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Dial H for Hero (2019) - TV Tropes

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Dial H for Hero (2019) (Comic Book)

Dial H For Hero is a 2019 comic book series published by DC Comics as part of DC's youth-oriented imprint Wonder Comics, under the pen of Sam Humphries with art by Joe Quinones.

When the Dial falls into the hands of small town teenager Miguel Montez, he, alongside rebellious runaway Summer Pickens, embarks on delivering it to the only person who can protect it from falling into wrong hands: Superman. Unfortunately for them, Mister Thunderbolt has assembled a new Thunderbolt Gang out of the many people in the world who want their hour of power back.

The first issue was released March 27, 2019. Originally planned as a six-issue miniseries, it was extended into a twelve-issue maxiseries. The final issue was released on February 26, 2020.

Dial H for Hero (2019) provides examples of:

  • Addictive Magic: Obtaining superpowers through a Dial is shown to be such a Power High that a lot of users become depressed at the idea of never feeling that thrill again. The Thunderbolt Gang is entirely composed of former users, drawn in by Mr. Thunderbolt's offer to be allowed to use the Dial once more. Even Miguel himself is far from immune, and is shown to be extremely frustrated whenever he's not allowed to use the Dial.
  • Adventure Duo: Miguel and Summer.
  • Affectionate Parody: Monster Truck, first hero Miguel turns into, is one for the '90s Anti-Hero type of character.
  • Anti-Hero: One of the focus characters during the Metropolis Mass Super-Empowering Event is Lucy the Monster Hunter, who decides to use her newfound powers to kill her aunt in revenge for pulling an Inheritance Murder on her father. Her goal is portrayed as sympathetic but thoroughly un-heroic, to the point that she is shown actively turning away from SuperMiguel's influence. Unfortunately, she didn't take into account that her aunt was also one of the dialers, and gets killed by the now literally monstrous woman.
  • Anti-Villain: Despite his obvious supervillain look, Mr. Thunderbolt has a sympathetic motivation and a plan that he intends to be a net positive for the world at large. It's just that said plan spin the entire multiverse like a H-Dial in order to give all of creation randomly generated superpowers has a billion problems with it that he absolutely refuses to acknowledge in his wild quest.
  • Applied Phlebotinum: The Operator claims to have made the H-Dial from a piece of Forge of Creation where new worlds are born, a place introduced in Dark Nights: Metal.
  • Art-ernate Universe: The heroes' worlds are not just drawn in different art styles: they take those styles with them when they're summoned, and the comic conforms to who's taking focus. When Metropolis is hit with a Mass Super-Empowering Event, the resulting chaos from everyone getting a handle on their new personae is depicted as multiple heroes' "issues" layering on top of each other.
  • Art Evolution: Summer's main dial idenity Lo Lo Kick You gains a different artistic design every time she appears. In her debut, she resembles characters drawn by Jamie Hewlett and Michael Allred. In her second appearance, she suddenly looks like Jem (the cartoon version, not the comic version). In her third appearance, she now resembles a combination of Kei and Lum.
  • Art Shift: The series has a unique art style and page layout for every hero dialed, from Rob Liefeld, Chris Bachalo and Jamie Hewlett to Akira Toriyama and Masamune Shirow.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Miguel has idolised Superman since the age of ten, when Superman saved his life. His "inner hero" is SuperMiguel, an older version of himself with all of Superman's powers.
  • Big Bad: Mr. Thunderbolt serves as the main villain, his plan being to use the power of the Dials to turn everyone in the multiverse into a super-powered being. Much like the Master, he turns out to be half of Robby Reed split into two beings from using the Y-Dial.
  • Big Good: The Operator, an Older and Wiser Robby Reed, serves this role, being a voice of guidance for Miguel and Summer.
  • Broad Strokes: The series appears to take the original Silver Age feature from House of Mystery as canon, but doesn't follow on from any subsequent series' depictions of what happened to Robby Reed as an adult (such as the 1980s version establishing that he was split into two beings called the Wizard and the Master, and H-E-R-O establishing that he lost the dial and subsequently served time in prison).
  • Broken Pedestal: The Operator is mostly an okay guy, but his deliberate hiding of several key plot points (most notably that the Big Bad is his Literal Split Personality) causes Miguel to lose most of his trust in him and nearly pull a Face–Heel Turn.
  • The Cameo: One of the heroes featured in issue #7 is Element Lad from Legion of Super-Heroes, being a rare moment where someone dialed a preexisting DCU hero. Notably he appears in the section of the issue illustrated by Colleen Doran, who is well known as being the Element Lad fan.
