What's with those fasho continuity nietzschecomix? OR Odradek reads New 52

Odradek

"But mooooooooom all my friends are fighting crime!"

So Roxie/Manteau refuses to let Nelson go out and fight crime because of how ridiculously insensitive his current hero is. There's some comedy shenanigans involving Chief Big Arrow's winged horse(who is named Wingy) in Roxie's vegetable garden. It's kind of nice to be able to relax after the non-stop shit hitting the fan of the previous five issues.

So Roxie tells Nelson that she keeps a dossier of heroes she refuses to go out as, such as "Doctor Cloaca, Captain Priapus, and Golliwog". She says that if people are in danger, it's sometimes necessary to go out, but sometimes the world shouldn't see the hero you turn into and you have to weigh that. 

As Roxie makes tea for Nelson, she notes that the cloak and mask are partially for borderline cases where it's embarassing, but not enough to avoid going out. She notes that sometimes, the personality of a dialed hero will be overwhelming.

Thankfully, Roxie is able to tell Nelson that the news said this happened an hour ago and the firefighters got everyone out.

So Nelson starts thinking to himself that things have been quiet lately. He mentions that Roxie knows more about the dials then anyone, but even she doesn't know much. He mentions that he and Roxie have been sharing the Dial, before suddenly hearing breaking news.

You know, I have not seen China Mieville do comedy before, but damn if he isn't good at it.

So Nelson falls asleep and we get more information on what the Dial does to your psyche. Nelson has dreams that belong to the different heroes and it's really freaking him out. He remembers a time he fell asleep as "Tugboat" and had vivid horrific nightmares. He decides he doesn't want to find out what Chief Mighty Arrow has going on in his subconscious and wakes up when Manteau rouses him.

Unfortunately, there's a supervillain attack.

He fizzles back into Nelson-form seconds later as the transformation runs out.

Manteau insists that it's her turn now, and takes the Dial. She says that when she gets back, it's road trip time because she thinks she found another Dial.

One-Winged Eagle

Man I really want to read this comic now.

Justice4243

I'm kinda sad we didn't get to see Chief Mighty Arrow strut his racially insensitive stuff.

Aliroz

Doctor Cloaca????????

What next, Rape Bradbury?

Dial hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh for hero?

One-Winged Eagle

Thirty H already did Rape Bradbury.

Unless that was your point.

Odradek

Nelson visists Prague. Nelson visists Nairobi. Nelson visits Tokyo. Nelson visists some tiny place in England, Perkingham he thinks it's called, I dunno, Tachyon might know where it is.

So Nelson and Roxie are dial-hunting all over the world. Roxie has hooked them up with ear pieces they can communicate through. They've been tracking down cults who know stuff about the Dial, and it's origins, and they keep finding nothing but a bunch of bored harmless weirdos.

Roxie and Nelson are currently in Paris, which is basically the Vatican of Dial worshippers and Roxie thinks she knows who the pope is. And they're gonna give him a miracle.

Meanwhile, back in Littleville, a mysterious man with a briefcase is looking through an abandoned building. The man then goes to meet Vernon Boyle, a former underling of Ex Nihilo who's pretending to be named Roche. The man wants to know more about the Dial, and tells Vernon that he's basically dead if he doesn't get the information he wants.

Meanwhile Roxie and Nelson have found the supposed location of the Dial in the ocean. Unfortunately they're stuck aimlessly dialling until they get a hero who can do this. I should probably mention that Roxie has been skimming money off of the corporation she works for, which is where they get the money to rent a boat.

Manteau dives down to the sea floor and finds some ruins. She sees that something took the Dial. She notes that there are guards, but luckily, sharks aren't interested in plankton.

Well that's a problem.

So the Planktonian forms together into a giant, and punches the whale, then manages to get up to the surface just in time. Roxie found a badge next to some diver's gear, and the badge seems to indicate the person who took the dial was in the Canadian special forces.

Back in Littleville, the mysterious man meets up with Vernon, but Vernon brought friends and they shoot the man.

The man notes that when the authority he worked for found out what he could do, it suggested names like Do-Over and Rewind. But he suggested another codename that fit his appearance and behavior more: The Centipede.

