Dial H – Page 17 – Comics Archeology

The Dial-H relaunch on Adventure Comics is a real slog to get through.
Let’s just go over the transformations to see how many superheroes Chris and Vicki turn into, and I’ll quickly cover whatever interesting thing happens.
Spoiler alert: it ain’t much.

Adventure Comics #480 (1981)
by Marv Wolfman & Carmine Infantino

They were really desperate to get fans to design ANYTHING for this series. We had the heroes and villains, the furniture (???) and now also the clothes that Chris and Vicki wear.
I’d design better proportions for Chris, look at those legs!

Seriously, you could design A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G for this comic!

One thing we do find out is that Vicki’s parents are rich enough to be worthy of being kidnapped for ransom.

The kids rush through four transformations this issue.

This issue also has the release form for submitting ideas. I don’t understand much about this kind of stuff, but I believe this means DC keeps all the rights.

The submission form is also bizarre. I understand they’re asking interests as a survey to target the demographic, but… why do you care about the names of the pets? What, are you planning to use those names in a story too???

If anyone who got his/her idea accepted and received the T-shirt ever contacts me, it will make this entire retrospective worth the effort.

Adventure Comics #481 (1981)
by Marv Wolfman & Carmine Infantino

Still no real origin for the kids, just the fact that they found the dials.

At least the new dials don’t look like dials 100% of the time, they transform whenever the kids want. I still think that Vicki’s pendant attracts too much attention.

Chris is a high school student that barely gets by in school and has a genius brother.
Marv Wolfman is used to writing teenage heroes: before the New Teen Titans he created Nova… a student who barely gets by in school and has a genius brother.
I checked: Wolfman doesn’t have a brother, but he has an older sister. I wonder if she was the school genius of the family?

Chris is stuck at home studying for part of the issue, so he lags behind Vicki: she gets four new identities, he only gets three.

It’s also a VERY rare moment of depth for this series, because she fails to save a woman from drowning despite her powers.

Or a least that’s what Vicki thinks for a few panels.

Adventure Comics #482 (1981)
by Marv Wolfman & Carmine Infantino

The kids have been FAR luckier than Robby with their transformations so far, until Chris changes into Mister Thin. The others are pretty standard; four transformations each.

The idea of having readers send concepts for heroes, villains and even plots was apparently a great success. But I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that people weren’t sending furniture designs.

Adventure Comics #483 (1981)
by Marv Wolfman & Don Heck
cover by Ross Andru

Good news: this issue is not drawn by 1981 Carmine Infantino.
Bad news: it’s from 1981 Don Heck.

Something of importance FINALLY happens: Chris’ father is shot.

Also: the kids are fourteen! I can believe that for Chris and for 50% of Vicki’s scenes.

Among the kids, Chris seems to have the worst luck with transformations.
Six new heroes each, but a couple are in a one-panel montage.

Adventure Comics #484 (1981)
written by Marv Wolfman
pencils by Don Heck (first part) & Carmine Infantino (second part)
cover by George Perez

This issue introduces the big bad guy of the relaunch: The Master, who is behind several supervillains.
People who have read this series and more importantly the “New Adventures of Superboy” sequel: no spoiler on the real identity of The Master, please, until I get to the reveal.

Also: is Chris’ father suspecting that the two are superheroes? He’s already been shot once, if he keeps this up he’s at risk of succumbing to the dreaded Mentor Figure Disease.