The struggles of youth.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Lemire
Art: Dean Ormston
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Todd Klein
What They Say:
The Golden Age heroes of Spiral City have been “erased” from existence! Banished years ago to a timeless farming community, the team are torn between accepting their fate and finding a way home! Chapter two focuses on child hero Golden Gail, whose un-aging body most deeply feels the tragedy of their new lives.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of Black Hammer was something that I had avoided knowing much about until I got my hands on it and that made for a really strong debut. Being able to go in unspoiled made it quite the journey of discovery even if there are a lot of familiar elements to it that longtime readers of comics know as it explores the way heroes change over the years. Lemire presented a lot of characters and an interesting situation from the get go and Dean Ormston just elevated it to a whole other level with distinctive but connective present and past arcs playing out for the characters. There’s a lot going on with the book and each chapter looks to unpack even more of it while pushing things forward.
While this installment touches upon most of the characters, a lot of its focus is on Gail herself and the pieces that are closest to her. We get a good look at her past here where she got her powers through the mysterious old man by saying the name Zafram, but it has the amusing twist of whenever she becomes Golden Gail through it that she reverts to her nine-year-old self. Watching as she thrills at it for the first few years and then becomes ashamed of it as she gets older only to really embrace it again as an old woman in the 1970’s, it’s something that psychologically would make for an engaging long term work all on its own. But it provides for a greater understanding of the problems she’s having now, being a woman in her late 50’s, stuck in the form of a nine-year-old without any powers and being forced to endure the ritual of the fourth grade and all that.
Dean Ormston really nails the design of this world as we see Gail’s origin and her heroics over the years as the settings change while also giving us real character evolution. Working that in addition to this particular place that they’re in and the mundane aspects of it is a great contrast that still manages to feel all very much of the same world. That we get a great origin for Gail and yet still have some great pages watching Talky-Walky and Barbalien working through another probe launch is great as that teases more of what’s going on. My favorite part has to be the interactions with Madam Dragonfly and the Colonel, though, simply because it’s such a weird pairing. And that’s before we see Dragonfly playing the role of Gail’s mother for a bit to try and smooth out the problems at school.
In Summary:
Black Hammer continues to build the larger narrative of what’s going on in the background as it explores the impact on the individual members. The connected nature of their lives is a thread that runs through it all, though this installment focuses mostly on Gail’s past as Golden Gail and what she has to do to manage in this world to keep up the lie. I like all the little bits and pieces of it and the small but important expansions we get on the larger storyline that’s playing out. While it’s a familiar story to be sure, it’s all about the execution that makes it work so well. And a big part of that is Ormston’s artwork as he simply delivers panel after panel with great designs, camera angles, and just the detail of it all to really expand the mood of it. It’s a very engrossing work that hits very quickly and has me eager for so much more of it.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: August 17th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
