Dial H for Hero #5-9

Dial H for Hero #5 (2019)
written by Sam Humphries
pencils by Joe Quinones & Scott Hanna
cover by Joe Quinones

Let’s see if the latest Dial H revival maintains the high level of quality of its beginning.

We begin with Miguel being inside Batman’s origin story.

More specifically, he’s in the Heroverse.

Which is connected to ALL the superhero origins!

The Operator (Robby Reed) is also there, trying to help Miguel.

Since they fail to stop him, Mister Thunderbolt manages to re-unite with his real body.

We are now finally getting an explanation of how Robby became the Operator, and what he did AFTER the original series: he decided to figure out how the H-Dial works.

Apparently, by going on a trip across the Multiverse.

Not only that: he went BEYOND the Multiverse, even beyond the Speed Force (which according to the latest retcons is at the edge of the multiverse).
Which is the reason given why, as the Operator, Robby looks significantly older than he should.

That is quite a journey. I honestly wouldn’t have minded a whole series documenting this!

We are now given an explanation of what the Heroverse IS, but in a beautiful two-page spread.
Before going into the specifics, just appreciate how great this looks!

So if I get this correctly, the Heroverse is the metaphysical realm that includes every possible version of a hero. And whenever a hero gets his/her own “secret origin”, the hero stops being metaphysical and becomes real; the H-Dial can bypass this entire thing and turn potential heroes into real ones.

Normally I’m not a huge fan of modern DC cosmology; as much as I like some of the concepts introduced by Grant Morrison, things went reeeeally overboard.
However with the Heroverse I give it a pass, because it gives some context about where all those heroes are coming from.

Also technically it shouldn’t even be called Heroverse because it’s ALSO where supervillains get their origins, but… you know. Marketing.

Also, we’re not talking about “secret origins” in a literal sense. It’s when you decide to become a hero that counts.

After being, let’s face it, the least interesting part of the first four issues, Miguel gets some much-needed character development.

You may remember the first thing we learned about him is that Superman saved his life when he was younger. But now we learn that he later lost his parents in a plane crash, and he blames Superman for not saving them.

I just love it when Superman gets moments like this, to really showcase that it’s not his powers or his history that makes him the gold standard for superheroes.

This leads Miguel to figure out he hasn’t had his secret origin yet.

He better hurry, because now Mister Thunderbolt dials M for Metropolis.

Which sends a call to every single phone in Metropolis…

…and THE WHOLE CITY DIALS H.

Best Dial H cliffhanger EVER.

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Dial H for Hero #6 (2019)
written by Sam Humphries
pencils by Joe Quinones & Scott Hanna
cover by Joe Quinones

This is going to completely obliterate my transformation count.

Summer is among the transformations, and she transforms into Lo Lo Kick You once again.
This time there’s no distinct artwork change, but she REALLY reminds me of Mike Allred’s work (especially on X-Statix).

Now Metropolis is absolutely crowded with superheroes!!!
We’re just at the beginning and in the two-page spread I count TWELVE (not all in the below image), so we’re off to a busy start.

I’m not going to discuss every single one because otherwise this issue ALONE would require its own retrospective, but rest assured IT’S A LOT.

For all the crappy transformations Robby had back in the day… could’ve been worse.

Turn’s out Robby has a second H-Dial ready! That’s not entirely a new thing, the 2012 miniseries that isn’t part of the review had multiple dials with different effects (one that turns you into a sidekick, one that turns you into a villain and son on).

Not really sure what makes this one different from the red one, though.

He gets his own struggle with using the Dial…

As a comic INSIDE the main comic!!! I swear this series is just exploding with creativity.

So while Summer gets her own story about trying to contain these various heroes…

…Miguel decides he’s going to dial after all.

He might want to workshop on his superhero name, though.

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Dial H for Hero #7 (2019)
written by Sam Humphries
pencils by Joe Quinones, Colleen Doran, Michael Avon Oeming, Erica Henderson, Stacey Lee
cover by Joe Quinones

That’s a lot of pencils.

As you might imagine, that’s because there are A LOT of changes in the art style: this issue focuses on a bunch of the new heroes created in Metropolis.

I’m not going through everything since it would take forever, but some highlights include…
A guy who wants to impress his boyfriend with his hero form, only to discover that his boyfriend is cheating on him with ANOTHER hero.

A hospitalized woman who uses the transformation to torment the executive that denied her insurance.

A cheerful heroine who is the envy of every single other hero…

…and why wouldn’t she be? She’s a good girl.

In the end we’re back to the main plot, but I would definitely want to read more about these random heroes.

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Dial H for Hero #8 (2019)
written by Sam Humphries
pencils by Joe Quinones, Colleen Doran, Michael Avon Oeming, Erica Henderson, Stacey Lee
cover by Joe Quinones

Who are you gonna call?

This goes all the way back to Robby’s first transformation.

In addition to mentioning a few of the old transformations…

…we get some new ones! And how crazy is it that Tea Rex and General Electric wouldn’t even have been the weirdest transformations if those actually happened during the Silver Age?

But we also have some sad additions, like the fact that while Robby was continuing to fight crime Gramps eventually dies.
Either of old age of because he kept waiting for his grandson to come to dinner.