Not to be confused with the Human Centipede who is a much less effective combatant.

Yarrun XIX

Nelson's arms on the cover are kind of weird.

Besides that, wow, and I mean woooow, this comic is awesome.

One-Winged Eagle

The second image doesn't seem to be working for me.

Yarrun XIX

All you need to know about that page is that Neo-Nazis are getting attacked by bees.

Odradek

Does this work?

Tachyon

i've never heard of Perkingham

One-Winged Eagle

Yeah, that works.

That's a pretty important page. Thanks for posting it.

lee4hmz

Yarrun XIX said:

All you need to know about that page is that Neo-Nazis are getting attacked by bees.

BEES. MY GOD.

Odradek

The first panel reveals a shocking revelation aboot our villain.

Canadians.

MY GOD

Anyway, Nelson and Roxie arrive in Toronto. Nelson makes a joke about holding out for a heroe and Roxie starts quoting 80s power ballad in response for a few panels. Also I think we have a new artist now. That's happened three times. The writing team has stayed consistent though, which is good.

We cut to Centipede snooping around Roxie's house. He thinks about the time he gained his powers. and we learn more about his powers. 

Anyway, Centipede finds a secret room in Roxie's house filled with computers, old phones, masks, and cloaks.

He calls someone named "Dark Maple" and announces that they've found Manteau.

Meanwhile, Manteau is planning something to break into the Candian Foreign Ministry. Nelson in a Manteau disguise gives a USB stick full of hush-hush government to a moderator of what is wikileaks. The police catch up with him and he responds using his new powers.

So Nelson stops hallucinating and returns to his normal self just as a tree-man with a Dial shows up.

Nelson says he just want to talk, but the tree-man starts fighting him and orders him to surrender. Then the tree man runs away and escapes into a helicopter. Nelson goes after the helicopter, but Centipede appears and his hot on his trail.

Nelson's powers fizzle out the moment Centipede catches up. Centipede then lies to his commanding officer and says Nelson escaped, signs off, and then confronts Nelson.

Centipede tells Nelson that he knows more than Nelson does. He knows  that the mysterious "O" who created the Dials was short for "Operator". He says he knows one more thing as he takes the Dial from Nelson.

Odradek

So Nelson punches Centipede, but he keeps hold of the Dial. This is just part of the plan though.

So this new form has the power to summon a huge stone maze in the center of Toronto, and Centipede gets trapped inside it.

Roxie and Nelson bugger off, and Roxie says that this guy is government, and they need to get underground. They use a trick they figured out of dialing the reverse of HERO to undo the transformation before it runs out. They talk for a bit about how hard it is to keep the hero's personality down without a mask to solidify your identity.

Meanwhile, the Canadians are planning something

Centipede meets up with a man named General Choler and the Dial user from the last issue. The Dialler says that he still doesn't have control of his powers and tends to seize up in the field.

Centipede reports back to Choler and sticks to his story about losing Nelson Jent. Choler and Centipede both admit that they still don't know how the Dials work.

Also it turns out the goverment is going to make Centipede wear an oversized centipede mask that can shoot an electric charge and has HD scanner eyes that can see in infrared or ultraviolet. Thus the cover.

Meanwhile, Roxie and Nelson are planning to break into a secret government building in Toronto. They start dialling to get a hero who's good at stealth, but the government detects an "increase in D-Waves" indicating dialling and get really confused.

When I was a child 
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown, 
The dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.

So Nelson makes his way through the building with his new powers. Meanwhile Centipede is trying to find them in the building. He has a new theory about the Dial and he wants to test it out. He also calls the thing that came out of Abyss "The Unstuck Fixer". Nelson finds the dial and reports to Roxie, but it turns out he's not as invisible as he thinks he is.

So Centipede lies to the other dialler about the damage Nelson is doing to make him worried enough to Dial.

Aliroz

THIS PAGE NEEDS NO EXPLANATION BECAUSE IT IS INKED BY DAN GREEN!

One-Winged Eagle

I love that America is code-named as "Whiny Eagle".

