by Steve Uy
If you had to guess where the last appearance of the classic H-Dial would be, would you guess a Golden Age Green Lantern story?
Green Lantern is called to help Discount S.H.I.E.L.D. S.H.A.D.E. to recover a stolen “prototype device”, along with supervillain Johnny Mimic.
We eventually discover that the device is none other than the H-Dial.
One of the scientists used the Dial to get the power to time travel, which Johnny exploits to gain use of the device.
The H-Dial is back to crappy transformations.
But Johnny has a death wish, so he tricks Green Lantern into blasting him so hard that it damages the H-Dial.
While I don’t have a lot of context for this whole scenario, it’s not a bad story!
Historical significance: 2/10
With all the various reboots, good luck understanding if this is still in continuity or not. But regardless of that, this is the last appearance of the H-Dial in its classic form: both the 2012 and the 2019 relaunches look different.
Kind of an unceremonious way for the device to go!
It was also possibly destroyed during the Legion Reboot, but we’ll talk about that one eventually.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
The story itself not so much, but the transformations are the classic goofy ones.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Even lacking most context, I liked it. Although the coloring is a bit weird, for reasons I can’t quite put my hands on.
The Brave And The Bold vol.3 #9 (2008)
by Mark Waid & George Perez
Written by Mark Waid, with pencils by Perez? Featuring both Robby Reed and the Metal Men?
This comic was basically made for me!
Specifically, we’re interested in a flashback where the Metal Men interrupt a fight between a robotic dragon and a giant wrestler.
Which wouldn’t even place it in the 20 weirdest Metal Men adventures, honestly.
As you imagined since I’m talking about this, the giant is a transformed Robby Reed.
You know what? I missed those guys.
Tin, of all people, is the one who saves Robby…
…and to use the dial!!!
Obviously Mark Waid uses the fact that the letters on the Dial are in Interlac, since he was the one to introduce the concept.
This transforms Tin into “Manbot The Mighty”.
This really, REALLY makes me wish we could get a Mark Waid relaunch of the Metal Men. It could totally work!!! He CLEARLY knows the source material.
Also: both Gold and Mercury are destroyed.
Continuing the trend of nobody knowing what the Dial is, even Doc Magnus can’t understand it.
We kind of see a shade of Hero Cruz here, because the transformation has slightly affected Tin’s personality. That didn’t use to happen in the Silver Age.
Tina is NOT okay with this!!!
Robby even covers for Tin’s actions, and we get a classic Metal Men-style ending.
Historical significance: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
To be completely honest, I have no idea if this amounts to anything or not.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
In the Silver Age, the Dial WOULD randomly have a different effect on robots.
Does it stand the test of time?10/10
I admit I’m kind of biased, becaue this comic is basically made for me. But it could ABSOLUTELY be done today!
We sadly lost the chance to have Perez drawing a Metal Men series, but let’s hope Mark Waid gets some ideas.
And because this is also a Metal Men story…
Times Gold has died: 26
Times Mercury has died: 24
“Mercury is the only liquid metal at room temperature”: 20
The Brave And The Bold vol.3 #27 (2008)
by J. Michael Straczynski & Jesús Saíz
The same series gives another Dial H story a year later.
And we have a returning Granpa! Who I am convinced traveled all the way to Gotham City to make sure his grandson does not skip dinner again.
The visit happens while the Joker is spreading chaos in the city. Which doesn’t mean they chose a bad time, it happens every other Tuesday there.
So Robby decides he’s going to help Batman.
However what he sees in the future is so terrifying that he just goes back to sleep.
Next, a random guy robs the place and gains the H-Dial.
The fact that he’s compelled to say his own name out loud made me laugh.
So this random guy has a rather successful career as Gotham’s latest hero.
Even Batman is supportive… in his own way.
Although he’s STILL paranoid enough to take The Star’s fingerprints.
After a montage of all the various threats unleashed by the Joker, he reveals that his plan was to exhaust Batman while he blows up some hostages.
And he would’ve gotten away with it, except The Star sacrifices himself to save the hostages.
But wait, you might be asking, wasn’t this supposed to involve Robby?
This is when we learn why Robby let the H-Dial be stolen: Mental Man predicted that the next user would be killed, so he let someone else take the fall.
Uhm, I feel Batman is a bit TOO understanding here! Yeah Robby is still a kid, but he knew someone would be killed. The fact that The Star died a hero doesn’t make it okay!!!
Historical significance: 0/10
Good luck understanding in what continuity this could possibly apply.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Goes out of its way NOT to be Silver Age-y.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
A lost opportunity. We could’ve had a proper team-up between Batman and Robby, and instead it’s a team-up between Batman and some random guy.
Plus it has a pretty terrible Joker and a truly awful conclusion that doesn’t seem to work with what is supposed to be Batman’s ethics.
Nice artwork and a couple of amusing nods to the old series, but that’s about it.
Teen Titans Go! #52 (2008)
by J. Torres & Alexander Serra
cover by Joe Quinones
Just for the fun of it, a quick not about a Robby Reed apperance that is unquestionably out of continuity.
This is the comic book series based on the 2003 Teen Titans cartoon.
It’s surprisingly good: fans of the series should definitely check it out, especially since it continues beyond the series cancellation… the last year or so is for all intents and purposes Season Six.
