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From time to time I rant about how comics these days seem to have run out of fresh ideas, and all they do is reboot their existing successes: how many X-Men titles are currently being published? Ans how many Spiderman?
Sometimes, though, it works. And the more forgotten, disregarded, even silly the character being rebooted, the better the chances: a heap of vegetation that thinks it's a man? Black Hawk Kid (who he?)? That'll do nicely.
Dial H for Hero was a 60s strip about a teenager who finds a telephone dial which turns him into a different superhero each time he dials: ideal for readers with short attention spans and a high tolerance for implausible sources of power. The idea has already been revived twice, in the 1980s and in 2003 - by which time archaic concepts like 'telephone dial' must already have required some explanation.
Despite all this, DC are currently four issues into yet another version, a six-issue series called Dial H. And it is the most enjoyable thing in my weekly order. The fact that it's written by China Miéville can't hurt, of course, and he is transparently having fun. There's an engaging hero, and a mysterious ally, and a deadly threat, but above all there are the transformations, which start with Boy Chimney and get weirder: Shamanticore! Pelican Army! (Pelican Army?) The Iron Snail! ("Ferrocochlean sense... tingling..."). The interior art, by Mateus Santolouco, is fine, but Brian Bolland's covers are a joy.
Recommended to fans of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol.
Sometimes, though, it works. And the more forgotten, disregarded, even silly the character being rebooted, the better the chances: a heap of vegetation that thinks it's a man? Black Hawk Kid (who he?)? That'll do nicely.
Dial H for Hero was a 60s strip about a teenager who finds a telephone dial which turns him into a different superhero each time he dials: ideal for readers with short attention spans and a high tolerance for implausible sources of power. The idea has already been revived twice, in the 1980s and in 2003 - by which time archaic concepts like 'telephone dial' must already have required some explanation.
Despite all this, DC are currently four issues into yet another version, a six-issue series called Dial H. And it is the most enjoyable thing in my weekly order. The fact that it's written by China Miéville can't hurt, of course, and he is transparently having fun. There's an engaging hero, and a mysterious ally, and a deadly threat, but above all there are the transformations, which start with Boy Chimney and get weirder: Shamanticore! Pelican Army! (Pelican Army?) The Iron Snail! ("Ferrocochlean sense... tingling..."). The interior art, by Mateus Santolouco, is fine, but Brian Bolland's covers are a joy.
Recommended to fans of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol.
