History:  (Dial H # 13 (fb)) - The H-Dial user Bansa learned that she was stealing people's powers, and confessed to Open-Window Man, whose partner Boy Chimney died when she used her H-Dial, half hoping for him to kill her. He had an idea for her to redeem herself, and after assembling a crew of H-Dial users they became the Dial Bunch. Their primary enemy was the Fixer, an entity of the Exchange who disabled H-Dials.

(Dial H #12-14) - The Dial Bunch, a group of H-Dial users, sought out H-Dial users Nelson Jent and Manteau, and saved them from supervillain Centipede and the Fixer. They lured the villains to Black Maple labs, where Centipede had opened a gateway to the Exchange, and pushed Centipede and Fixer through the doorway before closing it. Centipede's lab assistant told them they gave his superior exactly what he wanted, Fixer promised Centipede he'd take him to the Exchange in return for disabling Jent and Manteau's dial. The Dial Bunch crossed dimensions, finding carnage left behind by Centipede and the Fixer. Bansa showed Jent and Manteau a dimension where the history of the dials were scrawled in graffiti. The hero Captain Random died at the hands of the Fixer, but stole his J-Dial that let him jump between worlds, and they would need it to defeat him. Open-Window man transported inside one of the windows pictured in the graffiti that explained Random's story, and retrieved the dial. Jen, Manteau and the dial Bunch traveled dimensional backwaters in pursuit of the Fixer, and many worlds told of war. In a cave dimension inhabited by frogs Ejad was killed by a giant barkfly, and Jent and Dwan avenged him, destroying the beast. The frog's seers feared Jent, because he'd stolen the powers of their hero Captain Cave during their last war. Jent felt guilty, but Manteau assured him that she'd fixed his dial enough that he should be copying powers instead of stealing them. On a world being flooded they found more hostile natives, and Nem, Unbled and Yabba were swept underwater while they exited the dimension. Jent wanted to go back, but Open-Window Man said they'd have to rely on their ability as warriors to save themselves. They were on the tinkertoy world of Metacastle, and briefly captured by the hero Trebuchet. The Operator appeared and summoned a zombie horde which the heroes were able to fight off. They realized the Operator was dialing apocalypse for all the worlds they visited, and after Trebuchet fixed the J-Dial they entered the Exchange, finding it in ruins, and the Centipede waiting for them.

(Dial H #15) - The Fixer and Centipede captured Jent, and brought him to the Operator, who let him transform in Monodon Seer so he could read his mind. The Exchange arose from the fraying of parallel worlds, and the need to patch them. They designed the dials to copy objects and creatures from different dimensions, but some of the dials stole the original's powers, and the other dimensions declared war. During the war a fracture in the Exchange spilled dials to neighboring dimensions, including Earth. Operator was exiled for being a proponent of all-out war, but in his exile the Exchange fell, and he would avenge it by destroying the dimensions that rose against the Exchange with his D-Dial that summoned doomsday. Jent's allies came for him, but the Operator short-circuited Dwan, and Centipede killed Bansa. The Fixer thought the Operator had gone too far, and tried to stop him, but O simply shut him off. He could also shut down Jent's dial until Manteau rewired it so it summoned mash-up heroes. He held off Operator, who had to summon more and more dial power to battle him, until Open-Window Man and Manteau took out the Exchange's remaining safety precautions. The Operator overloaded, exploding and destroying himself along with the Centipede. The heroes were stranded in the Exchange, but were determined to find a way back home.

Comments: Created by China Miéville & Alberto Ponticelli.

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