Dial H for Healing

This is the end... beautiful friend, the end. Well, not entirely. Dial H will return. Even Chris and Vicki will return. But the era of "Your Own Heroes"(TM) ends here. One wonder how many designs were sent in too late to ever make an appearance, and though we see a lot of old designs from the House of Mystery days, only two reader submissions make it into this last chapter of the Chris-Vicki-Master saga.

Case 56: New Adventures of Superboy #49
Dial Holder: Robby Reed
Dial Type: The Big Dial
Dialing: The Wizard returns, still an astral being, apparently in possession of the original Dial, also astral. We don't know what word he dials, but it recombines the Wizard and the Master into the Dial's original holder: Robby Reed!
In a flashback, we learn how Robby dialed S-P-L-I-T so he could be in two places at once. One half was good and magical (the Wizard), the other was evil and scientific (the Master, who looked just like Robby). The Master then dialed HIDE YOURSELF to prevent the Wizard from recombining the two halves and the Dial vanished, and with it, Robby's - and the Wizard's - memories of his past life. It is further revealed that the Master's supervillain army was created thanks to his gaining access to the defunct DNA Project (from Kirby's Jimmy Olsen comics). When the Wizard created Chris and Vicki's Dials, his subconscious instructed him to put in limits (the duration, the number of letters) so that history couldn't repeat itself. The Wizard's memories returned when he was "killed" by the Master, his astral self freed to search and find the Dial. At the end of the story, Robby gives the original H Dial to Nick Stevens, and the duo becomes a trio. (Alas, this trio was never seen in action together.)
Name: Circumference (somebody was doodling in geometry class)
Created by: John Porter, of Mustang, OK
Costume: Purple spandex with blue shorts, red belt and red boots. The chest emblem is a white circle with a "C" in it. What is most memorable however is that the hero's head and hands are red metal balls. He looks like a cartoon character or mascot uniform, but one without working thumbs.
Powers: Circumference can blast opponents with spherical energy traps, as well as create a circular flying disc.
Sighted: Presumably near Littleville (Robby is at a "local museum"), fighting Shirkon.
Possibilities: The bolts around his wrists evoke a mechanical construct, or at least a tech hero, rather than an alien, so I'll go with the former. Circumference might thus have been fabricated by one of those super-scientists we keep hearing about, like T.O. Morrow. Certainly, the red skin puts him on par with the Red Tornado as do the reddish circular effects. A forgotten prototype who awakens and becomes good too? Like Reddy, he's quickly destroyed. Unlike Reddy, he's not quickly rebuilt.
Integration Quotient: 15% (too silly, I'm afraid)

Bonus Supervillain
Name: Shirkon of the Many Eyes (he shirks responsibility?)
Created by: Eric Edwards, of Wilkesboro, NC
Costume: A blue hooded tunic with red and yellow eyes on the head and chest (five in all, ligned up vertically). He wears sandals, has yellow skin, red eyes, and sharp teeth.
Powers: Shirkon is a powerful magician. Among the effects he produces, we find flight, the ability to destroy Circumference's energy trap, and teleportation (he appears in a puff of smoke, this might actually be interdimensional travel). He also claims to have created a pressure trap that will make every weapon on Earth explodes if Circumference moves from that spot. When he is defeated by the Wizard, he breaks up into pieces, which may mean he was not made of flesh and blood.
Sighted: Stealing artifacts from a Littleton museum, fighting Circumference in a nearby desert, and being destroyed by the Wizard over Washington D.C.
Possibilities: It's easy to get an evil wizard into comics, and you could easily see Shirkon pop up in a Golden Age Spectre or Dr. Fate story. In fact, he sort of reminds me of Kulak. The "Many Eyes" would need to be played up though, perhaps with greater focus on remote sensing that would make Shirkon a good mastermind type. But is he more forgettable Kulak, or oft-returning Wotan?
Integration Quotient: 50% (easy to insert, not so easy to keep around)

Next: The H Dial 1000 years in the future!

Comments

C_Oliver said…
This was where the 80s incarnation of 'Dial H' should've ended. I chose to ignore the characters' shameful treatment in the pages of New Teen Titans.
Anonymous said…
In the part of this comic where Robby Reed begins to explain his origin story, it shows all of the heroes he has turned into in the past. On the bottom left of the panel, it shows a guy who looks like he’s wearing a pink popcorn bag over his body. Any idea which hero that is?
Siskoid said…
That is the Squid (from House of Mystery #158) whose helmet can produce ink that turns into solid objects like his flying sled which we're seeing from underneath.