H-Dial

The Mysterious Dial of Power

### Aliases

H-Dial, Hero Dial, The Dial of Power, The Gateway to The Heroverse, Phantom Stranger's Last Gift

## Other Info

### Reality

Pre-Crisis Earth (Europa) · Post-Crisis (Europa)

Atom
Do you even know how this works? And why you? No offense...
D'Angelo
I got no idea. But **what I do have is a GED and a give'em Hell attitude** and I'll figure it out.

**The H-Dial** is a legendary artifact from New Genesis and resembles a rotary phone. If the user dials H-E-R-O, they are transformed into a superhero from the past or the future with a wide array of abilities for fifteen minutes. The only other known individual to have used the H-Dial is the Phantom Stranger, who then passed it onto D'Angelo Morris moments before his apparent death and since D'Angelo has used it to be the somewhat decent hero Dial-H.

## **Appearances**

The primary look of the H-Dial is a rotary dial without the cord connecting to a phone. It is black with white or yellowish buttons that can be pressed. If the user needs to dial H-E-R-O, the numbers fade, and the letters appear on the rotary. However, there have been a few variations as D'Angelo has entered different planes of reality or has fought villains who have manipulated the H-Dial through outside forces.

The H-Dial under the control of WZRDNathan Powers using The H-DialRashad's created V-DialThe H-Dial under the control of Black Alice
## **Capabilities**

According to The Phantom Stranger's notes, the H-Dial was created to be a means to unite the world against threats, meant to be used by humanity to stop evil. However, its untold power and the criminal acts of The Operator led to a deep fear among The Genesisians, who ordered it to be destroyed. The Phantom Stranger stole it as he had hope for humanity which led to it falling into the hands of D'Angelo.

The secondary reason for its creation is to bring together the past and the future, as the heroes that D'Angelo turns into are from before or after his time—bringing experience and future abilities together to help humanity face current threats. The H-Dial is connected to something known as The Heroverse Database, a digital collective consciousness of all past and future heroes, and - through technology, the H-Dial can grant its user their visual look and simulated abilities.

The H-Dial allows individuals to transform into heroes from The Heroverse Database for fifteen minutes. There is no cooldown, but the downside comes from that users cannot pick who they change into. The H-Dial grants its user a transformation that best fits the situation. A new user cannot utilize the vastness of The Heroverse Database but instead unlocks heroes in groups of 4, as there are four letters in H-E-R-O. This makes the H-Dial a "wireless receiver" for The Heroverse Database and grants users information about the heroes they transform into.

There are two secret functions of the H-Dial. The first is that when D'Angelo encounters heroes who are not part of The Heroverse, he will scan them, and themselves, along with their abilities, are inputted into The Heroverse. No one is harmed during this instance, but interestingly, it does not occur for multiverse heroes as it only exists within The Europa Multiverse.

The second secret function is called the "Master Dialer" function. When unlocked, this grants the user access to all of the heroes in The Heroverse Database and utilizes the full power of The H-Dial. This includes switching heroes with a thought, removing the fifteen-minute time limit, using both The Heroverse Database and The Villainverse Database, and, more interestingly, creating hybrids of heroes. This had only occurred once when Metron unlocked The Master Dialer function for D'Angelo to stop The Female Furries from destroying The Heroverse Database who were in search of The Anti-Life Equation. However, Metron expressly explained to him that he was not the progenitor of The H-Dial but was one of the members who worked on it.

Another interesting note is that once a new user uses the H-Dial, it becomes cosmically linked to the user, which means that only people who the user has relinquished control of the H-Dial to can use it. This was shown when D'Angelo allowed Nathan Powers to use it as D'Angelo was injured.

## **Transformations**

As stated before, there are several transformations within The H-Dial but so far - barring briefly gaining The Master Dialer function - D'Angelo has only unlocked 8 heroes.

* Starman
* Tom Strong
* Manhunter
* Ambush Bug
* Creeper
* Sandman
* The Flash
* Bloodsport

The first hero that D'Angelo turned into was named Starman. He is a hero from an unknown time but wields an object called The Cosmic Staff. It allows D'Angelo to fire powerful energy blasts, manipulate gravity around D'Angelo to fly, generate energy-based force fields, and manipulate magnetism. However, the energy blasts are dazzling, even to D'Angelo, which is why Starman wears goggles.
Tom Strong is his name. He is a hero from the future who has superhuman strength and durability. D'Angelo has shown to use his power frequently, having easily thrown cars or dumpsters. Tom's strength allowed D'Angelo to blow-for-blow with Big Barda, the strongest of the Female Furries, and take magical hits from people such as Black Alice and Zatanna (albeit on accident).
Manhunter is an interesting hero as he has no superhuman powers but utilizes a Manhunter suit to achieve the same effect. The suit grants D'Angelo the ability to become invisible. The mask allows D'Angelo to alter his facial appearance; he can walk through walls, levitate, and, more interestingly, D'Angelo has access to Manhunter's superior fighting skill and muscle memory for D'Angelo.
Ambush Bug is the more... outlandish hero that D'Angelo has. His powers are incredible as Ambush Bug is a teleporter, allowing D'Angelo to teleport himself or others places within his line of sight only. He also has some luck-based abilities. D'Angelo is also seemingly invincible in this form, but only to a certain degree, as more physically powerful people can harm him. Ambush Bug is interesting because he is one of the few heroes whose personality transferred to The Heroverse Database. Ambush Bug is aware that he is a digitized construct of himself from the future and goes out of his way to ensure that he helps D'Angelo.
The Creeper is a hero from the past who had an odd array of abilities. D'Angelo has access to The Creeper's laugh and hypnosis. The Creeper's laugh induces pain against individuals doing evil acts, to the point that it could hinder individuals. The other half of this is The Creeper's hypnotism which allows him to control the minds of weak-minded individuals, which D'Angelo utilized when he fought Black Alice.
Sandman is a past hero, allowing D'Angelo to utilize his experimental gasses on unsuspecting enemies. Sandman has a high level of intelligence, specifically in chemistry, which is granted to D'Angelo upon transformation. Sandman's gasses vary as some promote individuals to sleep while others can cause physical harm to a person. All the while, D'Angelo is protected by the gas mask Sandman wears.
The Flash is another hero from prior and is the digital construct of The Flash who was on The JSA. This gives D'Angelo access to super speed, but as it is a construct, he does not have access to The Speed Force, but it gives him all of the abilities that The Flash from World War II had. This includes speed sharing and more. D'Angelo has also used the helmet as a weapon. File:H-Dial Bloodsport.jpg
The most recent hero to be unlocked was Bloodsport. He is a hero from the future who has a penchant for energy weapons and a super-suit comprised of nanotechnology. His presence proved to be the first time that D'Angelo learned that he takes on the speech styles of these different heroes when he transforms as D'Angelo gained Bloodsport's British accent when he first transformed into him.
## **Variations**

Currently, there is only one variation of the H-Dial and it comes from Rashad who is a brilliant student at RSU. He became a villain for D'Angelo after he learned of the H-Dial and created his own version of it called the V-Dial which allows for him to transform into villains from the past and present.

## **Notes**

* The H-Dial, and by extension, Europa exist outside of mainstream DC Universe continuity. This object, its stories, and other characters are unrelated and not connected to the DC Multiverse.

## **References**

1. ↑ The Space Program
2. ↑ A Lot Is Going On
3. ↑ Mojo So Dope