Dial H #12
Dial H #12, titled 'Conference Call,' is the pivot point of China Miéville's New 52 run: it delivers the formal first appearance of the Dial Bunch, a multiversal team of dial-touched heroes whose varied, broken, and alien dials vastly expand the mythology of the H-Dial concept beyond anything the Silver Age original attempted. The issue reframes the series from a quirky urban superhero story into an ambitious multiverse-spanning saga, introducing the S-Dial's mechanics under genuine combat stress and demonstrating that Roxie Hodder's Manteau identity can assert willpower even when the S-Dial would subordinate her to another dial-wielder. As one of the odder cult titles to emerge from DC's New 52 Second Wave, the series — with this issue at its structural center — stands as a rare example of a prize-winning literary novelist reshaping a decades-old comics concept with genuine philosophical weight about identity and power.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Dial H launched in May 2012 as part of the New 52's Second Wave, with Hugo Award-winning novelist China Miéville writing his first ongoing comic series for DC. Interior art on issues #8 through #15 was handled by Alberto Ponticelli with inks by Dan Green, while Brian Bolland provided the distinctive painted covers throughout the run; editors Will Dennis and Greg Lockard shepherded the book. Issue #12, on sale May 1, 2013 with a cover date of July 2013, falls squarely in the second story arc collected as Dial H Vol. 2: Exchange, which also incorporates the Justice League #23.3: Dial E epilogue released during DC's Villains Month.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First collective appearance of the Dial Bunch — Bansa (leader), Nem, Ejad, Dwan, Unbled, and Yaaba — a multiversal team each bonded to a different and often broken variant of the mystical dial.
- Issue title is 'Conference Call'; published May 1, 2013, with a July 2013 cover date, as part of DC's New 52.
- The S-Dial's sidekick-subjugation mechanic is tested under fire for the first time: Roxie uses it against the Fixer but retains independent agency by wearing the Manteau mask, which Nelson throws to her mid-battle.
- Open-Window Man — established in prior issues — is revealed in the surrounding arc to be Jed Oliver, a non-dialer recruited by Bansa after his partner Boy Chimney was killed when his dialed powers vanished.
- Each Dial Bunch member carries a distinct dial variant: Yaaba's standard H-Dial (found in Africa), Nem's G-Dial (summons random gear and artifacts), Ejad's Dial-Tapper (copies any H-Dial in range), Dwan's jammed Autodialer (causes uncontrolled constant identity flux), and Unbled's broken Hell-found dial (summons only half-ruined heroes).
- Bansa's own H-Dial steals powers outright rather than merely copying them — a rare and morally troubling property that caused her to renounce its use.
- The Centipede and the Fixer are trapped in a sealed, doorless room at the issue's climax via Open-Window Man's defenestration powers, but the cliffhanger reveals this outcome was exactly what the Fixer had engineered.
- The story is collected in Dial H Vol. 2: Exchange (ISBN 978-1401243838), which covers issues #7–15 plus Justice League #23.3: Dial E.
Cast · 26 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Dial H - Bei Anruf Held #2 (2014), Dial H #2 (2014), Dial H: The Deluxe Edition #[nn] (2015)
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