Dial S for Sidekick

Who says there was only ever one sort of Dial, no matter its appearance? Well, of course, the original (Big) Dial could pull many tricks, but the smaller, simpler Dials, just H-E-R-O (or anything you could spell with those specific letters). No longer.

Case 88: Dial H #9-10
Dial Holders: Roxie Hodder, Nelson Jent, Mason Jones
Dial Type: Phone Booth Dial and Atlantean Dial (which we will redub the S-Dial)
Dialing: Even if someone else is technically holding the Dial, one can use it so long as they themselves dial. Something is wrong with the Atlantean Dial; the Canadian soldier using it as part of Dark Maple's Operation Oh Canada reports freezing up and not moving properly in the field (he's fine in training) while in a heroic identity. He also seems particularly prone to suggestion and his last dial leaves him semi-catatonic. In fact, the Atlantean Dial works with the combination 7433, or S-I-D-E. In other words, it dials up Sidekicks. If the identity can't recognize a chain of command (by working solo), it becomes desperate for orders from a bona fide hero. The Sidekick has free will, but is eager to do what a main hero asks, and it feels good to do it. The Sidekick intuitively knows who it would normally be paired up with in whatever world they come from (similarly, and this may be due to proximity to the S-Dial, but the H-Dial user can recall the name of their natural sidekick). When someone dials, it creates detectable D-waves. Dark Maple has such equipment, as well as the largest collection of "dialania" in the world.
Name: Minotaura (quite the feminization)
Look: A minotaur with prominent breasts. Despite being female, she has huge bull horns.
Powers: In addition to great strength, speed, toughness and powerful horns, she can create maze-like structures from right under the ground. These can be contained inside spontaneous, roofed buildings, though can presumably look like other things, based on environment.
Sighted: In Ottawa, fighting Centipede and trapping him temporarily in a maze.
Possibilities: If we're still trying to build and Extraordinary League of the Ancient World, Minotaura's on it, though her powers are almost more interesting in a modern setting (albeit in the corner of the world where the Doom Patrol works).
Integration Quotient: 40% (until someone develops the far past a little more, it remains a rather empty niche in the DCU)
Name: Cloud-Herd (literal, but not easy to say three times fast)
Costume: A simple, greenish shepherd's tunic. Cloud-Herd is otherwise striking, an 8-foot tall, sky blue, old man with a long white beard and hair, holding a gnarled wooden staff. He is surrounded by small clouds.
Powers: He manifests and controls clouds which can be used to provide cover of darkness and rain, be sent to shock with lightning, and sweep in on the winds.
Sighted: Might be glimpsed through a window somewhere in Ottawa, but does not go into action.
Possibilities: Kind of feels like a god or folkloric creature from a culture we don't know, but he could certainly act as Earth's Air Elemental. But you definitely get the feeling he would hang with Shazam, Mr. Keeper, etc. up in the sky and get a cameo every few crossovers or so.
Integration Quotient: 35% (definitely doable, but we're currently lacking the superstructure)
Name: The Glimpse (great name!)
Costume: From what we can make out, he dresses in a white leotard with rolled down gloves, pirate boots, and a connected cowl. Thing is, he's never quite in frame (see Powers).
Powers: The Glimpse might fleetingly show up in the corner of your eye, but he is impossible to see directly without the help of infravision, other senses (like smell), etc. For all intents and purposes, he is invisible (or at least unnoticeable) by the human eye (and ears?). Even the reader can't catch a proper look, or one might say the artist can't ever draw him completely or in the middle of a frame.
Sighted: In Ottawa, infiltrating a Dark Maple facility to retrieve the S-Dial.
Possibilities: Whether alone or with his sidekick Half-Seen Boy (mentioned), the Glimpse would be very hard to make the star of a long-running series even if he could turn his powers off. But an offbeat mini-series? Totally. Art house superheroes are the best. In line with that, I'd give him a strange origin story about being put on Ignore too often on social media and desperate to be noticed, his power really a curse that he's turned into a boon. When he finally does enough as a hero, he's cured, but it's the worst possible moment. Writes itself.
Integration Quotient: 60% (once his story's done, so is he)
Name: Bristol Bloodhound (it's the name of a kind of missile, so a pun)
Look: A large, humanoid bloodhound with misshapen limbs and a giant missile fused to its back, which itself has smaller missiles on it.
Powers: Its powerful body has big teeth and a keen sense of smell, but it's mostly about the missile, which acts as a jetpack, but can apparently also be detonated if the hero is feeling suicidal.
Sighted: In Ottawa, escaping a Dark Maple facility.
Possibilities: Well South England and Wales has a hero, and if you've ever read Knight and Squire, or even the Shade mini-series, you'll see even a gonzo idea like this would fit right in with DC's answer to British and European heroes. Some super-soldier experiments just should not be attempted.
Integration Quotient: 25% (when's the last time they did anything with Knight and Squire?)
Name: Copter (at least it's not meant to be a pun on the word "cop")
Costume: A gloveless spandex costume in white and green, with lightning bolts arcing on the chest. The soft helmet has green stones on it and a green-tinted visor. He wears a backpack that powers a helicopter rotor. Different gun types pop out of it at angles, and electricity arcs from it.
Powers: Helicopter flight and presumably the ability to fire those weapons. However, his main power seems to be the projection of pink-hued electrical blasts.
Sighted: In Ottawa, stopping several crimes in one night, including a bank robbery and a police standoff in a liquor store.
Possibilities: The sidekick of a character called Gunship, Copter might well appear in a title that bore his "master"'s name. It's a lot more dramatic. Probably be a 90s XTREME book - "gun" in the name, guns popping out everywhere, no questions asked as to the off-model powers... But even without Gunship, Copter is a perfectly okay one-man Whirly-Bat, maybe for a younger team.
Integration Quotient: 45% (works best with Gunship, but we never met Gunship)

Next: Roxie and Nelson enjoy a quickie.

Comments

Minotaura would be an interesting connection to Manotaur from Kingdom Come and the bull avatar from the 90s Hawkman era.

The Glimpse is a GREAT speedster name, should we need an alternate Flash sometime.

We actually saw a Bristol Bulldog-like hero in the WWII photo in Knight and Squire #1!

Cloud Herd is begging to be a one-off Wonder Woman supporting cast member.