Dial H for Hashbrowns

Dial H showed up as a three-page back-up strip in the Young Animal imprint's Shade the Changing Girl #3, a mostly silent story by Tiny Howard and Sanya Anwar, about a waitress at a superhero-themed restaurant who uses Vicki's Dial to save her lady love from an abusive date, gets the kiss, but then sees her love ripped from her by a supervillain, and dials out after a brief battle, overcome with sadness. It's a tragic story, but told with some flair, the captions all words you could spell with H, E, R, and O.

Case 99: Shade the Changing Girl #3
Dial Holders: Christy
Dial Type: Vicki's pendant dial (or is it?)
Dialing: Vicki's Dial is apparently on a wall plaque in a superhero-themed restaurant, accessible to anyone. Let's look at the plaque:
According to this, Fairfax is in New Hampshire, not Maine. It also implies that villains are drawn to dialed identities, and indeed this happens to Christy when she dials. Another discrepancy is the look of the Dial, which has 10 numbers instead of 4 letters (despite the narration's conceit). On its back, around the rim, are mystic symbols not unlike those around Robby Reed's Dial. In a later panel, it looks as thick as Robby's... so could it be the original "Big Dial" and the plaque a misattribution? Chalk it up to New52/Rebirth.
Name: Christy's featured identity is not named. I will suggest Today's Special to amuse myself.
Costume: A golden yellow sleeveless spandex suit, with darker high boots and gloves. She wears a long reddish sash, and reddish make-up in the shape of a star as a mask. Her hair is two-toned, red from the roots becoming a golden blond at the ends.
Powers: Super-strength and toughness, though not off the charts.
Sighted: At a superhero-themed restaurant, throwing a customer out the window, then getting trounced by a nameless supervillain.
Possibilities: Heroine of the restaurant set, she should be working at Warrior's and sometimes getting into action to help (or stop) the boss. She didn't choose her name herself, and she's a little sore about that. Hilarity ensues. And like Christy herself (who could easily be her secret identity), she's gay, which is nice representation, and perhaps an interesting dynamic if she works for the conservative Guy Gardner.
Integration Quotient: 75% (writes itself, though there's perhaps not enough information to real make the call)

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Comments

Unknown said…
Woohoo! Congratulations!

I think this has MANY more possibilities. The plaque says anyone can be a hero, and they allow random patrons to use the dial. Imagine it, dozens of custimesc becoming a hero once a day . I'd love to see a comic expanding on that concept a bit more. It would be like the HERO series, where therest a new point of view each issue. It has Young Animals written all over it.
Siskoid said…
I'd read it, but I think that's no surprise.