Multiversity: Dial H for Hero

Ultimate Spider-Man, and by extension Ultimate Universe, is probably the main reason why I got into monthly comics. But with time my tastes changed and Bendis went from the writer that I really liked to one of my least liked writers. So I wasn't thrilled when he got the control of Superman's line and new Wonder Comics line was launched. But I really like Dial's concept so I decided to try new Dial H for Hero series. After all, how bad could it get?

I didn't really have much experience with Humphries. I read his Nightwing arc before and wasn't too impressed. And this was probably first time I was reading something drawn by Quinones. Well, no, I had read Wednesday Comics, but that was ages ago. Either way creative team didn't inspire much confidence. But this turned out to be a very pleasant surprise.

Anyway, first collection (or first 6 issues) mostly introduces the characters and sets up things. Writing is okay, it has its charm and does what it needs to do, but Humphries ain't winning any writing awards here. Where this book shines is the visuals and how they change with each new hero. Basically Quinones tries to create different visual style for each new hero as if it was his own story. It doesn't always look amazing, but it always looks good. Oh, and Snapper Carr makes his post-Flashpoint return.

Things get very interesting in the second collection (or last 6 issues) where Humphries connects Dial H story to the Morrison's Multiversity. First is the reveal that Multiverse (looking like Morrison's Multiversity Map) is a giant H-Dial. And one issue has them visit Earth-32, where two characters are merged into one. Unlike most other stories that briefly feature different Earths they actually get a good number of pages here and most importantly - are not used as a cannon fodder to build up the main villain. On the contrary, they are going thru their own Crisis and our protagonists have to move fast and bail because who knows how this crisis will end. I wish we got more of this stuff in other comics as well.

First collection of this series has an afterword by Bendis. Basically he hand picked Humphries to write this for one reason or another, thats not really important. Important and funny things is that Humphries had no idea what Dial H is when Bendis offered him the project. I think that this series is a good argument for why more superhero comics should be written by people who are not big fans of the character, or franchise, that they are writing. Fresh perspective and all that.

Sadly this series is not as good as Mieville's Dial H, creative team is not super popular and everyone kinda wants to forget that Bendis was at DC. So all the cool stuff done here will be likely forgotten in the near future. Oh well.

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