Dial H #4 Review

An Abyss is loose on the world in Dial H #4, but is Jent powerless to stop it?

Dial H #4

Ex Nihilo has succeeded in bringing an Abyss to Earth.  On top of that, X.N. and Squid is able to kidnap Manteau.  X.N. proceeds to torture Manteau nearly to death to learn more about her H Dial.  Jent attempts to dial his own hero to save his friend, but it’s still busted.  He returns to Manteau’s home to try to find a way to fix it, but is found by an injured Squid who asks for his help.  When the unlikely duo rescues Manteau, they are confronted by a hero jumping X.N. who’s gaining additional help from the Abyss.

In this issue, China Miéville takes the opportunity to tell us more about the two villains, X.N. and Squid.  X.N. is a nullomancer.  In other words, she is able to conjure and manipulate voids.  She’s been driven by a twenty-year passion, well, more of an obsession, to bring an Abyss to the planet for her own needs.  As far as what Squid is, he came from a planet of wranglers of such voids.  When he partnered with a particularly special Abyss, he used it originally to go wherever he wanted, but one day, the Abyss started to exert control of him and when he found stealing jewels, he was banished and sentenced to fall through space and time for years.

I’ve said it three times before, and I’ll say it again, whatever Miéville is pulling from to make this strange, but terribly engrossing story tick is nothing short of great.  This is so much more than just a strange story about a guy who can be just about any hero the writer can imagine.  Now, four issues in, much larger ideas are starting to boil to the surface.  The ideas of these beings of nothingness, their wranglers, nullomancers, and the measure of a true hero is making this book work so damn well.  These high concept ideas aren’t impossible to capture either.  It’s not quite like reading a crazy ass Grant Morrison story.  I don’t see Miéville trying to outsmart anyone (including himself).  Instead, I see him taking his larger ideas that hang out in the ether for a few issues to eventually get pulled back down into a high concept, but understandable, series of events, overall plot, and characters to make this just simply work.

And this is why I would 100 times over rather read the strangest of ideas from Miéville than I would from Morrison.

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Tags: China Mieville DC Comics New 52 Reviews Dial H