Dial H #0 – Review

By: China Miéville (story), Riccardo Burchielli (art), Tanya & Richard Horie (colors)

The Story: How do you dial up a hero when there’s no dial?  Talk about call waiting…

The Review: Like all of the “Second Wave” titles, Dial H could really use an origin issue.  Not so much for our hero, but for his means of heroism.  While the H-Dial has always been a pretty fantastic storytelling device, a shortcut for writers to indulge their boyhood imaginings, how it operates and where it comes from has never been clearly understood.  Miéville’s abstract and surreal contributions to the series haven’t helped any, either.

But plenty of commenters have assured me Miéville would get around to answers sooner than later, and this issue proves them right.  By its end, you can’t deny he’s dropped quite a few revelations on your lap regarding the nature of the H-Dial.  That said, the truth, as in any good mystery, only invites more questions and vagaries, meaning Miéville still has some ground to cover before we can claim to know what’s going on.