Would U Buy It #76: "ACP: Dial 'H' For Hero, Vol. 1"
By cbishop 5 Comments
| Date | WUBI # 76: | View: | Attached to Forum: | Back/ Next |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03/20/12 | Adv Coms Pres: Dial 'H' For Hero, Vol. 1 | (Blog) (Forum) | Adventure Comics | (Back) (Next) |
We all have trade paperback (TPB) collections we'd like to see. Here's one of mine:
| Proposed Title: | Adventure Comics Presents: Dial "H" For Hero, Vol. 1. (couldn't fit all of that in the title bar) |
| Alternate Title: | Dial "H" For Hero, Vol. 1. |
| Collecting 14 Issues: |
| Covers: (click to enlarge) |
When DC released the Dial "H" For Hero preview in LSH #272, in late 1980 (remember, cover dates were perpetually two months ahead back then), I was ecstatic. New Teen Titans was just getting started and already red hot, and DC was pushing their other teen team under readers' noses by enticing them with a free preview of the Dial "H" feature about to come out in Adventure Comics. The preview (and Wildfire on the cover) convinced me to convince mom to buy it for me (hey, I was ten, okay?), and I was immediately enchanted with the concept of Chris King & Vicki Grant being able to dial up identity after identity. Adventure Comics was a must have all the way through the Dial H For Hero run.
The unique thing about this run of Dial H (as opposed to the previous Robby Reed run, which was unknown to me at the time) was that the heroes, villains, and even some of the clothes, were all created by fans - and all they got for it was an "I Dialed 'H' For Hero" T-shirt. Man, I wanted one of those shirts so bad! Some personal favorites of mine were The Evil Eight (particularly The Familiar), Thunder Axe, Blakjack, Dragonfly, The Emerald Tiger, and... aw, heck, I loved 'em all! Especially the DCCP issue where Chris dials "H-O-R-R-O-R" just for fun, and Superman has to help stop him!
For the cover, I think I'd go with issue #482. It shows Chris & Vicki dialing, then changing, then flying away as two heroes. I actually kind of prefer issue #479, but the pile of fan mail in the middle wouldn't make any sense, once the cover blurbs are removed from the picture.
It might seem like a silly concept, but guess what? DC has reused a slew of these names, including: Arsenal, Kismet, Wildebeest, Ice, Echo, Silver Fog, and Brimstone. Also, you may have seen the Dial H Sneak Peak thread, which leads to this article over on io9. Down there at the bottom? The Squid and The Abyss, from right there on the cover of Adventure Comics #490. That's right: the New 52 series coming up in the Second Wave, Dial H, is bringing characters back from this series. I think this feature deserves to be collected just for that reason if nothing else, but it was also pure fun! ...And it was continued in New Adventures of Superboy #28-49 (and a connected story in #50). So...
| Would you buy it? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading. |
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