S-P-L-I-T - The Fracturing of 2 Dimwitted Dogooders

The power of the H-Dial of Earth-One and its Earth-Two equivalent were powerful enough to transform ordinary men into extraordinary individuals. Two such individuals used their daring devices to actually split themselves into two separate, distinct individuals, motivated partly for good but mostly for love. Or, at least, what they perceived as love... puppy love.

Robby Reed was the resident superhero (well, superheroes) of Middleton Colorado on Earth-One, and had several adventures as various costumed characters, During a summer job as a waiter, Robby briefly forgot about his H-Dial due to a romantic obsession he had with a girl. Later recalling its existence, Reed used it to transform himself into some of his past identities. Only this time, its disues turned him evil, until Plastic Man defeated him.

Later, Robby tried to stop an invading alien from pillaging his world of historic artifacts. During this battle, Reed was tricked into standing on a trap that would unleash all weaponry upon the planet if he moved. Dialing S-P-L-I-T on his H-Dial, he transformed into both a hero and an evil version of himself. While the good side defeated the alien, the malevolent Robby deactived the trap and the dial. This led to both Reeds losing memories of each other and their past lives.

With his brilliant mind, Reed created a series of cloned supervillians, which he unleashed on hero-Reed's two new heroic protégées, Vicki Grant and Chris King. The pair helped Robby regain his sanity and good nature.

On Earth-Two, the mysterious Burp the Twerp* sought the affection of a girl, and used his amazing abilities to transform both his head and body into a stunning looking man. The unfortunate side-effect of this was to leave the original Burp alone once more, without true love by his side. He stayed noble.

Interestingly, the man whom Burp transformed into bore a striking resemblance to another man representing Eliminations, Inc. This man assisted on the defeat of the Justice Society and was the Earth-Two counterpart of Professor Ivo. Ivo was the man who created a synthetic humanoid named Amazo who could replicate all the super powers of most members of the Justice League of America. And Amazo's fashion sense, with various gaudy stripes, bear a striking similiarity to those of The Twerp!

However, although imitating some aspects of one another, it is evident that Amazo’s counterpart on Earth-Two was Akhet, created by the predecessor to Eliminations, Inc., the former government brain trust known as the Binary Brotherhood.

*"Burp the Twerp" was quite possibly the cartoon creation of Robby’s counterpart Scribbly Jibbet, which tapping into the metaphysical energy in his newspaper's office .

Comic Cartoonists Created Costumed Crimefighters

Nick Stevens* was an aspiring young artist while still attending Fairfax High School. His primary interest was in creating superheroes for his handmade comicbooks. In 1982, he became friends with fellow students Vicki Grant and Chris King, who themselves were superheroes thanks to the power dials they mysteriously inherited a year earlier. He, and they, discovered that somehow his creations influenced the dials, causing Chris and Vicki to transform into those specific heroes and heroines. After briefly being mentally manipulated by the mysterious Master to use this ability to manufacture supervillains, Nick regained his senses and helped his schoolmates. 

It was then revealed that the Master was really Robbie Reed, the original Dial H for Hero. After dialing "S-P-L-I-T" in order to become both himself and a superhero in order to save Earth-One, this turned him evil. His heroic alter ego created the two additional power dials then given to Vicki and Chris, after which he was hunted down by Reed. After regaining his sanity and morality, Robbie bequeathed his Dial to Nick. Stevens remained a creative civilian instead of a costumed crimefighter.

On the parallel planet of Earth-Two, another young cartoonist was himself heavily involved with actual superheroes since the 1940s. This lad, Scribbly Jibbet**. lived in a neighborhood where his own younger sister Sisty and her best friend Dinky were secretly the Cyclone Kids***, sidekicks of local superheroine Red Tornado****... herself Ma Hunkle the mother of Dinky. During their various adventures, Scribbly tapped into the metaphysical aspects of his reality through Earth-Prime artist Sheldon Mayer whom they all met.

