In Dial H Vol. 1: Into You, a troubled young man, Nelson, stumbles upon a lost H-Dial and all the power it possesses. But when the world is threatened by the very device that has become his obsession, he is taken on a wild adventure exploring the boundaries of reality itself. The series is written by Hugo award-winning novelist China Miéville with art by Mateus Santolouco, David Lapham, Riccardo Burchielli and Brian Bolland.

The series is supposed to look at the psychological effects on an everyman who accidentally gains powers and becomes a hero. He gains a powerful artifact, which can turn one into almost any superhero imaginable.

And that’s the fun of the series. I think the look at the whole “psychological effects” is the minor part of the story. It doesn’t quite reach the level it should have in that exploration in this first volume. Instead, the entertainment and fun comes from the varied and wacky heroes that pop up throughout the story.

The first volume is fun. There’s a goofiness that’s entertaining, but every so often there’s a choppiness to the story that makes you wonder if you missed something. Overall, the story flows, but I felt like there could have been more explanation about this world and what’s going on.

The art is pretty solid as well. Some of it is fantastic, some of it is good, but overall there’s some great pages and panels that pepper the book. The biggest thing is that character design. With such crazy and varied characters, you can imagine how important that design is.

Dial H is a series that’s a bit different from the regular capes and tights. It gives a nice break from everything else that’s out there for fans of super hero comics, but want something slightly different.

The volume collects issues #0-6.

Story: China Miéville Art: Mateus Santolouco, David Lapham, Riccardo Burchielli and Brian Bolland
Story: 7.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.5 Recommendation: Read

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review