MANTEAU
Real Name: Roxie Hodder
Class: Human magic-user
Occupation: Superhero
Group Affiliation: None
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Captain Priapus, Cardamom, Clinch, Doctor Cloaca, Doctor Dictatrix, Electrocutie, Exhaust, G*****g, Kid Torture, Minotauria, Pipe Cleaner, Planktonian, Prime Mover, SS Ilsa
Base of Operations: Littleville, Prime Earth
First Appearance: Dial H #1 (July, 2012)
Powers: Using the H-Dial Nelson and dialing HERO Manteau could transform into a unique superhero for a few hours at a time.
History: (Dial H #5 (fb) - Roxie Hodder was a hippy who got her degree in science in the '60s, studying the history of telephony. She saw spiritual connections in the use of telephones, and uncovered the secret origin of the technology. In her research she discovered an H-Dial, and by dialing HERO she could transform into a superhero for a few hours at a time. She acted as a hero, but continued to chase the mysterious origins of the H-Dial.
(Dial H #2-5) - Ex Nihilo was after Manteau and her H-Dial. Nelson Jent had discovered his own H-Dial in an alley, and was causing X.N. problems as well. He investigated Manteau's apartment, and she took him for one of X.N.'s men and attacked him before fleeing with her phone. She soon learned he was an ally, and met him in the alleyway he used, offering to help him, but warning that X.N. was hunting them both. Manteau and Jent fled to Manteau's home after prying the dial from the alleyway, and she showed him she had her own H-Dial, which would not work for him while she used it. She'd researched the history of telephony, and said a man named O helped Edison and Bell create their inventions based on a project he was working on. She asked him to remember the biggest battle he'd had using the H-Dial, and he had a vision of Boy Chimney and a team of heroes fighting the Rake Dragon. She told him the heroes brought out by the H-Dial had their own memories, and could mess with a H-Dial user's head, which is why she always focused on her chosen name Manteau. She managed to partially repair his H-Dial, and he turned into Baroness Resin. She said it was a bust, and Manteau told her the Dial was already broken judging by the bizarre characters she'd been turning into. There was a shadow in the line, and she'd connected it to spikes in H-Dial activities, which usually occurred in Littleville, but had most recently popped up in Fairfax. Manteau told her to woman up, and they found X.N. and Squid in Fairfax, where they used a man named King, present at the last spike, to bring the shadow out of the line, a powerful being named Abyss. Abyss was furious over his long exile, and punched a hole in Squid's chest before leaving for a museum to feed on the light of geodes. X.N. captured Manteau and took her H-Dial, not bothering with Jent. Using nullomancy she mastered the H-Dial for herself, and tried to convince Abyss to work with her, but he was having none of it. Squid turned to Jent to help him return home, and after they rescued the powerless Manteau they confronted X.N. X.N. fatally wounded Squid, and Jent and Manteau fled so she could do some more quick repairs on his H-Dial. He became Cock-A-Hoop, a chicken with the disorienting powers of a hula hoop, and hoped for the best. Abyss was hungry for more light, and blotted out the moon, deciding to destroy the world that exiled it by stealing the sun and its' light next. Abyss spawned small nothings, and Squid, while dying, gave Manteau advice to convince X.N. to help Jent turn them against Abyss to destroy him. Abyss perished, and from within him emerged the shadow from the H-Dial line that Manteau and Jent had previously glimpsed while using their powers. The shadow was another H-Dial user, and disabled X.N.'s dial, causing her to fall to her death. Jent told Manteau the shadow would probably come back for his dial.