Robby… didn’t take this well.

As briefly shown in issue 5, this is the journey that eventually led Robby to the source of the H-Dial’s power: the Heroverse.

We get into the recent DC cosmology with this one.

That’s a reference to the “Map Of The Multiverse” that got thrown around A LOT in DC comics after the “New 52” era.
As mentioned I give a pass to the Heroverse because it’s thematically appropriate to this series, but as much as I love multiverse stories… I could never behind the way DC has overcomplicated things.
But the map WILL be relevant later, so keep it mind.

Robby didn’t reach the Heroverse out of a sense of exploration, but because he wanted ultimate power. Which led him to the Y-Dial.

Which is used to split the user into two opposing sides, one good and one bad.
Why even bother introducing THIS new dial when the 80s reboot already gave the regular H-Dial to dial S.P.L.I.T. and have exactly the same results???

Admit it, you already figured out Mister Thunderbolt was also Robby Reed a long time ago.

And as Mister Thunderbolt, now he’s compelled to make everyone a hero.

Remember when I said the multiverse map was going to be important? That’s because we discover THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE IS A DIAL.

After years or centuries of discussions and fights… time is basically meaningless in the Heroverse… Robby eventually triumphed, exiling Mister Thunderbolt.

That was the status quo of Mister Thunderbolt at the beginning of this series.

And to bring it back to the present, now he only needs four Dials to turn every single being in the multiverse into a hero.

Okay I was fine with two dials. Three was pushing it. Four is too much!

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Dial H for Hero #9 (2020)
written by Sam Humphries
pencils by Joe Quinones, Colleen Doran, Michael Avon Oeming, Erica Henderson, Stacey Lee
cover by Joe Quinones

Let’s finish this batch of issues.

See, this is why I don’t like these multiple dials.
The “Magenta Dial” is just the general use H-Dial.
The “Cyan Dial” makes you into your “inner hero”, which defeats the whole idea of having a random transformation.
The “Yellow Dial” already replicates a previous use of the regular H-Dial.
We’ll see how well the “K-Dial” holds up, but this is not promising.

It’s a bit after the chaos of the previous issues; Miguel and Summer now have jobs as interns.
And Miguel gets to deal with being asked out by a guy who thinks he’s Supermiguel, with the style briefly turning into a slice-of-life comic.

Now that he’s had a taste of REAL superpowers, Miguel is seriously tempted to transform again.

You might be wondering: shouldn’t Miguel deal with Robby’s whole plot?
Robby agrees so much that he’s been pestering Snapper Carr into being his messanger!

Wait, Robby was TEN at the beginning of the original series? He should have been older, considering we saw him drive!!!

What do you mean “what’s so bad about giving powers to countless people”, Miguel?
YOU JUST SAW what happens when you do that!!!

Okay so the C-Dial turns you into your inner hero. I could understand transforming Miguel into Supermiguel, since he idolizes Superman.
But WFT does his transformation into “The Early Adopter” mean???

How is it possible that this is a more embarrassing transformation that last time’s “Lil’ Miguelito”?

I’m just as confused as you, buddy.

Now that he’s transformed, Mister Thunderbolt is able to locate him and sends four new transformations his way: the Tweenage Irritable Geckos.

Summer also transforms, and she’s Lo Lo Kick You AGAIN… but this time she’s a “Jem and the Holograms” parody.

By using the C-Dial, the kids are then able to get into the next part of the journey.

Which I guess is a good enough moment to take a break. The series still has 3 issues to go.

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Historical significance: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Still too recent to tell.

Silver Age-ness: 8/10
Too self-aware for a higher score, but there’s some truly bonkers stuff here.

Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
As much as I think the multiple dials are a mistake, this is still an amazing exploration of everything that makes Dial H an interesting franchise.
The issue focusing on all the various minor transformations is like a condensed version of half of the 2003 series. There’s A LOT to like there!
It’s also the first time we see a real exploraiton of what happens to Robby!
But seriously, did ANYONE not figure out Mister Thunderbolt was Robby at his second appearance? At most?

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Dial V for Vicki transformations: 78
Dial K for King transformations: 77
Dial R for Robby Reed identities: 60
Adding Mister Thunderbolt and the two in the flashback.
Dial J for Jerry identities: 17
Dial Z for Hero Cruz identities: 15
Dial N for Nick identities: 4

Dial M for Miscellaneous identities: 72
Two new transformations for Miguel.

Dial T for Thunderbolt: 100
Told you this was going to explode the count. There are NINETY-SEVEN transformations shown across these issues!!! And that’s assuming I noticed all of them.

Dial S for SOCKAMAGEE! : 116
Nine new catchphrases. Not that many, considering we have TWO parallel incarnations of Robby around.

Dial U for most used identity:
Radar-Sonar Man (3)
Lo Lo Kick You (3)
Summer is definitely cheating by repeatedly transforming into the same hero, but she’s already tied with Robby’s most used transformation.

Dial C for the superpowers count: 82
Adding intangibility for Mister Thunderbolt. Weird that it wasn’t in the list already! 

Dial D for dialing options: 11
Dialing M.E.T.R.O.P.O.L.I.S. allows you to give powers to everyone who picks up the phone in the city.