Any Ordinary Joes On The Other End Of That Line?

Something I've been wondering about while reading Dial H is whether there are any non-superhumans in the universe the heroes come from. We've never seen any. There are certainly cities, or populated places anyway, that exist in their world. Nelson had the lingering memory of Boy Chimney and his house-themed cohorts defending their city from the Snap Dragon. Bumper Carla's ally described her as the greatest hero of "The Fair", which could be a specific place. Like how the Tick lived in "The City".

Even so, we've never seen any of the inhabitants of these places except for the heroes.

When Bumper Carla made it to the DCU, seeking the one who took her power, she accused Laodice of killing many innocent people. Laodice didn't, not directly, but she did use a dial, and she did get Carla's powers, and so people died. We don't see these people, but Carla's willingness to accept punishment for killing Laodice suggests she wasn't lying, and her ally corroborated her story. Still, heroes could be considered innocent.

The reason I question the existence of non-supers in their universe is because you think one would have appeared at some point. Roxie and Nelson's dial isn't perfect. It works, but there's no method they can discern to control what they get, how long it stays, how quickly it leaves, and they can only maintain their sense of self through some difficulty (moreso Nelson than Roxie). The Canadian military's dialer seems to suffer from similar issues, especially maintaining a sense of self. Contrast that with the mysterious dialer who emerged from the Abyss. They controlled their dial effortlessly, switching between heroes in an instant, always getting the perfect hero for the task at hand, and never losing focus on their goal.

As Roxie noted, that's how it's supposed to work, but it isn't how their dial works. That being the case, why wouldn't they, at some point, dial up and get some random schmoe? Someone like Nelson, or whatever would pass for him in that universe. Yes, they specifically dial "H-E-R-O", but the dial isn't perfect. Still, even after Nelson's dial got shot up, and was only partially functional, the things he and Roxie dial are hardly what I'd call non-supers. Cock-a-Hoop, for example.

Which leads me to the possibility everyone in that universe is super. Maybe the world is nothing but constant battles between weird super heroes and villains. Each group of heroes has its own city and villains, and the innocents are shadows, pale shades to give them something to fight over, to protect or imperil. Like it's a game, and if the villains reaches Location X in a certain number of turns, then a certain number of civilians "died".

Think of the set-up Superman laid out for Bizarro in the animated series. An entire planet (empty) planet to protect. So Bizarro made a little city, and some fake people, and created some crisis whenever he was bored to "rescue" them from.

That may all be wrong, but the way the heroes are presented, both in Mieville's writing, and the various artists' depictions of them, makes something about them feel off. They're creepy, maybe even a little deranged in a way that makes it seem like commentary. Something I hope to expand on in the next few days.