Case 104: Dial H for Hero #4
Dial Holders: Summer Pickens, Snapper Carr, Miguel Montez
Dial Type: Red Dial
Dialing: Snapper Carr confirms he used one, as in, not this one, suggesting that whatever version of continuity we're following, there were still several H-Dials. The Heroverse where Robby/The Operator lives is a place where the metaphysical potential of a million extraordinary beings fly around like insubstantial ghosts - these are the identities dialed (so thing have changed since the New52's version of Dial H). Robby trapped Mr. Thunderbolt's body in the Heroverse, but his spirit is on Earth, scheming to get his body back by recovering the Dial. In this case, spread over three heroes simultaneously, the identities are all in vastly different styles (Frank Miller, Moebius, and newspaper comic strips); each perceives the world in the style of the dialed artist(s). No phone booths are shown. Perhaps because he dials WHILE in an identity, all further identities are just versions of that identity (see below). Dialing "S" for Sockamagee (Robby's patois) dispels all current identities, makes Mister Thunderbolt solid again, and opens a portal to the Heroverse that looks like spinning phone booths.
Costume: A tall upright chimp-ette with long curly hair spilling over one eye, she wears a trench coat over a red cocktail dress, fishnet stockings, and red high-heeled shoes. She has bandages (like Marv's in Sin City) on her body, and red lipstick. Aside from the red highlights, she is stark black and white in the Sin City style. She has a running voice-over commentary as if she were a character in film noir.
Powers: She's a were-chimp, normally human, but changing into a half-chimpanzee on the night of the blood moon. In that form, she is stronger, deadlier, and wields her revolver like a hand cannon.
Sighted: At the Justice League's old Detroit Compound, fighting Justice Leaguer robots controlled by Mister Thunderbolt.
Possibilities: According to the included origin, she is from Gorilla City; no further explanation is given for her abilities. Maybe she got bit? Though obvious parody, I do like the idea of giving Gorilla City a make-over where humans and apes live together in disharmony (a human slum?). It taps into interesting Planet of the Apes material, and Chimp Change could be a viable pulp heroine working out of that small corner of the DCU, with little to no crossover with superheroes. (But Detective Chimp is okay.)
Integration Quotient: 55% (I'm convinced, why aren't you?)
Costume: Drawn in the Moebius style, the costume is powder purple and pale blue, with a distinctive hat'n'earmuffs combo that evokes soft serve ice cream. The jacket has puffy sleeves and rocket age shoulder spoilers. It opens to reveal a high collar with stripes running down the shirt to high jodhpurs. Criss-crossed leg warmers resolve into baggy knee pads. Two scarf-like bands of textile come down from the back like a cape. It's stupid and ugly.
Powers: Alien Ice Cream Man taps into the ice cream equivalent of the Green or the Red, which manifests as levitation, and a dry ice attack that can at least disable robots. In his proper life, he flies a soft serve-shaped spaceship.
Sighted: At the Justice League's old Detroit Compound, fighting Justice Leaguer robots controlled by Mister Thunderbolt.
Possibilities: According to the included origin, he is from an ice cream-themed planet where people wear ice cream hats and drive ice cream trucks. He went out into space "blind", and came back armed with enlightenment, having become one with the Unfathomable Frozen Treat to proclaim a Golden Age of Soft Serve. It's all very silly. Give him a one-shot story as told by Space Cabbie and let it be enough. If at least he were a Marvel character, the Galactus could have treated himself.
Integration Quotient: 5% (I don't think he fits at all)
Costume: Miguelito is a child in a makeshift costume. It includes a blue t-shirt with a red "M" on it, yellow rubber gloves and boots, and a red cape tied around his neck. It does NOT include pants; he wears white briefs. (Miguel keeps dialing and gets different looks based on various comic strip characters - Peanuts, Cathy, Hagar, Nancy - but the basics remain the same, give or take a skirt or a viking helmet).
Powers: None evident.
Sighted: At the Justice League's old Detroit Compound, not really fighting Justice Leaguer robots controlled by Mister Thunderbolt.
Possibilities: DC has published comics starring characters like Miguelito, most notable Sugar and Spike, and 'mazing Man. I'm not sure the market today could sustain a book that pokes fun at newspaper comic strips, because it's something of a dying form, but it might make for a series of comedy specials (à la Franklin Richards, over at the competition). Either that, or slide him into the Tiny Titans or L'il Gotham supporting casts, perhaps as the kid who wants to be a superhero (like Snapper), but doesn't have the ability.
Integration Quotient: 45% (it might seem silly, but pure comedy characters can carve out a niche more serious concepts can't)
Next: The Secret Origins of the Heroverse!
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