Dial H #12

[arbre_rieur]

"Odradek."

Comments

[icon_uk]

Weirdly enough, not even the first superpowered animate Caryatid I've seen in comics!

Alan Moore's "Top 10" had a cameo by one in a gladiatorial combat scene versus King Peacock.

[captainbellman]

Well, to be fair, everything was in "Top 10". Pretty much everything. I'm reasonably sure one could spot a kitchen sink wandering the streets of Neopolis, if one paid careful attention.

[kamino_neko]

There was one as a minor NPC in an RP campaign I just finished playing in. I have no idea if the GM read Top 10.

[fungo_squiggly]

I hadn't of "The Cares of a Family Man" before seeing these scans and looking up "odradek," but now I really want a little odradek to keep on my desk.

Or maybe I'd just keep moving it from place to place every day, so that it would have no fixed abode.

[ensiform]

I believe I read that this got cancelled. Perhaps inevitable -- way too clever for the hoi polloi -- but sad nonetheless.

[kamino_neko]

Yes, it did. The next wave of cancellations is Dial H, Demon Knights, Threshold, and Legion of Superheroes.

Dial H, at least, seems to be moving toward a logical end point, so can probably manage to finish without truncating or stretching the story too hard. Demon Knights and Threshold are clearly going to have their storylines cut short, or else have their pacing severely altered, on the other hand.

Legion's rumoured to have a successor title in the works, so presumably they can just leave things hanging to pick up there, and just close off the main threads.

[cypherfdp]

What is happening and why

[icon_uk]

By the time we're at issue 12 that's a little hard to explain.

Suffice it to say there exist dials in the multiverse, dials which allow a variety of effects... to become heroes (by stealing the powers of other heroes temporarily), to become sidekicks (like a hero, but seeking guidance and orders), or to create gizmos, to travel between dimensions, etc etc

Nelson and Roxie are two people who found the hero dial and take turns using it, Roxie is an aging hippy (and a fab character) who has been using a dial for ages, but in order to preserve her own sense of self uses an identity of her own, Manteau, regardless of the hero she ends up being. Nelson is less experienced but wants to be a hero.

There's also the threat of the Canadian Secret Service, who it turns out are the most evil, manipulatibe Secret Service in the universe, and their prime assassin, the time sifting Centipede

And then it gets sort of complicated.

[kamino_neko]

o become heroes (by stealing the powers of other heroes temporarily)

Stealing, or copying. And apparently, you generally can't know which will happen on any given dialing, with most dials.

[donnblake]

Heh. Dark Maple.

Those darn comic-book Canadians, always with the evil shennanagins.

[featheredserpent]

How can they cancel this? It's the most original thing since Doom Patrol! Oh, wait, I just answered my own question.

[wizardru]

This strikes me like most China Mieville stuff I read: impressed with itself about how clever it is, somewhat unfocused and sometimes very difficult to follow. I can see why this didn't really succeed...it's extremely hard to follow. I know the basic ideas, but the early issues seemed boring and the later issues just seem to be throwing everything against a wall.

I mean, setting aside the story here, the visual story-telling is incredibly jumbled and difficult to follow. The visual flow is such a mess, regardless of the constantly shifting characters. I'm sure this reads much better in prose form that it shows in comic form, which only seems to highlight to me that comic writing and prose writing are different skill sets.

[arbre_rieur]

"I mean, setting aside the story here, the visual story-telling is incredibly jumbled and difficult to follow. The visual flow is such a mess, regardless of the constantly shifting characters."

In this case, I'd say that's more the fault of the art, though. Aside from the changing identities, the content's really not much different from your standard superhero fight. There's no reason a penciller with stronger storytelling skills couldn't have depicted it in a more comprehensible manner.

This is a problem I've had with the art in the series for a while now, ever since the current guy took over. Under the previous penciller, events were always much clearer.