Comic Info
Comic Name: Black Hammer
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Dean Ormston/David Rubin
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2017
Black Hammer #8 Variant
Reprints Black Hammer #7-11 and #13 (March 2017-September 2017). Lucy Webber has arrived on the farm in search of her father…but finds herself unable to remember how she got there? As Lucy dives into the mystery of her arrival, Barbie, Talky, Gail, and Abe remember the events that led them to the battle with the Anti-God. Things aren’t as they appear in town of Rockwood, and the world could be hiding a secret that might change everything!
Written by Jeff Lemire, Black Hammer Volume 2: The Event is a Dark Horse Comics superhero comic book. Following Black Hammer 1: Secret Origins, the collection features art by Dean Ormston and David Rubin. Issues in the volume were also collected in the Black Hammer Library Edition—Volume 1 and Black Hammer #12 is reprinted in Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil.
Dark Horse Comics always was the fringiest of fringe of the mainstream comics. Often published in black-and-white in their early issues, the series seemed to have a real disconnect for me. It wasn’t the classic superheroes of DC and Marvel nor were the titles often the edginess of Image (or at least post-1990s Image). Black Hammer is one of those examples that show that you can’t always judge a publisher, and that everyone has a shot to put out a great comic.
Black Hammer #13 Variant
The best part of Black Hammer seeing how Jeff Lemire weaves different comics into the whole mythos of Black Hammer (though primarily DC Comics). Within this volume you have a ton of multi-publisher comic themed story components. You have Black Hammer’s New Gods origin, Gail’s Shazam background, Weird’s Adam Strange adventures, Barbie’s police investigations like J’onn J’onzz, and Abe’s attempt to “Dark Knight” himself to fit in with other newer heroes. It is a series that is rewarding to longtime readers in particular, and I hope newer readers get the layers.
The story all still falls back to the events on the farm. Through Lucy’s investigation, you see that things aren’t as they seem and the real “origin” of the farm is starting to develop. It is a horrific realization in that the characters have all spent the last ten years forging friendships and relationships within the small town of Rockwood, and it all could be fake. It is like another cruel joke upon the joke of them being trapped in a small town and unable to escape.
Black Hammer is a lot of things. It is a mystery; it is an adventure book; it is a Golden Age comic; it is a post-modern comic. Lemire smartly crafts it in a way that keeps it entertaining and keeps you wanting to read. The volume ends on a cliffhanger so you know you will be back for volume three (as the title relaunches as Black Hammer: Age of Doom). Black Hammer 2: The Event is followed by Black Hammer 3: Age of Doom—Part 1.
Related Links:
Black Hammer 1: Secret Origins