Among Scribbly's greatest inspirations towards his career chronicling costumed crimefighters was Superman, and years later the revived Seven Soldiers of Victory who returned after having disappeared for decades into past eras. This led Scribbly in his late 40's into a job at Metropolis News, illustrating the city's many prtoectors such as the Man of Steel, the Soldiers, Power Girl and some members of the Justice Society. Jibbet also supplemented this with reporting on their tales as a beat reporter. This led him to become friends with the Shining Knight, who recruited Scribbly to be his partner and newest teammate of the Seven Soldiers, or Law's Legionnaires which was their other team name. During the Convergence event on the world of Talos, they saw the other Soldiers losing their lives save for the Knight and Star-Spangled Kid.

In the intervening years between his boyhood days and those as a Legionnaire, Jibbet ended up marrying and fathering a son named Scribbly Jr. His son became friends with Sugar Plumm and Cecil "Spike" Wilson who, like Sisty and Dinky, at times were secretly heroes... although these kids gained various abilities or devices. These kids, like Vicki**** and Chris, were local legends. 

* Nick Stevens’ Earth-Two counterpart was Bernie the Brain, a super-genius infant who created various devices which he and his friend Sugar and Spike used in several of their adventures.

** Robbie Reed's Earth-Two counterpart Scribbly Sr. may have been the creator of the cartoon brought to life known as "Burp the Twerp" which like Chris’ heroic Dial aliases was multi-talented. 

*** The Cyclone Kids Sisty and Dinky's Earth-One counterparts were Justice League junior members Paco "Vibe" Ramone and Cynthia "Gypsy" Reynolds.

**** Red Tornado aka Ma Hunkle's Earth-One counterpart was Katma Tui who like Ma was inspired by Green Lantern, with Katma becoming the Green Lantern of her space sector.

***** Vicki Grant's greatest power is her hairs' superhuman ability to stay as pigtales at all times!!!

Whatever Happened to Crimson Avenger... and Law's Legionnaires

When Lee Walter Travis decided to adopt the alter ego of Crimson Avenger, he stepped outside his comfort zone as a wealthy newspaper publisher and into the world of costumed crimefighting. As a member of Law's Legionnaires... also known as the Seven Soldiers of Victory, he and his sidekick Wing had several adventures alongside his teammates. The last was a monumental clash with the alien Nebula Man, which caused Lee and the other Soldiers except Wing to be sent to various past centuries. Now in ancient Mexico, Travis became amnesiac and believed himself to be the ruler of its native people. This effect, along with new superhuman powers, were caused by exposure to a fragment of the Nebula Man. When the Justice Society and Justice League retrieved the Legionnaires, returning them to the 20th century to battle their old foe the Iron Hand, Lee discovered that his dear friend Wing sacrificed his life to destroy Nebula Man.

After a brief retirement, in 1980 Lee resumed his heroic career as Crimson Avenger defending Metropolis, while in his professional career he had moved his newspaper the Daily Globe-Leader to that city and renamed it the Daily Planet. However, the next year, Travis learned that he was succumbing to an incurable condition brought on by the Nebula radiation. Deciding to have one final adventure, Crimson Avenger swung from the balcony of his hospital room, saving a lad named Umberto who fell from his mom's apartment window. Then, the Avenger arrived at his original destination, a tanker in distress due to crooks seizing it for its experiemental chemicals onboard. After subduing them and freeing the vessel's crew, he ordered them to abandon ship and flee on its lifeboat while he piloted the volatile vessel out of theharbor. By doing so, the Avenger saved countless citizens on the shores surrounding Metropolis Bay, and seemingly died.

However, due to the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Travis at the instant prior to his perishing was jettisoned from this time period to that of four years in the future. There, equipped with scuba gear he had donned to escape the ship once it cleared the harbor, he ended up arriving on a world now encased in an energy dome along with countless cities from across the Multiverse. 

Now residing with the city and its inhabitants on a new world named Telos, Avenger and his teammates protected Metropolis from various threats for an entire year before the dome collapsed. The ruler of this world sought to pit inhabitants of various cities against one another, and this involved the Crimson and some of his fellow Legionnaires battling the invader hordes of the Antimatter Universe of Qward known as the Thunderers. 