  • Captain Ersatz: Pretty much every hero summoned by the dial is one of these, including Zubu the Zonkey King (Ersatz of young Son Goku), Iron Deadhead (Briareos), Butterfly of Happiness (Shade, the Changing Man) and Lo Lo Kick You (based on a wide variety of characters drawn by Mike Allred). Not even the Distinguished Competition is safe from the Dial, as one girl turns into 2015-era Squirrel Girl and another turns into a multi-armed Spider-Man.
  • Composite Character:
    • Most of issue #10 takes place on Earth-32, a world where DC characters are fused together in... somewhat random combinations (Superman and Martian Manhunter? Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl? Sure, why not. But Harley Quinn and the Anti-Monitor!?). This includes Summer and Miguel, whose counterparts in this universe also happen to be respectively counterparts of Lobo and Danny the Street.
    • The Steel equivalent among the Reign of the Supermen Supermiguels is a blatant spoof of Teen Titans (2003)'s Cyborg. Later, when the four Supermiguels merge back into two, they're used as a parody of the infamous "Superman Red/Blue" era, but instead of a direct homage, one is the "mullet and black suit" Superman and the other is a Shazam! send-up (making him a literal electric Superman).
  • Cool vs. Awesome: Two times now an antagonist has stolen the Dial and transformed themselves, forcing Miguel or Summer to transform into a different hero to stop them.
    • First was Zubu vs Iron Deadhead - a Supernatural Martial Arts using alien zonkey and a powerful robot duking it out.
    • The we had a psychedelic mind-affecting Butterfly of Happiness fight Lo Lo Kick You, a jetpack wielding punk rocker using the electric guitar as a mace.
  • Depending on the Writer: Unlike in previous series, dialing is as simple as pressing the 4/H, meaning you literally had to dial H for Hero. That being said, it's also able to teleport by dialing the name of the destination, much like the J-dials in Dial H.
  • Eldritch Location: The run introduces the "Heroverse", a dimension of pure potential located beyond the Speed Force Wall, containing the infinite origin stories of the multiverse's heroes and villains alike, whether they already happened or not. The Operator has his base set up there, and it doubles as the H-Dial's Extradimensional Power Source, each dialing of H for Hero creating a "spark" that temporarily channels one of the myriad superbeings into the user.
  • Enemy Without: Mister Thunderbolt is revealed to be the evil counterpart of the Operator, Robby Reed, who was split into two people by the yellow Y-Dial.
  • Face–Heel Turn\Fallen Hero: Members of the Thunderbolt Club are people who used the Dial in the past but have then lost it and become desperate to get their hands on it again, going as far as to try to steal it. Most of them likely used it for good but now seem to use it for purely selfish reasons.
  • Gender Bender: In issue #11, one of the four SuperMiguels (the one based on the Eradicator) is female.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: The series introduces four different H-Dials, and Mr. Thunderbolt's main goal is to get his hands on all four which would let him reach the Omnivoid beyond the multiverse, and allow him to affect all of reality.
  • Homage: Every hero summoned is a homage to a different comic series or art style.
  • I Have No Idea What I'm Doing: At the end of the series, with nothing better to try, Summer takes all four phones, shuffles their receivers around, and dials CMYK, while fully admitting she has no clue what that would do. The effect ends up sealing Mr. Thunderbolt into his debut comic.
  • Ironic Hell: Mr. Thunderbolt, effectively a version of Robby Reed who never got over the death of his grandfather, ends the series trapped in a copy of House of Mystery #156, locked forever in his own origin story with a grandfather that's alive but doesn't recognize him.
  • Irony: The Operator hid the Y-Dial, which creates Literal Split Personalities, on the Composite Character-filled Earth-32. Mr. Thunderbolt does not fail to lampshade it.
  • Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Several hero transformations are based on certain copyrighted characters, including a recolored Optimus Prime and the Thunderbolt Club trying to stop Miguel and Summer by becoming the Tweenage Irritable Librarian/Pirate/Gangster/Butcher Geckos.
  • Literal Split Personality: The Y-Dial is able to transform someone into a hero at the cost of splitting them into two, who can only merge back together if both sides are willing. Robby Reed used it to become the Operator and Mister Thunderbolt, and Mister Thunderbolt convinces Miguel to use it himself. Miguel first used it to become four version of his Supermiguel form, before becoming one Supermiguel and a character based on Shazam named Thunder Montez who briefly allied with Thunderbolt before the two merged back together.
  • Mass Super-Empowering Event: Mr. Thunderbolt hacks the Dial and give everyone in Metropolis the ability to use its power through their phones. Trouble starts when everyone in town becomes a super but nobody knows what to do. His final goal is to trigger one of these on the entire multiverse.
  • Meme Acknowledgement: The Ben 10 comparisons are finally given form when one Metropolis citizen turns into a Captain Ersatz of Four Arms.
  • Noodle Incident: It's revealed that several DC characters, including Snapper Carr, Alfred Pennyworth, Robin, Lobo, Harley Quinn and Angel O'Day and Samuel Simeon, have all used the Dial in the past.
