Dial H #5

Boring. No Dial Heroes to guess the names of on the cover.

At the end of last issue, Nelson (as Rotary Man) and Squid the Kid were about to face off against Ex Nihilo who was currently dialed in as a character I believe is Swiss Army Knight. The most important revelation for me is what Ex Nihilo's character's name is so that I can gloat that I guessed another one correctly!

Apparently that's not China's major story telling concern because the first couple of pages don't reveal the name. What they do reveal is that Ex Nihilo would still rather use her Nullomancer powers than her Swiss Army Knight's powers.

What a waste of resources! Although I guess that's the only way for a Nullomancer to work. If the Nullomancer wasted nothing then it would be wasting its main resource!

While Squid the Kid fights Ex Nihilo, Nelson and Manteau sneak off to get Nelson's dial fixed so that he can become something really exciting. Otherwise this comic book is simply about a fat guy and an old woman and who wants to read that story? Well, if it were written by Chris Ware, I might want to read it.
While Manteau fixes the Dial, she gives Nelson a brief history of how she came to find and understand the dials. She majored in Telephony in the sixties. Total square thing to do. But her ideas were so far out that her professors thought she was crazy, man. Eventually she stumbled on the hippie commune drop out change the world scene. These communes and rallies full of flower children and free-love enthusiasts weren't full of people doing drugs and protesting the war. Not even close, man! They were philosophizing and theorizing and warping out a brand new reality, dig?

Okay, maybe a few drugs and peace rallies were happening in between the radical phone philosophy.

By the time Manteau patches up Nelson's Dial again, Wald has changed into a new super hero. Perhaps Swiss Army Knight was so obvious that China didn't feel the need to name it. But the new hero Wald turns into is on Manteau dialed up a long time ago. So she names it before I get a guess in.

I was hoping for Captain Carrot.

Ex Nihilo has finally realized that The Abyss cannot be controlled and doesn't give a fuck what a Nullomancer can do. So Ex Nihilo decides to banish it back to the void. But it's too strong. All it wants to do is eat the moon. So Manteau and Nelson need to use the Dial to help stop The Abyss. Too bad only one of them can use it at a time. Nelson wrestles the Dial out of the old woman's hands and uses it to transform. Manteau's reaction is: "We're screwed." Because Nelson dials up a hero named "Cock-a-Hoop."

Thank Jesus it's a chicken.

Cock-a-Hoop and Hairbringer begin working together to defeat The Abyss. Just when they're about to bring it down by making The Abyss eat nothing which causes it to turn into something, another Dial Hero flies out of The Abyss's head! Looks like the original Dial Hero that banished The Abyss many years ago did indeed find himself banished along with The Abyss. And in their time exiled together, it looks like they've become partners. So this new guy is coming to The Abyss's rescue. And he knows how to use the dial! He changes from one form to the next as he needs different powers. I'll name all of his forms. Feel free to guess too since none of the names are revealed!

He emerges from The Abyss as Abyssonaut.

Then she turns into The Rocketess.

After which she becomes The Purple Paladin.

Which changes into the Dumb Dumb Squadron.

They turn into Tinkerbot.

Which finally turns into The Shining Rhino.

This Dialer switches off Ex Nihilo's Dial, causing her to plummet to her death. It then flies back into Abyss which has become a gigantic statue of Void Shit due to eating other pieces of Void. Squid the Kid says that his people have a theory that the entire universe is composed of Null Creature Shit. Then he dies. Not bad for last words, I guess.

So the moon is safe and Ex Nihilo is dead and Abyss has gone to shit and the mystery guy has left Earth for now. Between the end of this issue and the beginning of the next one, Nelson needs to get his Dial fixed. And keep Manteau from hogging it.

Dial H #5 Rating: No change. The story wrapped up about as well as I expected. Nelson was mostly ineffectual throughout the whole thing but he's learning. He had a lot of lucky breaks to stay alive while mostly watching the real plot (Ex Nihilo summoning The Abyss) from the sidelines. As Cock-a-Hoop, he helped turn the battle so that the Moon wasn't eaten. But the Dial thing that came out of The Abyss would have killed him as well as Ex Nihilo if his Dial hadn't conked out during the fight. So he's a very lucky fat man with a skilled old woman sidekick. This could get interesting. Especially if it turns romantic!