Ultimately, the Qwardians prevailed against the remained Legionnaires, with both Crimson Avenger and his teammate Vigilante dying after being overwhelmed by superior numbers of Thunderers. Prior to this, Stripesy succumbed to pneumonia, while his partner Star-Spangled Kid was heavily involved with Infinity Inc. who were fighting off a different attack on Metropolis led by Jonah Hex and his warriors of the future.

Perhaps the most tragic losses, however, were those of the Battling Bowmen, as Green Arrow and Speedy died back on Earth-Two in the waning hours of the Crisis, as they tried to save cartoonist/reporter Scribby Jibbet from a time-displaced pterodactyl, Instead, the pair fell to their death during this valiant effort, leaving it to the sole remaining active Legionnaire the Shining Knight to come to the rescue.

Meanwhile, on Earth-S and Earth-Four, the Earth-One Green Arrow and Speedy were battling an army of villians invading these parallel planets. Both of them, unlike their counterparts, survived.

Towards the end of the Convengence event, Shining Knight invited Scribby to join him as a new Legionnaire in place of his fallen comrades. As the journalist was chronicling his adventures on this alien world under the dome, he witnessed as Metropolis and all that resided within its border was returning once more to Earth-Two. During this transition, he noted that memories of the past year on Telos were fading away, as reality was once more being restored.

Now back on Earth-Two, the fallen Legionnaires Vigilante's body was found on the streets of Metropolis, surrounded by the city's new conquerors from the Antimatter Universe. And in a cemetary, a grave marked for Pat "Stripesy" Dugan left a mystery as to what happened to fell this strong Soldier. Sadly, the final selfless sacrifice of Crimson Avenger would be left untold, as memories faded from the collective conscience of man.

Those heroes remaining, such as Shining Knight and Scribby as well as Superman, Power Girl and others would undoubtedly have vanquished the Thunderers, sending them back to Qward. This then left those in Metropolis to rebuild their city once more, which had been devastated by natural disasters of the Crisis and warfare on planet Telos.

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Interestingly, the counterparts of the Crimson Avenger and Wing, Flamebird and Nightwing, had a similar eventuality. For years, they resided with their fellow Kryptonians within the shrunken bottled city of Kandor, kept safely inside the Earth-One Superman's Fortress of of Solitude. After a series of adventures wherein Superman and Jimmy Olsen adopted the aliases of Nightwing and Flamebird, a Kandorian version of Gotham City's Dynamic Duo of Batman and Robin, scientist Van-Zee and his assistant Ak-Var borrowed these costumes for their own crimefighting escapades.

Eventually, Superman and Supergirl were able to restore Kandor and its citizens to their normal height, on a planet orbiting a red sun known as Rokyn. On this world, the former Kryptonians no longer had superhuman powers, and revealed that this world shifted between universes from time-to-time. As such, Nightwing and Flamebird along with their city were kept in a transitory state, much as the Earth-Two city of Metropolis, between universes... only Rokyn's shifting state wasn't temporary as were those of the cities on Telos.

Wildly Wacky and Weird: Dial H for Hero and Burp the Twerp

Robby Reed was arguably the most powerful superhero of Earth-One, in so much as he had access to an immense variety of superhuman abilities at any time he needed it. Reed accidentally uncovered an ancient H-Dial in a cavern, which he deduced would grant him various powers when he dialed H-E-R-O. This led to dozens of adventures and scores of alter egos, each time he became someone different. Defending his home town of Littleville, Colorado, Robby would face various supervillains including his arch-enemy in Erick Bolton aka the Moon Man, who led a criminal organization known as Thunder. Given the location he lived, Robby never met more well-known superheroes, save one much later.

Despite defeating these cadre of crooks, the temptation toward criminality would tempt him. Robby didn't always use these gifts in the wisest manner, which led to as much trouble as what he had battled.

