Vicki Grant

Origin

Vicki is one of the three most common people to wield the H Dial. As with the others she started out as only a high school student chosen to bear the responsibility, and alongside Chris King was the second to hold the H Dial after Robby Reed had previously used one. In high school she was one of the more popular girls, which created friction between the hero pair as she didn’t like associating with the less popular Chris. After being summoned by mysterious voices the two teenagers ventured to the abandoned house of Robby Reed, where they discovered two H Dials (she took the one which was in the form of a locket). They soon discovered the power of the H Dials which would allow them to transform into a unique hero for an hour at a time and the two set off on their hero careers.

Creation

Her first appearance was in Legion of Super-Heroes #272 in 1981 as a special insert which served as a launch for the new series. This was a popular approach at the time, to put the first appearance of new heroes in an established and popular series.

Character Evolution

In their early appearances Vicki served as a pacifying influence for Chris and a voice of reason for when he often lost his temper. Forst instance when the Gamesmaster injured his father she had to calm him down or else he would have died. She also had to deal with him when he could not control his powers after a transformation. Later this relationship would be reversed after she was brainwashed by a cult in which she became mentally unstable and somewhat obsessed with Chris.

Major Story Arcs

Although they would expand outwards to the rest of the DC Universe afterwards, the majority of their early stories occurred in the town of Fairfax where they went to high school together. Much as Robby Reed before them, most of their adventures resulted in battling some supervillains or stopping some threat. Many of the early stories were as a result of misusing the H Dial. For instance, at one point Chris decided to dial H-O-R-R-O-R for fun to see what would happen. This resulted in him being turned into a monster. Coincidentally at the time Superman was in town (investigating the large number of superhumans seen) so Vicki assumed that Chris had been turned into Superman and she teamed up to fight the monster.

If there was one constant throughout their early adventures it was in a foe known as the Master. The master was obsessed with acquiring their Dials for himself. One day after rescuing their friend Nick Stevens they discovered that Nick was the one responsible for creating their hero forms (he had drawn them all). They soon after saw the Master defeat the Wizard, not realizing that the Wizard was the reason they had obtained their Dials to begin with. They realized that they must face the Master and to try to finally stop him. At one point they were forced to face ten of the Master’s minions, but after defeating eight of them they returned to their non-powered forms. After being captured the Master took her H Dial though he was unable to remember why he had wanted to steal it. The three teenagers escaped and returned to an old comic book store which had burned down and at which Nick had drawn a picture of the Master. In the basement they fell into another trap at which the Master was waiting for them. the three were captured as the Master demanded answers and threatened to kill them, but soon after the Wizard reappeared and dialed something on the dial, to which the Master and Wizard reformed as one entity, which was revealed to be Robby Reed. This had been as a result of Robby dialing S-P-L-I-T on the Dial. He then gave his Dial to Nick.

After high school the two partners graduated and began to date, though Chris was not happy with the relationship and wanted to end it. Vicki then moved from Fairfax to San Francisco where she became a member of the cult the Children of the Sun. Due to their influence as well as other pressure in her life, Vicki went rogue. On returning to Fairfax she went berserk when she discovered Chris with another woman. She used her H Dial to become a giant woman and to punish Chris for what she saw as infidelity. He left Fairfax and but she followed him. She very nearly caught him if it wasn’t for an intervention by the Teen Titans. She continued to battle with the Titans and even after Raven captured her in a separate domain, her rage was too powerful and Raven disappeared. Freed once again she sought out Chris and confronted him, though the Titans intervened once again. She was stopped and Chriss requested that she take him to see the leaders of the cult. She turned on him though and tried to get him brainwashed into the cult as well, but the Titans intervened once again. She was defeated and taken to S.T.A.R. Labs where she got treatment. This was only successful in that she was able to draw on the energy of the nearby machines and escape once again and once again battle the Titans, although this time Raven was able to trap her in another dimension.

She eventually escaped and sought her H Dial, which was now in the possession of Hero Cruz. She attacked him and turned into four separate villains in the process. She was eventually stopped after obtaining the Dial as it exploded in her hands while she tried to dial on it. She finally gained a measure of control over herself and began to heal both physically and mentally.

She also played a small role in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Powers and Abiltiies

When wielding the H Dial Vicki has the ability to change into a random superhero for the period of one hour 9after dialing H-E-R-O). The powers associated with these heroes are never predictable, but as they might appear to be completely useless to the mission at hand, they generally are with a little bit of imagination. For instance on one occasion she became the Lavendar Sky-Writer which gave her the ability to fly and emit smoke, which she used to write messages in the sky to alert innocent bystanders to danger. Conversely she also one time transformed into the Raggedy Doll which gave her a degree of damage resistance and extreme flexibility but also an almost complete lack of strength. The hero forms never repeated one another. As she maintained most of her own personality when changing, occasionally the powers were too much for her to control. When she began using the Dial for villainous purposes she dialed O-R-E-H instead and received a similar transformation.

The following is a list of the heroes she has transformed into: Monarch, Kismet, Venus the Fly Trap, Spyglass, Genesis, Sirocco, Psi-Clone, Miss Hourglass, Raggedy-Doll, Futura, Gossamer, Lavender Sky-Writer, The Fan, Infra-Red, Ultra-Violet, Ms.Muscle, Turnabout, Roll, Grasshopper, Dimension Girl, Unicorn, Queen of Hearts, Ariel, Sea Mist, Midnight Wisp, Rainbeaux, Sparrow Hawk, Echo, Alchemiss, Ultra Girl, The Cardinal, Molecular Maiden, Hypno Girl, Tiarra Star, Plant Mistress, Scylla, Windsong, Hyptella, Puma, Strato Girl, Fire Girl, Spinning Jenny, Tempest, Aniwoman, Black, Sunspot, Ice, Twilight, Strato-Girl, Goldgirl, Matter Girl, Thumbelina, Emerald Tiger, Hummingbird, Hydra, Hyptella, Pixie, Harp, Snowfall, Glass Lass, Blue Biker, Weaver, and Frosty

The following is a list of the villains she has transformed into: Fish Girl, Fire Girl, Water Girl, Diamond Girl, Electrical Girl, Machinery Girl, The Harpy, Volcanic Girl, Sister Scissors-Limbs, and Cobres.