Dial H #3

"Come here!  I need you!"
written by China Miéville
art by Mateus Santolouco

After two episodes of Nelson's bumbling around with the Dial, making innovative use of whatever crazy hero he dials up after being unwittingly thrust into a criminal world of conspirators and non-humans he's not prepared to deal with, he finally meets fellow dialer Manteau.  Unfortunately, during a gunfight with X.N.'s goons, Nelson's Dial gets shot up.  Short on time and down a Dial, Nelson and Manteau make their escape to Manteau's house.  Now forced to trust one another the two begin to discuss the Dials, Nelson's de facto orientation to Dial history, and Manteau proves particularly knowledgeable.

Miéville's investment in the mythology of the Dials is brief but intriguing.  Manteau—a blend of historian, antiquarian and engineer—compiled a relatively detailed history of telephony, as she calls it, and relates it directly to strange and privately recorded conversations by the telephone's most famous and influential innovators, including Bell, Edison, Drawbaugh, Meucci, Reiss, and Gray, with a mysterious figure they each call "O".  Her conclusion:  "the entire history of telephony is a byproduct.  Of someone else's research.  Research into something else altogether" (Dial H #3, p. 9).

Meanwhile, Ex Nihilo and the Squid move closer to bringing back what they've been researching, Squid's companion Abyss.  Sensing remnants of himself in those he previously visited, using them as conduits for his return, he finally bursts through.  However, his relationship to the Dials remains very enigmatic.  Although he intuits their importance, Squid is unfamiliar with the Dials.  However, in her research on Dial activity, Manteau detects correspondences between the appearance of Abyss and clusters of Dial action, and she remains convinced that their is a connection and that it is also related to the shadowy figure that appears briefly when she and Nelson dial a new hero.

Although the main story remains strong and the revelation of Abyss a pleasant surprise, the greatest strength of Dial H continues to be Miéville's thoughtful exploration of the unexpected consequences of using the Dial.  Even after only a little while with the Dial, Nelson is already losing himself, collecting memories belonging to other heroes—most notably, Boy Chimney and the rest of Team House in the battle against Rake Dragon—making it increasingly difficult for him to differentiate between his own and others experiences.  In his continued insistence on thwarting comic expectations, including gender, Miéville also has Nelson dial up a woman.  His alarm and Manteau's sharp criticism of his overreaction were some of the issue's most thoughtful and funny moments.

Superheroes:  [Unnamed Fire Hydrant Hero], [Unnamed Twig Hero], Boy Chimney, Open-Window Man, Eavesdropper, Spiralstair, Door-Pilot, [Unnamed Muscled Hero], [Unnamed Condiment Hero], Baroness Resin, Giant Metal Spring, Super-Disco Dancer, Boomerang

[September 2012]