Black Hammer - Jeff Lemire
- Secret Origins - Six superheroes, after defeating the
Anti-God, are mysteriously zapped into a small town somewhere, possibly
another dimension, where there are no superheroes and something is very
off. The town seems constructed, unreal, and there's a barrier locking
them in. Two of the group, however, seem to know more than they let
on, Sometimes the characters are a little too on-the-nose derivative,
but the story is intriguing, suspenseful, and mysterious. [5]
- The Event - When the deceased Black Hammer's daughter arrives to find the heroes who vanished all those years ago, things start to get dark. Madame Dragonfly reveals herself to be more in control of the situation than anyone realizes. As Lemire lets a little fact here and there slip about the heroes' past and current situation, you want to keep turning the pages. [5]
- Age of Doom Part I - Black Hammer's daughter, now the new Black Hammer, travels through a limbo of story (some of it a thin pastiche of legacy or Vertigo characters) before breaking free of the spell that kept the team in the small town. But if they return to Earth, the Anti-God may return as well. At this point the series has, perforce, lost a bit of its mystery, but Lemire is still on target with his exploration of comic book tropes. [4.5]
- Age of Doom Part II - With the characters in another Earth, some with their memories and others without, Black Hammer and Walky-Talky try to get the team together. Colonel Weird travels to a limbo of unused characters and teams up with a humanoid insect detective; some of Barbalien's backstory is revealed; and the team confronts Dragonfly. [4.5]
- Reborn Part I - Lucy tries to balance being Black Hammer with having a family, despite her crumbing marriage. Alternating between 1986 and the current age, Lemire shows how Lucy's story comes together, even as Colonel Weird forces her to make a terrible choice. [4.5]
- Reborn Part II - When a mad scientist from an alternate dimension threatens to wake Anti-God, Black Hammer joins forces with Skulldigger to find their dimension's Dr. Andromeda and stop him. Meanwhile Weird finds a cabal of alternate versions of himself and tries to fix things. This continues to be a brilliant, suspenseful love letter to comics (with a very deep hat tip to Kirby), full of surprises and thrills. [4.5]
- Reborn Part III - Lucy meets the evil version of her father, who tries to convince her to join him; meanwhile her lost family are found in limbo by Inspector Insector, and they go to the "real" Earth, our Earth, where the Black Hammer team are living in peace. Weird asks Lucy to continue the fight, but having found her family, she may stay on Earth for good. [4.5]
- The Last Days of Black Hammer - This volume tells the story of Joe, the original Black Hammer, and how he tried to balance life between his wife and daughter, and continuing the fight as the world's premier hero. When Anti-God comes, the team decide to go down fighting; this obviously takes place right before the events of book one. Joe and Lucy's dynamic mirrors that of the grown Lucy with her husband and kids. This volume isn't as dynamic or startling as the main story, but it's nice to see how it all unfolded before the farm events. [4]
