Dial H #7 – Review

By: China Miéville (story), David Lapham (art), Tanya & Richard Horie (colors)

The Story: Nothing like stepping off a plane, seeing the sights, and confronting a secret religion.

The Review: It’s still way too early to make a prediction about Dial H’s legacy, but I think one day, comics connoisseurs will flip through the holographic bins in their 3D shop and amidst all the virtual back-issues, through the slog of nearly all of DC’s relaunched titles (and by then, DC will be in the early throes of its fifth relaunch and known simply as Batman Comics), Dial H will pop out as one of the more courageous, distinctive, and ambitious titles of the time.

Simply put, Miéville does things in this series that even the other ostensibly avant-garde titles (Swamp Thing and Animal Man and its ilk) in the DC stable haven’t tried.  Nowhere is that more apparent than in the choice of leads.  In what other comic can an elderly lady and a middle-aged man, out of shape and unemployed, ever be the heroes again?  How many writers can even make that dynamic work?