Dial H for Hey Wait!

Before heading into post-Crisis waters with this feature, I think we need to go back a little bit. My Dial H posts have been singularly focused on the heroes and villains "dialed", which has left no room for those stories that feature the Dial heroes NOT dialing new identities. And yet, they do exist. So in an effort to be a complete as possible, we're going to look at those tales that didn't fit the usual mold.

The oldest of these is Plastic Man #13, published some 10 years after Robby dialed himself into Plas in House of Mystery #160, heralding the return of Quality's most popular hero to comics. With this story, it seems like Plas is returning the favor, possibly even trying to generate interest in a new Dial H strip. Doesn't look like it worked, as the next Dial H story would be another 5 years in the future, and star different heroes (and dials!).

Case 58: Plastic Man #13
Dial Holder: Robby Reed
Dial Type: The Big Dial
Dialing: Robby, now a young adult, works in an obscure lodge in the Catskills as a waiter. Discovering girls years ago clouded his mind and forgot his childish plans to be a superhero.

But just as a female had created the cobwebs, it's a female - or her shout for help - that clears them away. He suddenly remembers everything and he races to the spot where he'd dropped the Dial. It's still there. Unusually, although this also happened in his earlier "team-up" with Plastic Man, the Dial reuses superhero identities we've seen before, including the Mighty Moppet (HoM 159), King Kandy (HoM 160 again), the Mole (HoM 168), the Human Starfish (HoM 159), and Plastic Man himself. However, because the Dial has rusted some over the years, all these heroes now act like villains. Worse, when Robby returns to his normal self, he is infected with this evil. Plas wrestles the Dial away from him, and the effect times out. When Robby comes to, he has no memory at all of the last two years. Plastic Man keeps the Dial just to be safe. There is no record of how Robby regained it in time for his next adventure.

Fast forward to the end of the Chris and Vicki era, and we learn that Robby had been split into two halves, one of which was the evil Master who allegedly stole cloning technology from Project: Cadmus to create his army of reader-designed supervillains. Allegedly? Here's the proof, courtesy of Superman Family #194 (1979):

The Master was introduced fairly early in Chris and Vicki's run (Adventure Comics #484, in fact), but a couple years after the Superman Family story came out and a full 5 years before his origin would be revealed. And all by different writers. So probably less long-term planning than under-played continuity plug-in. I wonder how many readers waited for that shadow's identity to be revealed, in vain, and possibly never realized the truth had been told.

Back to the present (as we knew it), before the Crisis, there was still a Who's Who appearance, which looks like a veritable spotter's guide for H Dial heroes:

Nick is mentioned, but not pictured. The kids also make it on the cover (of course), more or less in the background, but with a giant Dial.

The get a mention in Update '87's appendix, but only to correct Chris & Vicki's first appearance (in a Legion bonus book that was reprinted in Adventure anyway. From Update '88 on, it adds new stories which we have yet to cover. Shhh.

Chris and Vicki's brief appearance in Crisis on Infinite Earths is so fleeting, you probably missed it. I had to peruse issue #12 four or five times before I finally spotted them, behind GL news correspondent Tawny Young in a special report.

They do not dial up any superhero identities on panel, sadly. They do seem to be going for it though. We do know they survived the Crisis because they then appeared in a number of Titans-related comics. And Robby? He made it too, according to The History of the DC Universe:

Yes, that book was contradicted a number of times, and reality's been reshuffled several more since then, but history will bear out that he IS part of DC continuity, at least until the next red skies event.

Next: Wolfman at the door.