It's like they don't even care if the Americans know.

Odradek

So Bristol Bloodhound can smell out The Glimpse, and punches him to the floor. Then Nelson yells "no" and BB seizes up again.

BB asks Nelson what he should do, and Nelson is understandably confused. Centipede shoots Nelson in the leg, and Nelson yells for help, at which point BB picks him up and decides this is what he should do.

So I guess the big question here is why BB is following Nelson's orders.

So Nelson and BB blast off out of the building, and BB says they should go fight crime. Roxie tells Nelson to get a grip and get BB and himself to the rendezvous site and Nelson does so after briefly referring to BB as "Half-seen Boy" and thinking he is really The Glimpse.

So Roxie arrives at the site, and Nelson has the dial user, AKA "Warrant Officer Mason Jones" tied to a chair. Roxie hugs Nelson and we get to see how close they've become through all of this. 

Nelson explains that Mason is near-comatose, and that he thinks the Dial messed with his head. Roxie tries using Mason's Dial to see what's wrong with it, but nothing happens. Or so it seems.

So it turns out there's more than one kind of Dial. Nelson theorizes that whatever made the Dials knew that you couldn't run an army just on generals, and that you needed soldiers to obey them. He explains that Jones kept Dialling sidekicks, and has been desperate for a chain of command until a Hero showed up.

Meanwhile, Centipede is ransacking Roxie's notes. He says that while she's been focused on finding Dials and making them work, the Canadian government has been focused on explaining where they come from and why. Centipede says that they have Edison's notes on the dial. Flashback to some times Edison dealt with Dial users.

So Centipede talks to this Dial worshipper and tells him that when he spoke to Roxie back a few issues ago, he was not speaking to an angel, but a thief who stole a dial. Centipede says that they have equipment to contact the emmisaries of the Dial, but they need faith, and they need the Dial Worshipper to pray for them.

So Nelson and Roxie put Mason in the hospital, and decide to use his dial. Nelson agrees to be the sidekick. Nelson says he trusts her to be in charge, and he's willing to take the risk of losing himself like Mason.

Nelson has crazy electro powers in this form, and he and Manteau use it to fight crime. We get some panels of them taking out thugs, while Manteau reminds him that he's Nelson Jent so that he doesn't lose himself.

You know, this is far from the strangest relationship China Mieville has ever wrote. Anyone who's read Perdido Street Station knows what I'm talking about.

One-Winged Eagle

It's not that weird, no.

Aliroz

Ewww, kissing!

Odradek

HEY HEAPERS DECISION TIME

Okay, so I originally said I wanted to do 10 of each comic chosen, but that got broken once we found out Voodoo had 13 issues. I've also been itching to cover the Rotworld crossover between Swamp Thing, Animal Man, and Frankenstein: Agent of Shade because I've read the original comics each is updating(well, except for Frankenstein which is a new series as far as I know. I've read Seven Soldiers which is the character's introduction to the modern DC universe though.). But I am having a lot of fun with Dial H and you guys probably want to see how this whole Centipede arc turns out. So we have three options.

1. I stop here and move on to the groundwork for Rotworld, in which I alternate between Swamp Thing, Animal Man, and Frankenstein

2. I finish up this arc, and then move on.

3. I read up to issue 17, the last before this series was sadly cancelled, and move on.

Vote away!

Aliroz

I vote 3!

Tachyon

2 or 3

One-Winged Eagle

Three please.

Salix Babylonika

3

Justice4243

2 or 3. This is actually interesting where's we made you do Voodoo just for the sake of completion.

On that note. This is a pretty cool idea where it seems the Dial can summon a persona that's actually a real threat for some of DCs heavy hitters (not to mention the characters are interesting).

Contrast with Voodoo where I could never bring myself to care about uh... whichever character I was supposed to care about and was never convinced either or the alien fleet could pose a threat outside ordinary for DC threats.

Odradek

Speaking of, DC has basically announced the Daemonite invasion storyline all the now-cancelled Wildstorm comics transplants were teasing is gonna happen starting on May. Also they will kill of a member of the Justice League to prove things are serious.

