It’s time to get Weird!
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Lemire
Art: Dean Ormston
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Todd Klein
What They Say:
Of the exiled heroes, only Colonel Weird can leave the mysterious farm where they’ve spent the last ten years. But the confusion of the Para-Zone may hamper their escape more than it helps!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While I can imagine that the whole character/issue angle is something that will frustrate some readers who want something a bit more expansive or even linear to some degree, Black Hammer is delivering something pretty familiar for me coming from an anime/manga background. But it’s also delivering a strongly layered work that’s peeling things back bit by bit and adding more nuance that in the end nearly requires you to go back to all previous issues in order to really take in the scope of it all. Lemire and Ormston are putting out some fantastic material here that’s playing in familiar but still very fertile ground with some nice little twists and homages to the past – this chapter in particular.
While we do connect with several characters here once again, the primary focus is on Colonel Randall Weird. His ability to go into the Para-Zone is something that obviously came with a cost to his mind and we learn exactly why he hasn’t used it to free everyone else from this place that they’re in because he’s seen the terrifyingly brutal cost of it. Working within different timeframes for his existence makes for a challenge for both readers and writer, but it’s so worthwhile with what we get here that it’s very easy to be drawn into his origin story, going back to the 50’s with Talky, and how he’s touched on so many things since in different forms of who he is. Weird is definitely struggling and those moments of clarity are enlightening, but we also see that Abraham and the others may have dealt with very different time period versions of him over their captivity here as opposed to a more linear connection to him.
The flashback pieces are what works the best for me in a way, however, because it pays homage to the really old school rocketships, the exploration and weirdness of it all, and just the mystery. Like other character arcs in this series it could easily carry its own run of things to explore (and I’m really hoping for a series of miniseries to explore these lives more, Lemire!) as it’s well populated and intriguing in terms of characters and locations. The whole Para-Zone also offers up plenty, but it’s more questions than answers even as I’m sure most long time comic book readers can fill in the basic gaps. Watching as Weird deals with all of this in the past, watching it in his present, while also having intriguing conversations with Gail and Mark along the way and a kind of truly beautiful moment with Abraham, well, it’s just strong all around.
In Summary:
Black Hammer continues to be a book where when a new installment comes in you really ought to pull out all preceding ones and just binge it. There’s a lot that you get the second and third time around with smaller details in both dialogue and artwork that it really shows what a layered and intriguing work that it is. You can read it with a superficial side and enjoy the story and not think more on it as well, but for those willing to deep dive you can get a whole lot more. Lemire’s nailing the script and characters but Ormston once again brings about such a fun and fascinating series of locations to dig into that I don’t know what character or period I’d love for him to just go wild with in a bigger and longer way. I love the old school science fiction pieces here as it’s just so fun and so sweet in its own way that it makes me grin pretty damn big. Great stuff once again that can be read almost as a standalone piece but also as part of a larger sprawling work.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: November 16th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
