Posted By Keith Hendricks on August 15, 2013

Dial H #15 isn’t quite the close of China Mieville’s contributions to the DC Comics mythology of Dial H for Hero, as in Villain Month we will get the Dial E for Evil story in Justice League 23.3. However, this is the final chapter in the Dial H series and it does being some closure, if not a full stop, to the stories of Nelson Jent and Manteau.

With the assistance of The Dial Bunch and Open Window Man, and a new high in the number of Heroes dialed, our heroes enter a final battle with Centipede and the final villain, The Operator. These are inspired pages that take the wacky silver age sensibilities that made The Composite Superman and suffuse them with a grim eschatological theme. For the ultimate villain, The Operator, doesn’t dial up villains–no, no, nothing so mundane as that–he has a Doom Dial that dials up apocalypses. As The Operator also has the ability to disconnect a dial, our heroes must set up an autodial system so that they rapidly switch from hero to hero to avoid disconnection. Forcing the heroes to metamorph through heroes dialed in past issues serves as a montage for the reader. The heroes are mashed up as well, so we get Chimney Lachrymose, a fusion of Boy Chimney and Captain Lachrymose from the first issue, as well as other merged but divided heroes, like Pelican Bluff, and Ctrl-Alt-Daffodil. While Nelson is opposing the Operator with his hacked dial, Roxie is dial-less and must resort to a human heroism founded in desperation and resourcefulness. Even though Mieville has often turned the superhero genre’s cliches on their heads in the past fifteen issues, the outcome is never in doubt here. The last page of the series has a sunset, and heroes walking into it.

With an economy of lines, Alberto Ponticelli indulges the eye, and gives this comic a great send off as well. His sparsely drawn figures are vital and animated. And like flesh and blood these characters move from potential to decision, from decision to action, and in the last issue, from action to war. As with the great comic book artists, there is a sense here that Ponticelli is also a storyteller, that drawing is also an act of writing for him.

The Dial H series has been a consistently good read for adult readers. You wouldn’t think the last issue of the story would be a good jumping on point, but it is so full of action, intelligent dialogue, and big ideas, that it is probably the best showcase for what the story is about, and it is highly recommended. Still, the series is also recommended in full. The Dial H series can be found at your local comic shop and quality booksellers like Barnes and Noble, but the print run has been low, and you may have better luck buying the graphic novel trade paperbacks or buying them digitally on comiXology. The first thirteen issues there have been slashed in price to 1.99, so this is probably the cheapest way to start reading this story.

You can find previous reviews of Dial H on Nerdspan by following this hyperlink.

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Categories: Comics, Reviews
Tags: Alberto Ponticelli, China Mieville, DC Comics, Dial E for Evil, Dial H for Hero, Villains Month