There is a non-neglegible possibility of the return of Voodoo and that frightens me.

One-Winged Eagle

I hope they kill Aquaman.

Or either of the Green Lanterns that they have (Baz or Hal).

Yarrun XIX

I vote for Hal

Aliroz

I hope they kill off Batman permanently (or until the next CRISIS or reboot of the DC universe in 10 to 20 years).

Sredni Vashtar

Aliroz said:

I hope they kill off Batman permanently (or until the next CRISIS or reboot of the DC universe in 10 to 20 years).

This is the most hardcore thing that I have ever heard you say that hasn't tempted me to make an Eridan joke. Well played, Aliroz, well played.

Salix Babylonika

Killing off Batman permanently would require a comic book company to do something innovative and not stupid, so they won't do that.

Sredni Vashtar

Yeah.

Still, it would be really interesting.

Previous Calica

Burgundy Queen said:

Killing off Batman permanently would require a comic book company to do something innovative and not stupid, so they won't do that.

Nah, killing off Batman would be pretty stupid really.

One-Winged Eagle

They just killed off Batman. Like two years ago. That's recent.

Granted, someone else took the role and when he came back he made it so that there were more Batmen than ever, but they did just do that.

Odradek

Also I was wrong and Dial H only went up to 15 issues.

Odradek

Well that''s kind of a boring cov-

So Centipede comes into the room where the Priest from the last issue is hooked up to some machinery, praying. Centipede kills one of the soldiers in the room, and commands the Priest to continue to pray. Not quite sure what's happening here.

Meanwhile, Nelson wakes up in bed with Roxie as a result of the end of the last issue.

Nelson freaks out while Roxie tries to be calm. Nelson accuses her of using the H-dial to trick him into this and then dials.

I feel like this is a metaphor, but I have no idea what for.

Meanwhile, Centipede is forcing the priest to pray, and starts talking to him about his beliefs. Centipede exposits that there is war in the realm of infinite possibilities where the Dial comes from, and that the angels that the Priest talks about are spec ops members from that realm hunting down the exile called O.

Centipede goes onto explain that the Dial user that came out of Abyss, who he calls "The Fixer" is hunting the Dials, but has to use backdoors in reality like abyss. This is why Centipede is using the Priest to open a front door.

The last sentence Centipede says before we get back to Nelson is "I'm not a hero".

So Nelson is speaking at a mile a minute about whatever thought pops into his head as the Flash. Roxie wonders what happened to the real Flash now that Nelson has his powers.

BTW I have a friend who found a compilation of the old original Dial H For Hero stories, and this isn't the first time this has happened in the comic. Back in the originals, Plastic Man was dialled at one point, although the comic didn't explore the ramifications of this.

Roxie suddenly comes to a horrible realization: she thinks back to a legend about a sundial in which a Dialler was killed by a hero from another world yelling about revenge and justice(See Dial H #0)

Nelson freaks out about the implication that they are stealing powers, and furthermore, are currently stealing powers from one of earth's greatest heroes.

Centipede has killed the general, and the process is reaching its end. The Priest melts as the machine starts sparking, and we get to see how crazy effective Centipede is in action once again.

So Roxie has a theory about why the Dial didn't work on Centipede, but did work on Ex Nihilo: she thinks that the Dial will only work, if deep down, you can see yourself as a hero, or believe you are one, and as has already been shown, Centipede doesn't believe that.

So the Fixer and Centipede arrive, and Nelson quickly realizes he can't fight the Fixer, who can quickly assume the form of any hero that has a power it needs at the moment. Fixer chases Flash!Nelson all the way to Australia.

Odradek

Dial H Issue 11: The SHIT GETS REAL issue.

Odradek

So Nelson straight up slaps Centipede, and Roxie grabs the dial. Centipede is taking a lot of abuse today.

Fixer yells about how no one touches the Dial but him, and takes a screwdriver made of bone and inserts it into the Dial to turn it off. Roxie says that she's going to use the S-Dial because what they really need right now is a sidekick.

