Chances are, if you’re reading Dial H for Hero, you appreciate DC’s rich and ridiculous history. In which case, you’re gonna love this issue, with it’s many call backs to multiple eras.

Perhaps most noteworthy is Miguel and Summer meeting up with Snapper Carr in the JLA’s Detroit headquarters. It’s now staffed by robotic versions of various Leaguers from various era in their most ridiculous costumes. It’s like visiting the Dick Ebersole era of Saturday Night Live, but let us remember for all its criticism, it led to the rise of Eddie Murphy.

Writer Sam Humphries borrows a page from Westworld, sending all the robots into homicidal fury. He then borrows a page from your local newspaper, as Miguel, Summer and Snapper dial up super-hero personas for themselves straight from the funny pages. (well, Miguel does). Summer and Snapper end up riffing on the work of Moebius and Frank Miller.

If the series keeps this up and continues to poke good-natured ribbing at comics in general, it won’t be long before Marvel wants in on the joke. It may have been Michael J. Fox during his Family Ties days who said that when Mad Magazine makes fun of you, that’s when you know you’ve arrived. Perhaps Dial H will become the new Mad Magazine, the new SNL. I can think of worse strategies.