H-Dial

A mysterious hand-held device, possibly of extraterrestrial origin, in the shape of a rotary telephone dial (first appearance: House of Mystery No. 156, Jan 1966: "Dial H for Hero"). The ten-lettered dial allows a user to transform into a super-powered form. Dialing H-E-R-O changes a person into a superhero. Dialing V-I-L-L-A-I-N turns the user into a supervillain. Small town teenager Robby Reed discovers the H-Dial and has many adventures, transforming into different heroes--including a duplicate of [[Plastic Man]] (House of Mystery No. 156, Jan 1966: "Dial H for Hero"; House of Mystery No. 160, Jul 1966: "The Wizard of Light"; and others). Some time later, ''two'' dials--one in the form of a wristwatch and one in the form of watch pendant--with four letters apiece are found by teenagers [[Chris King]] and [[Vicki Grant]] (Legion of Super-Heroes No. 272/2, Feb 1981: "Who Are the Heroes?"). King and Grant also enjoy many adventures and even team up with [[Superman]] (DCCP No. 44, Apr 1982: "The Man Who Created Villains!"). In the 30th Century, small time crook [[Nylor Truggs]] steals the original H-Dial from a museum and travels back to [[Superboy]]'s time where he is defeated by Superboy and time-traveling members of the 30th Century [[Legion of Super-Heroes]] (NSB No. 50, Feb 1984: "Dial 'V' for Villain").