The criminal who got a hold of the Dial is Tony Finch, a sometime-henchmen of the Joker's who has a massive complex ever since he pretty much peed his pants in public when his boss came calling with a gag pop-gun. With the H Dial he becomes a fairly effective villain, seeing as he's never the same guy twice so Batman can't get a bead on him (and never appears in the story), until he's betrayed by one of his own henchmen who steals the Dial and sets off a thermite bomb booby trap that kills him. Tony is arrested running from the fire and winds up in Arkham, the Dial lost to him. Very few of his identities were named, which is becoming annoying, if only because of the way these articles are structured.
Case 73: H-E-R-O #9-10
Dial Holder: Tony Finch AKA The Shifter
Dial Type: Push-button Dial
Dialing: Differences with past Dials keep mounting. It is very clear from this story that one can use the hero identities to commit crimes and act as a supervillain, for one thing. Using available letters to spell out other words (HORROR, OREO, ERROR) has no effect. While code names come with the identity, it took Tony a few spins to figure that out, so the information has to be actively accessed.
Name: The Slider (he slides between atoms, I guess)
Costume: A blue featureless uniform with a darker cape, cowl, gloves, boots and shorts, plus a purple utility belt and a purple strap around one thigh. Extremely generic.
Powers: Intangibility. The Slider can walk through walls, but alas, can't bring any objects through with him. I bet if he looked in that utility belt, he'd find an intangibility spray or something.
Sighted: In Gotham City, stealing a painting from a museum.
Possibilities: Since Finch becomes villains, we're allowed to envision the identities that way. The Slider is not unlike the Untouchables, though much more of a loser unless he can get his act together. I imagine a lab accident followed by a life of inept crime. He's not effective, he's just hard to capture.
Integration Quotient: 40% (the shtick works, but the costume needs to go)
Name: The Stretcher (well you're just asking to be laid out)
Costume: An asymmetrical maskless number of thick horizontal stipes, blue and yellow (though the yellow could be white, given the lighting).
Powers: Stretching.
Sighted: In Gotham City, an identity momentarily taken by Finch in his apartment before he takes another one.
Possibilities: A stretchy thief might act as a Mirror Elongated Man. He's less useful as a hero, since we already have competing stretchos.
Integration Quotient: 40% (another case of the blahs even if ideas do come up)
Bonus Nameless Heroes!
On the left, the flying "Superman" type who flies away with the stolen painting. We never see his costume all that clearly, but he noticeably has flames about his head. Could be a Captain Atom sort, and an arrogant one at that. I want to call him the Gold Standard and laugh at his hubris. On the right, a bare-chested Human Bomb with a nuclear fist. That hood definitely marks him as a villain (in addition to attacking a jewelry store), and he shall be known forever more as... the Atomic Fist!
On the left is an ice projector (given the names we DO get in this story, he's probably the Freezer); the authorities think his crime was probably committed by Mr. Freeze, so it's useful to be generic. On the right, is a hero with super strength and toughness, flight, and telescopic vision/super-hearing that while, again, simple and generic, still looks pretty cool. DC's answer to Deathlok? Those big red photoreceptor dots all over his costume probably means his code name is attached to that eye. I'm gonna show my SF cred and go with Lensman on this one.
Next: The Secret Origin of the H Dial!
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