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Old 03-20-2012, 11:28 PM
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cheebacheeba cheebacheeba is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2003
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Dial H (for HERO) making a comeback.

So I was reading one of the DC comics I regularly grab, and i saw them advertising the second wave of "New 52" titles.

Nothing really grabbed my interest except maybe the bat-title they're bringing out, but then I saw this one.

For those of you that aren't familiar, "Dial H for Hero" is a title that revolves around certain individuals coming into possession of a dial, that when the combination to spell the word hero is pressed, they are transformed into the body of a superhuman - Though quite unpredictably.
The powers are different every time, and at times has an effect on their psychology as well.

Now, I'm not old enough to have read any of the first two series.
There was one from the 60's that predominately featured in a comic called "house of mystery", and an actual ongoing series with different characters in the 80's.

I did however, read the last series titled "H-E-R-O" which ran for 22 issues in ?2002? and it was, despite having a bit of a hokey premise, one of the best limited series I've ever read.
This one was actually like a re-imagining of the original series, beginning the story again and starring the same protagonist in an updated setting.
What was great about this in my opinion was that it went into pretty dark territory - for instance one of the story arcs has a serial killer come into possession of the device, a self loathing and suicidal protagonist, and some really terrible, gruesome and sad moments throughout.
Told through the perspective of multiple characters too which I thought was a cool touch, an insight into the heroes and villains of the tale.
No knowledge of the existing series or really the DC universe was needed at all, and of all the things I've read it was one of the most perfectly written, interesting self contained comic stories to have come across, and it concludes so well. Rarely am I this satisfied with a comic.

I don't know if there's any trade paperbacks of the aforementioned series, but I can't recommend it highly enough.

So yeah - This "new 52" version called "DIAL H" is something I'll really be looking forward to checking out.
While I would hope for some kind of continuation from the last series or at least for it to fit in canon-wise, I'll still be pretty psyched just to have a look at a new series.
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