This was a short lived reboot of a silver age character during the New 52 era at DC comics.
Fat schlub Nelson Jent is not a hero in any sense of the word. However, when he stumbles on a friend being attacked and tries to dial for help on an old payphone, he's transformed into Boy Chimney- a frankly terrifying warrior for the forces of good.
It's a short lived change and he finds himself back to his usual shape after dispatching the bad guys. Next time he dials he becomes Captain Lachrymose...
He discovers that any time he dials the word HERO on the old phone, he transforms into a random hero, sometimes with great powers, sometimes not quite so great. He also runs into another dial user who calls herself Manteau and wears a mask over her various manifestations.
When not superheroing with her dial, she's actually a little old woman.
The scene is set for one of the weirder products of the DC factory.
The fact that the two leads are an elderly woman and a fat slob is more than a little refreshing. The storylines are surreal to say the least. The first big villain they fight has powers over nothingness. Another villain has the ability to manifest his past and immediate future selves which leads to some of the most remarkable artwork concepts I've seen in comics.
China Mieville's script starts off very sharp and occasionally hilariously funny, but the final issues seem to lose the focus somewhat. it could be that he had to wrap things up faster than intended and the the ending is somewhat confusing and extremely meta.
The artwork is remarkable throughout and perfectly complements the weirdness of Mieville's concepts.
I know nothing about the original Dial H comics except that they were apparently just a goofy excuse to create the weirdest superpowers they could without having to create permanent storylines around them. Mieville, in the second half of the book, creates a history and explanations for the Dials and how and why they work- also throwing in more than one type of dial for that extra bit of variety.
It's a fun way to kill an hour or two and the artwork bears up to close inspection and is worth the cost of the book all by itself. If it gets a bit silly near the end, that's forgivable.
No comments:
Post a Comment