An individual on Earth-Two who matched the diversity of Robby's powerset was a man known only by two aliases, Burp the Twerp*, of the Super Son-of-a-Gun. The origin of his abilities, and his actual birthname, are unknown... although it does not seem he relies on a device like an H-Dial to manifest these metahuman attributes.

Unlike other mystery men of the 1940's, Burp kept mostly to himself while being preoccupied in some mundane misadventures. However, on at least two occasions, he encountered Plastic Man. And like Plastic Man, Twerp could contort his body into various shapes and likewise favored a red and black costume during his capers.

Robby had himself once device dialed himself into a clone of Plastic Man, a version of whom also lived on Earth-One and had similar tales as that of his Earth-Two counterpart. Shortly after this, the original Plastic Man came out of retirement and assisted Batman on several cases, reestablishing himself once more as both a superhero and a law enforcement officer.

As for Reed, after several successful tales, his situation started to turn dark. First, his evil side manifested when the pitch of a jet booster used by criminals affected him in his heroic personas. This led to partial amnesia, wherein he forgot he had possessed the H-Dial, and when he suddenly remembered his psychke was too fractured to wield the power without becoming corrupt. After this occasion, Robby attempted to resume his heroic activites, and while attempting to save Earth was forced to dial S-P-L-I-T on his H-Dial so he could be two places at once, which led to the creation of a superhero and a supervillain.

As for Burp the Twerp, he would later appear once more in the company of Plastic Man and Plas' partner Woozy Winks, having come to be obsessed with his fellow shape changer. Noticing that the Super Son-of-a-Gun was stalking his pal, Woozy confronted the creepy contortionist and discovered that... but for his lack of attention span... Burp was a serious threat to not only Plastic Man but all other costumed contemporaries. That said, Burp left the pair once proving his point.

In one tale, Burp sought to marry a woman he had been pursuing for quite some time. When she rejected him due to his appearance, he displayed the ability to change heads, though now having handsome features he found she still wasn't satisifed. Next, in his bag of tricks, he pulled out a more fit physical form, which she definitely approved of, and accepted his marriage proposal. However, the original head of Burp recognized this and reasssembled his old body oce more, realizing he was "too good for his own good". This occasion seems to indicate that perhaps he was an artificial life form, such as an adaptable android.

Between the occasion when Robby first turned evil and when he dialed S-P-L-I-T, after recovering from amnesia and regaining his dial, he encountered the actual Plastic Man while acting out some criminal tendencies once more. Plas fought Robby in various forms, including Robby as Plastic Man II once more. After defeated Reed, Plas took possession of the H-Dial to keep the lad from abusing its power. Robby somehow recoved the dial later on, perhaps after Plastic Man deposited it with the law enforcement agency he was working for. It was at this point, when he split himself in two, that he created two versions of himself. Unlike Burp's handsome and original bodies, each of which was still inherantly good, Reed's two bodies were diametrically opposed. One was good, and the other evil. The evil version disposed of the good version, but not before that good version created two new H-Dials with power limitations that would prevent their inheritors from turning evil. These two, Vicki Grant and Chris King, carried on a various superheroes, fighting the artifical supervillains created by Robby's evil Master persona. 

Eventually, Reed regained his sanity and retired.

*  Burp the Twerp was quite possibly the cartoon creation of Scribbly Jibbet, the doppelgänger of Robby Reed, tapping into the metaphysical energy in his newspaper's office to bring Burp to life.

Dial "Q" for Quick: Spelling + Math Equals Adventure!

Robby Reed came upon an alien dial which, when he learned to transcribe it, allowed him to "Dial 'H' for Hero", or so the saying goes. Johnny Chambers acquired from his guardian Professor Gill the means to access a formula making him a superhero. These various formulas in Earth-Two's universe provided a wide range of superhuman abilities, similar to the dial's letter combinations would on Earth-One. However, it was another individual who mirrored Reed in all his strange forms, just as another crimefighter had mirrored Quick's speed superheroics. 

