[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Sam Humphries
Artist: Joe Quinones
Colors: Jordan Gibson
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Reviewed by: Carl Bryan
Summary
Dial H for Hero # 9 clarifies your calling plan for a Hero! Sockamagee! Miguel and Summer take on their dual roles as youngest heroes and newest residents of Metropolis-but unfortunately, being a hero doesn’t exactly pay the rent! Meanwhile, Mister Thunderbolt and the Operator are in a race to claim the two remaining H-Dials, with the entire Multiverse hanging in the balance!
Positives
Writer Sam Humphries adds more options to your cellular plan as each dial is clarified. The Magenta Dial transforms the dialer into a random hero! The Cyan Dial transforms the dialer tino their inner hero. The Yellow dial transforms the dialer into two heroes (ala Mister Thunderbolt and the Operator). Finally there is the K dial whose effects are unknown.
Joe Quinones provides a great road map in the beginning pages with this phone graphic to make it easier on readers and to catch everyone up to snuff!
Quinones also seamlessly goes from one artist homage to another seamlessly. And he doesn’t need a dial to do it. Some of the nods are towards Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Cerebus. His greatest attribute as an artist is the tribute he pays to these styles, but it also can be distracting.
And the early marketing gurus will appreciate “The Early Adopter”. Privacy Sucker….Unsubscribe Button… and the dreaded Dark Web. These are a social commentary of powers if there ever was one.
Negatives
The comic is back on track as this one did not have the soliloquy of Robby Reed over explaining his motives yet not making any sense in his speeches. He’s the ultimate duality of characters in The Operator and Mister Thunderbolt.
With that said, these issues all along are a feast for the senses of artistic homages. Some may be your cup of tea and some you may not. However, Quinones keeps on providing some pretty clever pencils.
Verdict
While this issue brought some issues to full circle (the allure of dialing the phone…any of the H phones and Miguel’s motivation to help but at a cost), but I feel like things have been forced from a six-issue run to a longer stint. And while I’m not sure how this is going to end, I don’t know that Humphries does either.