Fixer turns into some kind of zombie miner and tries to order Clinch to obey him, but Manteau is able to punch the Dial out of his hands long enough for Nelson to grab it. Manteau uses her super speed to grab Nelson and temporarily escape Fixer and Centipede. Manteau-reverse dials to turn back to normal, and tries to talk to Nelson about what happened.

Things look bad for our heroes, but then an interloper arrives: The guy from the cover. He announces that he's Open-Window Man and uses a "Defenestration Punch" to get Fixer and Centipede out of the building.

Fixer turns into a cloud of angry balloons to survive, but Centipede continues to fall.

He says "gosh darn it" before he hits the ground.

Nelson realizes that Open-Window Man is one of Boy Chimney's allies while he takes them to another building. Centipede comes back and announces that despite the fact that Fixer is "one of the worst partners in history" he's still gonna kill them for him. But Fixer in the form of a cowboy riding a rocket says that OWM has friends.

"Rustwork" attacks Fixer, and Centipede tries to escape through the portal, but Nelson follows him and delivers another punch. It is not for nothing that Nelson's backstory revolves around him being a former boxer. One of the Dial Posse starts to help Nelson and OHMYGOD

OHMYGOD

OHMYGOD

OHMYGOD

Fixer stands stock still trying to figure out what the attack means or is supposed to do, and Nelson escapes back through the portal to Roxie and the rest.

The Dial Posse introduce themselves and they all appear to be alien Dial Users. Except Open-Window Man who's a human superhero from another dimension. They all have various alien names that I'll refer back to if I need to remember them

Oops.

One-Winged Eagle

You must be so happy right now.

Yarrun XIX

In the end, it was really you who saved the day. 

And then screwed it up later.

Aliroz

In the origina
L Dial H for Hero, at the end of the issue, they'd ask readers to mail on their own superheros, with powers and drawings of them. And they would pick from these child submissions, and that is part of what made the original Dial H so fun. The heroes were created often by actual kids. Baron Buzz-saw. Balloon Boy. The Hoopster. A giant boomerang called Whatzis. King Kandy.

And, of course, Chief Mighty Arrow (and Wingy was there, too).



You'd get a T-shirt saying "I DIALED A HERO" if they liked your idea enough to use it (they'd get all the rights).

Odradek

Okay so things start to get weird: Open-Window Man starts talking to the graffiti boy on the wall. He tells the little boy that he should pay attention to what's going on because he'll need to understand police methods in the future. Meanwhile the grafitti police talk about how the little boy has created an imaginary friend to deal with tragedy. The name of this issue is "Tekel Upharsin" BTW.

OWM tells the kid that there are more realities than he can count, and some of them don't make sense, like a land of living grafitti. But he says all of them have heroes. The kid asks what grafitti is.

OWM watches as the grafitti boy trains, and talks about what his team are doing. The majority of the dial posse are discussing plans, one is training Nelson how to keep his identity while using the Dial and Roxie and the leader of the Posse are trying to get ahold of "something of Captain Random's"

I just want to point out that Dial H has managed to make me care more about a living graffiti drawing and a superhero named "Open-Window Man" than I ever cared about Pris OR Voodoo.

OWM explains that Centipede is with Fixer, and they need to stop him. The boy says "Why do you always think it'll be bad? That people are going to do bad things. Sometimes they don't." OWM is taken aback and a little offended. I think Open Window Man might have had a tragedy similar to the boy's.

Meanwhile, the Dial Posse is trying to get what I assume is the Justice League of graffiti world to send out the Dial, but no matter what they try, they can't manage it to transfer it between the dimensions. OWM explains to the boy that the Dials come from "A war. A dump. The machinations of an exile"

OWM explains why he's travelling with them: According to him, he's "Defined by two catastrophes". Once, during a climactic battle, Boy Chimney lost his smoke and died. OWM couldn't explain it, until the person who took his powers came to his universe, begging for forgiveness or death. You see, H-Dials are supposed to copy powers, but broken ones steal them. Nelson's dial only occasionally steals them, but Bansa of the Dial Posse's dial steels them every time.

OWM says he doesn't understand anything here.

He does figure out an idea, though: He has Nem, the person with the G-Dial, dial a bus. He leaps into the bus's window, and comes out in a window in the graffiti world. He gets the Dial.

