written by China Miéville
art by Mateus Santolouco, Carla Berrocal, Riccardo Burchielli, Liam Sharp, Jock, Tula Lotay, Marley Zarcone, Brendan McCarthy, Emma Rios, Emi Lenox, Jeff Lemire, Frazier Irving, David Lapham, Carmen Carnero, Sloane Leong, Kelsey Wroten, Michelle Farran, Annie Wu, Zak Smith, and Alberto Ponticelli with Dan Green
Ultimately, "Dial Q for Qued" is more a menagerie of dial-able supervillains than a cohesive story. A new artist is responsible for each page, which is about how long each of the villains hangs around. For those unfamiliar with Dial H, the effect is likely erratic, with little visual or narrative continuity. For those already enamored of Miéville's world, it's a delightful presentation of possibilities that weren't. You're invited to imagine this series as it could have been realized by any or all of these artists. That it begins with the series' first Mateus Santolouco and concludes with the series' final team of penciller Alberto Ponticelli and inker Dan Green reinforces the idea that "Dial Q for Qued" is a kind of history or possible history. In this case, the variability—in both supervillains and illustration style—is part of the fun.
KUDOS: Baba Iago, Miéville's mash-up of Baba Yaga, the creature out of Slavic folklore who rides in a forest hut on giant chicken legs, and Shakespeare's somewhat diabolical villain Iago from Othello. Ayenbite, a villain of regret, named after an obscure 14th-century Kentish poem. Jock's unique style, while probably not the most promising in long-form Dial H, brings his moody near-disembodiment to life. Decalcomaniac, brought to technicolor life by Brendan McCarthy, who draws the substance out of people and onto paper like transfer technique of his namesake. David Lapham, whose exceptional rendition of the Centipede makes you wish he'd had a short run as artist on Dial H. Mise-en-Abyme, because there's nothing like a recursive visual effect to wield superpowers. Kelsey Wroten, whose monstrous Bad Dressage is genuinely creepy, with its skull bridle and over-sized hooves.
"Dial Q for Qued"'s interest in old school telephone—and the memory that old rotary phones don't have a numerical equivalent to "Q"—is matched only by its linguistic archaeology. Miéville baited his readers into the entirely plausible assumption that to "Dial E" would mean dialing "E," no doubt for "Evil" and probably 3-8-4-5. Instead, he mines the English language for "qued," which as a noun has been obsolete since at least the sixteenth century and uncommon since the thirteenth. It's a detail, unlike most of his bizarre supervillains and the superheroes before them, that Miéville is compelled to elaborate, but in general he doesn't spell much out for his readers. In Dial H, and to a lesser degree in the allusively dense but narratively simple Dial E, you get what you work for.
As a conclusion to Miéville's recently finished Dial H run, this issue is somewhat disappointing, nor is it likely to draw in new readers out of the reeling, whirlwind storytelling. As a exercise in imagining the possibilities of the idea, it's a intellectually teasing and visually delightful treat. And it's just like Miéville to end with a tantalizing mystery: what does the last-minute appearance of Rescue Jill say about Nelson Jent's non-dialed hero persona Rescue Jack from Dial H #4?
Supervillains: Suffer Kate, Baba Iago, Shell Shock, Electroplax, Ayenbite, Goad, Rent, Decalcomaniac, Ruination, Slub, The Bends, Gloaming, Wet Blanket, Byssus, Mise-en-Abyme, Bad Dressage, Captain Quag, Frontal, Gallowman, Topiary Rex, Recluse, The Stink, Mechasumo, Huldra, Snail Devil, Piñata
Superheroes: Rescue Jill
[November 2013]
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