H-Dial

The H-Dial in Dial H v1 #11.

The H-Dial is an object that features in DC Comics.

History

Origin

The H-Dial

In a rural community, a young Robby Reed accidentally found the Dial within a cavern after he fell into it following an attack from a machine by the Thunderbolt organization. He took the H-Dial and deciphered the writing on it where he dialled the words 'H-E-R-O' and gained his first powers. (House of Mystery v1 #156)

Daffy Dagan came to claim the dial where he used it to briefly become a supervillain known as Daffy the Great after dialling V-I-L-L-A-I-N. (House of Mystery v1 #158)

Post-Crisis

Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events.

At some point, Robby lent his H-Dial to the Justice League at the time when Agamemno's Injustice League swapped minds with them and learned how to defeat them. Superman became Doc Fission, Batman becomes Minuteman, Flash becomes Marionette, Atom becomes Mod-Man, Black Canary becomes Miss Fortune, Aquaman becomes Terra-Firma, Green Arrow becomes Poltergeist, and Martian Manhunter becomes Go-Go. It's these forms that enable the Justice League to defeat the Injustice League. (Silver Age 80-Page Giant v1 #1)

Two other dials are discovered years later by teenagers Christopher "Chris" King and Victoria "Vicki" Grant of the New England town of Fairfax in a 'haunted' house. These dials—disguised as a watch and a necklace—only have the letters H-E-R-O on them, and work only for an hour, after which they will not work for another hour. King and Grant begin protecting Fairfax from a number of menaces. Unknown to them, most of these villains are created by a mysterious villain known only as The Master. (House of Mystery v1 #156)

After graduating from high school, Vicki Grant was recruited to join a cult called the Children of the Sun, where she was physically and mentally abused, deranging her. She later sought out her former partner Chris in order to kill him. (New Teen Titans v2 #45)

An H-Dial came to be acquired by the supervillain called the Scavenger which he kept in his collection. Hero Cruz came upon an H-Dial in the Scavengers lair where he equipped it in order to save Sparx from the villain. At first, he changed into the form of Bad Axe but switched to Human Justice in order to help end further hostilities. (Superboy and the Ravers v1 #5) A still deranged Vicky attempted to get her dial back from Hero, but she regains her sanity once she uses the device. (Superboy and the Ravers v1 #13)

Jerry Feldon came to acquire an H-Dial where he began to use it for fun. (H-E-R-O v1 #1)

At some point, S.H.A.D.E. came to acquire an H-Dial after they killed the former bearer of it and they kept at one of their top-secret facilities in an attempt to reverse engineer it. Father Time had hoped to clone the device and create an entire army of 'one man Justice Leagues'. One day, one of their scientists sought to use the device for himself and gained time-travel powers where he looked to shift forward to a point when he could escape the laboratory. S.H.A.D.E. was unaware of who stole their acquisition and decided to enlist the aid of the retired criminal Johnny Mimic who in the past had a knack for recreating events. However, the man had retired and was in hiding leading to Father Time going to the Justice Society of America's headquarters in order to forcibly enlist the aid of Green Lantern Alan Scott. He came to force Scott to aid the government agency's investigation where Green Lantern came to find Johnny Mimic and took him to the scene of the crime much to Alan's chagrin. At the laboratory, Mimic came to lock himself within the lab as he deduced the true nature of the crime and killed the scientist as he re-emerged in the present. He then stole the H-Dial and gained powers and attempted to kill Father Time only for Green Lantern to kill Johnny Mimic instead. However, Johnny Mimic's true goal was for Scott to destroy the H-Dial to prevent it from being reverse engineered by S.H.A.D.E. as he believed they would use it for nefarious ends. (JSA Classified v1 #25)

In the 31st Century, another H-Dial was given to Lori Morning by the Time Trapper.

Post-Flashpoint

Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. According to one account, the H-Dial was forged by the Operator in the Sphere of the Gods and was a powerful tool. (Dial H for Hero v1 #2)

Robby Reed came to use the Y-Dial which split himself into two versions with one becoming the Operator and the other becoming Mister Thunderbolt. Mister Thunderbolt intended to spin all existence like a telephone dial and cause chaos by giving everyone superpowers from the Heroverse. (Dial H for Hero v1 #10)

Overview

In appearance, the H-Dial resembled a dial that was made of peculiar alloy and had strange inscriptions on it. The writing was said to be letters in an alphabet but of no known language of any civilisation on Earth. These told he user to dial the alphabets and spell out the word 'H-E-R-O' with those that did being transformed into a random superpowered identity. (House of Mystery v1 #156)

It was said that the H-Dial mimicked the shape of the Multiverse and was tied to a realm known as the Heroverse. This was located just outside the Speed Force with the device able to tap into the great power of that universe. (Dial H for Hero v1 #10)

There were variants of the H-Dial that included the:

• S-Dial :
• J-Dial :
• G-Dial :
• Dial Tapper :
• Q-Dial :
• Y-Dial :
• K-Dial :

These were Cardinal Dials that together with the original allowed the dialer access to the M-Dial.

Users

• Robby Reed :
• Chris King :
• Vicki Grant :
• Hero Cruz :
• Lori Morning :
• Nelson Jent :
• Roxie Hodder :
• Miguel Montez :

Notes

• The H-Dial was created by Dave Wood and Jim Mooney where it made its first appearance in House of Mystery v1 #156 (January, 1966).

Appearances

• House of Mystery v1: (1966)
• Adventure Comics v1:
• Superboy and the Ravers v1:
• Dial H v1:
• Action Comics v1:
• Dial H For Hero v1:

External Links

• DC Database Entry

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