Then he comes out, and takes a piece of chalk, and draws a whole superhero hideout for the boy.

The boy says thank you, but admits he doesn't want it. OWM wipes it away and says good bye, and the boy thanks him for inspiring him to fix the city, as our issue ends.

I really like this comic guys.

Yarrun XIX

I can see the writing on the wall

One-Winged Eagle

I think I should get it myself.

Odradek

We start with a giant fly er.. flying through a cave system while being chased by a flying elephant. Narration expounds on how many worlds Nelson and co have traveled through.

The elephant fights the fly as does Dwan, the member of the posse who is constantly shifting.

A young frog gushes about how awesome Nelson was. The frog talks about how the seers said Nelson was the vampire who "stole Captain Cave's Stalag-might powers" but that he knew they could trust him.

Anyway it turned out Ejad, the robot member of the Dial Posse died to the barkfly. Roxie said she's fixed the dials to the point where they all copy instead of steal, but hasn't been able to do anything with Bansa's dial. Bansa doesn't use his dial anymore, but keeps it as a memoir of what he did.

Nelson says goodbye to the frog kid and they continue their search.

Anyway, survivors of whatever catastrophe caused this attack the Posse, accusing diallers of having done this. They manage to get out, but Yaada and Unbled get left behind.

Cut to the Dial Posse in captivity. The weird metal guy says that diallers stole power and caused a war, and he refuses to let them restart it.

Open-Window Man breaks in and talks about how a zombie is attacking them outside.

I get the feeling this is when China Mieville heard about the cancellation, because stuff is moving a mile a minute here.

Anyway the zombies burst in, and the Posse fight them off.

Anyway here's what's going on. O is back and he's dialling random apocalypses to destroy all the worlds that fought in the Dial War. Also the weird metal guy fixed their Jump Dial.

Odradek

Dial H Issue 14: The "Shit goes to hell" issue. Final Issue comes as soon as I can recap it.

Aliroz

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I don't want Dial H to end.

Odradek

So Roxie, Nelson, and Dwan start fighting Centipede.

Secret Faction's powers make Centipede's time shadows start punching each other. Fixer appears in the form of a humanoid white rabbit. Nelson gets captured while everyone else has to run.

Dwan fights the thing off. They get to the tower and see random buildings from all across the universe around it and big metal electric wires flying around.

There are still windows, so Open-Window Man is useful, thankfully.

O notes that the wires of reality have been crossed, so dialling has become harder. Even with a Doom-Dial like he as.

He sets forth an apocalypse of ice on the world that the Posse went to last. He says that the D-Dial will dial a random apocalypse as long as some group believes in it.

Fixer tells Nelson that his(Fixer's world) is dead, and Centipede revealed that fact to him. O makes Nelson dial a Narwhale superhero.

Nelson starts monologuing because O is forcing him to "read" the dial. The dials create ectypes: perfect copies of various things throughout the multiverse. But occasionally something went wrong and they stole them. This ended up causing a dial war across realities.

The Dial-users ended up holed up inside the sky scraper Nelson is in now, under siege. They hired O, an operator who had a modified G-Dial. O used his g-dial to make a timebomb and blew it up, and the broken universe of this dump was blown across the realities. O had to inspire people all over the multiverse to create a perfect J-Dial to return home after this happened.

Meanwhile the rest of the Posse finds a repository of Dials inside the building. Roxie grabs an unbroken dial that doesn't dial randomly, just as Centipede bursts in.

Oh yeah, Nelson has convinced Fixer to stop working with O, I neglected to mention that.

O effortlessly turns of their dials and speeds up Dwan's so that he glitches out. They escape.

Centipede and O catch up, and Nelson uses a mashup dial so they can't block it.

Nelson tries to hold off O while Roxie and Open-Window Man get away. O uses an amplifier to become even stronger.  Roxie strips the insulation of the wires of reality to give O what seems like a lethal shock.

Dial H

One day, I will find the person who cancelled this, and I will strangle them with my bare hands.

Aliroz

And I will eat that person.