Dial H #3 Review - Mobile Edition

DC Comics
Dial H #3 Review
By Dan Horn
July 10, 2012 - 15:49

DC Comics
Writer(s): China Mieville
Penciller(s): Mateus Santolouco
Inker(s): Mateus Santolouco
Colourist(s): Tanya and Richard Horie
Letterer(s): Steve Wands
Cover Artist(s): Brian Bolland
$2.99 US

The first two issues of Dial H had left me with a feeling of persistent ambivalence. As an avid reader of China Mieville's prose, I wanted to like his first foray into comic books so much more than I did. I couldn't help but feel that Mieville had bitten off a bit more than he could chew with rebooting the classic, yet obscure, DC property Dial H for HERO.

However, with Dial H #3, readers will get a sense of Mieville's cohesive vision and the astronomical scope of this series. Lovecraftian motifs and that signature Mieville weirdness pervade in an installment that elucidates absurd telephone conspiracies and extra-dimensional beings. Caught in the middle of it all is the fat, lethargic loser, Nelson, the most unassuming hero all. Using a rotary dial on an anomalous payphone, Nelson can transform into a variety of heroes, but his abilities exact a toll on his psyche. Enter Manteau, an enigmatic woman with similar powers. She might have all of the answers to Nelson's questions, but she may also be his worst nightmare. The two unlikely allies are on the trail of a villainess known as Ex Nihilo, or "something from nothing," and her inky cohort, the Squid.

Dial H is rather lighthearted fare, wearing cursory commentary about public funding for libraries and other social aspects on its sleeve while concentrating mostly on embellishing a 90's-Vertigo predilection for bizarreness. Mieville gives his audience a good amount to read for $2.99 and presents an interesting meta-mystery thriller. Santolouco's art is unrefined, but in a way that reminds me of Richard Case's work on Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol; space and depth seem uncertain and characters and settings are angular and unsettling. Many parallels can be drawn between the tone of Dial H and Morrison's Doom Patrol for that matter, namely the emphasis on sociopathic silliness, but Dial H is off to a much slower and more muddled start than Morrison's Doom Patrol run. Still, Dial H will sate your jones for strange.

Rating: 7.5/10