Robby's counterpart on Earth-Two, was young artist SScribbly Jibbet and his wondrously wacky and weird fictional creation known as "Burp the Twerp" aka the Super Son-of-a-Gun. While not relying on a formula like Johnny Quick or Mister Reed, the variety of superhuman abilities manifested by Burp was matched only by Robby. The origin of Burp's powers has never been revealed, although it was later shown that he and his world's Plastic Man had met on at least two occasions while comparing their powers. Although Burp could shapechange into elastic forms as well as displaying powers of other superheroes, his lack on intellect drew his attention away from serious use of his gifts to protect others. As for Johnny's cosmic twin, that would've been the equally quick speedster known as Kid Flash, nephew of Earth-One's Flash.

Robby once transformed into the Earth-One version of Plastic Man. On a later occasion, Reed’s evil persona manifested as a faux Plastic Man who battled the original pliable protector of his world. Robby later split into a hero and villain persona, before regaining his sanity after giving H-dials to two other teens... Chris King and Vicki Grant. 

Various alphabetic and alphanumeric combinations allowed these Robby and Johnny to become something more. Among these were the following awesome abilities:

H.E.R.O. and 3X2(9YZ)4A  unleashed superhuman power for good. 

O.R.E.H. and Z25Y(2AB)6 returned an individual to normal again, 

V.I.L.L.I.A.N. and 3X2(9YZ)4AX turned one into an evil superhuman.

H.O.R.R.O.R. and 4G-7E(3X3W)6X gave one a monstrous physique.

H.E.R.O.I.N.E. and ZYM04N13/1 always granted temporary powers.

S.P.L.I.T. and 5x3(99ZY)444AB provides extra abilities.

H-I-D-E-Y-O-U-R-S-S-E-L-F and 6x4(18yz)8A - helps to conceal these formulas’ powers.

Several undocumented combinations yielded similar effects.

After a series of adventures, Reed gained amnesia after he had saved Earth-One from destruction by dialing S.P.L.I.T. in order to become two individuals, the Wizard who flew off to defeat the villain behind the death trap, and the Master who ingeniously deactivated the global bomb. It was then realized by both individuals that the Wizard possessed all of Reed's inherent good, and the Master all his inherent evil. While the Wizard developed two more power dials like Robby's original dial, the Master slayed his good-nature clone. An evil seed then took root.

These two power dials ended up in the hands of Vicki Grant and Chris King, a pair of high school students in Fairfax who had a more substantial career in their various H-Dial alter egos than had Reed himself. Later, they discovered that they were heirs to a legacy, the locket that she wore and the watch that he wore originated from Robby Reed himself. As the Master, Reed attempted to reclaim both H-Dials using artifically created supervillains, before finally coming to his senses and forsaking evil. Any further career Vicky and Chris had as superheroes would be shortlived.

On Earth-Two, the power couple was the infants known as Sugar and Spike. Born Sugar Plumm and Cecil "Spike" Wilson, the blonde haired girl and red haired boy were instant friends since their first meeting in 1956. Dozens of their adventures, or rather mis-adventures*, were chronicled until 1971, and on a few occasions the pair briefly gained superhuman powers. For instance, on one occasion they were subjected to a size-altering ray that could shrink or enlarge them, another time to a volume X which gave Spike abilities comparable to those of Superman. On yet another occasion, a young brilliant frenemy of theirs developed a Tornado Tot costume for himself, which the kids borrowed while pretending to be the new superhero.

Tornado Tot was no doubt inspired by a previous superhero, Ma Hunkle aka the Red Tornado, who had operated in their neighborhood back in the early 1940s. In fact, Sugar and Spike eventually met the lad who told her tales through his artwork, Scribby Jibbett, who was now himself a father to Scribby Junior whom they met one fine day on the beach. While the devices they stumbled upon were seemingly unrelated, they were perhaps based on the same premise as Johnny Quick's mathematical formula. As for these kids, they later grew up to become professional investigators of strange phenomenon, perhaps inspired by their own past.

* As far-fetched as some of Sugar and Spike’s toddler tales were, this was matched by those of the younger versions of the Earth-One Superman and Wonder Woman, when they were Superbaby and Wonder Tot in Smallville and Paradise Island.