(Dial H #6) - Jent and Manteau shared the H-Dial, and when Jent dialed Chief Mighty Arrow, Manteau refused to let him leave the house barring a real emergency because he looked and talked like a racial stereotype. She used to take pictures of every hero she transformed into, and she showed him rejects that she refused to be seen as in public, like Doctor Cloaca and Captain Priapus. He asked when was the last time she went out as anyone but Manteau, and she said she enjoyed being the Prime Mover, but the Mover's personality and memories were still stuck in her head after she turned back. They saw a news report on a fire in a neonatal ward, and Jent was ready to leap into action, but the firemen already had it under control. Jent craved action, but Manteau told him to stop whining. Terrorists attacked an interfaith conference, but Arrow's horse Wingy stopped them by himself using his droppings to pelt the terrorists. A supervillain appeared in Littleville just as Jent's powers faded, and Manteau took care of it. she said they had to talk because her online research hinted at the presence of another H-Dial.
(Dial H #7, 8) - Jent and Manteau traveled the world seeking information on the H-Dial, and alternated using their dial for heroics. Jent preferred street level crime, while Manteau preferred going after corporate crimes. They learned of a group of H-Dial worshippers in Paris, and after Manteau showed her power to their leader he revealed that there was supposed to be another dial in a lost outpost of Atlantis. Manteau became the Planktonian to survey the sunken outpost, and found carvings of the H-Dial, and evidence that a team had stolen it from the outpost. Keeping abreast of superhero news they learned that a number of new heroes were popping up in Canada, and decided to investigate. Jent was still thrilled with travelling the world, never having imagined such adventure in his old life. As Flame War Jent started to lose it again, remembering the heroes adventures with his superteam The Insult. He found Mason Jones, the Canadian H-Dial user, who was very inexperienced. After a brief fight the Canadian military extracted Jones. Jent's powers faded, and he met another superpowered member of the Canadian military, the Centipede, who easily took away his H-Dial.
(Dial H #9, 10) - Centipede said he knew all about the H-Dial, and how to use it, but couldn't dial a hero. Manteau showed up to retrieve the dial, becoming Minotaura and fleeing with Jent. She reverse-dialed back to normal, and told Jent she had no idea how he kept his identity in hero form. He replied that he was the tough guy, and she was the brains, but she admitted he was pretty smart to. With the Canadian government out for them they knew they had to go underground. They discovered the location where Centipede and Jones operated from, and Jent broke in as the Glimpse. Centipede staid back, wanting to watch two H-Dialers in action and test some of his theories as Jones became the Bristol Bloodhound. Jent found that Jones obeyed his commands to help him escape, and back at a rendezvous with Manteau Jones turned back to normal, but was near comatose, the dial having done a number on his head. Jent and Manteau figured out that he was dialing 7433 (SIDE) to become a superhero sidekick needing orders from another superhero. They planned to test out the S-Dial together, and Jent said he'd be the sidekick because he completely trusted Manteau and her experience. They were a great team, with Jent as sidekick Copter, but she wanted to make sure Nelson had his own free will, and told him to choose what to do next, so he kissed her.
(Dial H #11-13) - In their superhero forms Jent and Manteau made love, and when Jent woke up he was flustered at having slept with such an older woman. Manteau wanted to talk about it, but he wanted to go off crimefighting, and dialed the Flash, realizing the H-Dial may have been stealing powers from real heroes. He used his superspeed to search all of Central City for the Flash, but couldn't find him. Manteau told him the legend of ancient Mesopotamian H-Dial Laodice, killed by Bumper Carla, a heroine whose powers she stole. Jent said they needed to consider the moral implications of stealing other heroes' powers, and the potential harm. Their conversation was interrupted by Centipede, accompanied by the Fixer, who he'd summoned from the Exchange, the extradimensional home of the H-Dials. The Fixer was the one who deactivated Manteau's original dial, and he chased them across the entire world to fulfill his function of depowering their dials. Centipede and Fixer fought, because Fixer wanted his help, but didn't want him touching Jent and Manteau's dials. The Dial Bunch, a group of H-Dial users, and Open-Window Man, were seeking out Jent and Manteau, and rescued them. . 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.
(Dial H #14) - 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 & Mateus Santolouco.
Manteau had a cameo in Dial H #1.
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