And it’s our introduction to J. Torres, who will be one of the main writers of the Legion book based on the cartoon series and which will definitely be part of the Legion retrospective.
This is VERY close to the end of the series, which will be just 3 issues later. And it shows the Teen Titans having to deal with a bunch of new teen heroes showing up.
Including Changeling, who gets the power to turn into animals just when Beast Boy loses HIS power to change into animals… but only for one hour.
The same thing happens to Kid Flash when “Jesse Quick” shows up, and to Robin when “Protector” follows.
Notice the amount of easter eggs for readers of regular continuity: “Changling” was for a long time Beast Boy’s new codename, “Jesse Quick” is a reference to both speedster Johnny Quick AND he has the Jay Garrick helmet as a logo, and “Protector” is a VERY deep cut!!!
That’s a reference to a character in a series of anti-drug PSAs, where he replaced Robin due to licensing issues.
The Titans very soon discover that all these heroes are the same kid, even younger than they are.
The H-Dial goes unexplained in this story as well.
You can see it’s mixing the elements of various incarnations: it takes from the original series by having Robby Reed (although he looks nothing like him), from the 80s relaunch because the Dial looks like Vicki’s pendant, and amazingly even from the 2012 by having the Dial stealing powers from existing heroes. Which is impressive since this is a 2008 comic!
As mentioned, the series only lasts 3 issues after this. So I kind of wonder if J. Torres had any actual plans to tie the H-Dial to something.
Especially since the Titans do agree to keep training Robby to become his own hero.
That’s a major theme for this part of the series: the Titans had increased to a HUGE roster, expanding even that of Season Five.
Seriously, they were making the Legion look like a small team!
Robby also has a cameo in the very last issue of the series. With artwork by series regular Todd Nauck, which is a FAR better representation of the kind of artwork that you typically find in the series instead of the frankly atrocious #52 we’ve seen so far.
Robby is inexplicably back to his Protector identity, and practicing his battle roar.
If you’re a fan of the cartoon and you’re on the fence on whether to pick up this series, check out the last issue. I guarantee that you’ll like it.
Typically the target audience of the comic is younger than the TV series it’s based on, but it’s most definitely not afraid to go into darker territory… precisely like the cartoon did.
I never even cared for Phobia, but she’s phenomenal in this.
That is a GREAT issue!
But since we’re talking about #52…
Historical significance: 0/10
Robby has only the above very small cameo and the series is canceled.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
The dial comes absolutely out of nowhere.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
I can’t stress this enough: taken as a whole, the series is great… but #52 sucks.
Most of it is the fault of the Alexander Serra artwork. Everyone is too off-model from the show! Which DID have its exxagerated style, but it’s completely different from what is done here; the Todd Nauck issues are immensely better at adapting it to comics while keeping a recognizable style.
It’s also a very basic story, seriously sticking out from this part of the run where the book tended to be bolder than you’d expect.
Which makes me think that the nods in the transformations are all from J. Torres, because he tended to do little easter eggs like that.
Dial V for Vicki transformations: 78
Dial K for King transformations: 77
Dial R for Robby Reed identities: 57
Adding Bruiser and Mental Man. I’m not counting the transfomations from Teen Titans Go, because that is DEFINITELY a completely different Robby.
Dial Z for Hero Cruz identities: 15
Dial J for Jerry identities: 17
Dial N for Nick identities: 4
Dial M for Miscellaneous identities: 58
Adding a whole bunch! 53 in total are added to the count:
-The S.H.A.D.E. agent transforms once
-Johnny Mimic transforms twice
-Tin of all people has one
-The guy who transforms into The Star (Travers Milton)
-While I’m not doing the whole 2012 series, for completion’s sake: co-protagonists Nelson Jent and Manteau transform 32 times and 16 times respectively.
Dial S for SOCKAMAGEE! : 103
I can’t believe Mark Waid’s story doesn’t add a SINGLE “Sockamagee!”. Neither do the others, but I wasn’t expecting it from them.
Dial C for the superpowers count: 81
“Bruiser” is just a giant, so it doesn’t add anything since Robby had size increase since his first adventure. But Mental Man also doesn’t add new powers, since Robby’s already had clairvoyance.
Only one thing to cover in the retrospective: Robby’s involvement in the 2019 relaunch.
I’ve got to say, I can see why Dial being in Interlac (or any non-specific alien language) is probably the only element that is dropped in every relaunch of Dial H. It really doesn’t add anything since everyone who gets their hands on a dial always knows how to use it and the alien language seems to work more like a cipher anyway. Besides, it’s “Dial H for Hero” not “Dial L-shaped pipe thing for Hero”.
Well that’s a problem only if you want anyone who picks up the dial to be able to use it.
Which IS my favorite use of the dial, sure, but that’s not how it necessarily needs to be: in fact, in the original series only Robby could understand the letters.
(let’s not think too hard on how that works or how people randomly dialed the right words without knowing the meaning)
But if you want to keep only one protagonist, having the letters in Interlac helps preventing other characters from transforming.
Not my favorite way to handle Dial H, but it’s not impossible.
Nice write-up. It says a lot about the state of DC continuity when you mention a story being destroyed by a Legion reboot and I end up wondering which Legion reboot you’re referring to.