  • Nostalgia Ain't Like It Used to Be: Butterfly of Happiness causes people to relive their joyful memories to the point they're unable to do anything else. It doesn't work on Summer, whose childhood was too horrible for her to have any nostalgia.
  • Older Alter Ego: SuperMiguel, Miguel's "inner hero", who appears to be about the same age as Miguel's idol Superman.
  • One-Note Cook: Miguel's uncle owns a food truck that serves nothing but mayonnaise-based dishes. Somehow, he's still in business.
  • Painting the Medium:
    • Every hero is drawn in a different style, reflecting their seeing themselves as a "solo book" character. When Lo Lo Kick You returns in #6 to get help, she notably takes on the style of everyone else's issues instead of her own.
    • Whenever multiple people dial, their "issue" overlaps with someone else's. In some cases, the issue goes back and forth between styles (symbolizing a power struggle between the dialers), and in others, the pages are literally stacked on top of each other (showing different plots in progress).
    • When the Heroverse shows off the A-listers' origins, they take on the style of when they first appeared rather than the modern iteration of their pasts, indicating their origin stories are older than they are. This includes Robby, who has modern paneling and dialogue in flashbacks but Silver Age art in the Heroverse version of his origin.
  • Personality Powers: Seem to also be the case with the Dial picking heroes reflecting what the dialer feels at the time. When Miguel feels angry and powerless it turns him into mighty but pointlessly destructive Monster Truck, when he is scared and desperate to stop Zubu he turns into armored Iron Deadhead. Barnaby, desperate to feel powerful again turns into mighty but immature Zubu the Zonkey King, a woman wishing to go back to her innocent past transforms into nostalgia-powered Butterfly of Happiness and rebellious Summer turns into an incarnation of punk-rock rebellion, Lo Lo Kick You.
    • While the connection is only implied with the magenta dial, which turns the dialler into a random hero, it is made explicit with the cyan dial, which turns them into their "inner hero". When Miguel uses the cyan dial in an act of selfless altruism, he turns into a Superman-like figure called SuperMiguel; when he uses it in an act of greed to experience having powers again, he becomes an ineffectual joke hero with unreliable gadgets called the Early Adopter.
  • Perverse Sexual Lust: At one point, Miguel gets a wet dream about getting massages from Betty Rubble.
  • Refusal of the Call: Miguel has no interest with the Dial and only seeing how dangerous it can be in wrong hands he decides to take it... and deliver to Superman, in hope he can protect it.
  • Running Gag: The series has a recurring gag of every superhero form given an ounce of prominence having the narration mention that they've never been seen before, will likely never appear again and proceed to explain their "secret origin".
  • Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: An alien heroine by the name of Guardian Angel goes around helping people with no demand for reward or giving out her name. A newly-turned detective hero follows her around to see what her motive might be... and finds out she was originally an assist dog, doing an exaggerated version of her normal duties.
  • Shout-Out: Every single issue includes amazing homages to all kinds of different comic books – not just with the Captain Ersatz versions of their characters, but also in the Painting the Medium incorporation of their distinctive art styles.
  • Superhero Origin: Deconstructed, as the Operator explains that an Origin Story is the moment the person decides what they'll do with their abilities, not the moment they gain them. Just witnessing the origin of the guy you got your powers from doesn't mean you yourself know what to do, as the citizens of Metropolis learn the hard way.
  • Super Zeroes:
    • Miguel briefly turns into "Lil' Miguelito", a powerless toddler who (in his comic) is only playing superhero. Every attempt to change into something else turns him into another newspaper comic pastiche, eventually stopping at a Hägar/Charlie Brown/Nancy/Cathy hybrid.
    • The Early Adopter is a gag character whose futuristic gadgets are Obvious Beta versions that don't work at all, drawn in the Scooby-Doo artstyle to emphasize his silliness even more. His appearance ends with him losing a brawl to Steve Lombard, of all people.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Zubu the Zonkey king is weakened by touch of "eldritch metal". which just conveniently happens to be whatever alloy the otherwise clearly outclassed Iron Deadhead is made of.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: One of the comic's core themes is that it doesn't. There's no telling what someone would do if given powers beyond the reach of mortal man, be it become a hero, a villain, or simply a thrillseeker. People need inspiration to become the best version of themselves, and the Dials just giving away superpowers to anybody with zero caveats is treated as inherently extremely dangerous. Hence why Thunderbolt's plan to empower everyone in the multiverse is treated as a bad thing.