The start of the truth being revealed?
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Lemire
Art: Dean Ormston
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Todd Klein
What They Say:
As new Black Hammer Lucy Weber fights her way out of this gritty new dimension, she finds herself caught in Hell itself and up against trickster demons, Satan, and a bizarre emo god.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Age of Doom has definitely had a strong couple of issues to start its run with and it’s only adding to that here. The series has done some fun things from the get go in providing nods to a range of different types of comics, genres, and periods over the years and Jeff Lemire is playing some fun takes on all of them while weaving a thoroughly engaging story. That continues here and we get to see Dean Ormston deliver even more great artwork, particularly as the cast of the Dreamland is revealed and leaves you wanting more of this incarnation of a familiar property to play with.
Time with the main group is split here as only a couple of them are getting attention. Abe’s off trying to square things with Tammy over Earl and it’s welcome that they do get to actually come to some understanding with what happened and it’s all quite reasonable even with how bad it went. Similarly, Mark heads off to visit his priest crush in order to say that he knows his feelings are real and he’ll be ready when he’s ready but they dovetails into a quick romantic interlude. Good pieces for both of them but it’s all pulled apart when we’re made to realize that it’s Madame Dragonfly and Colonel Weird that are pulling all the strings within this world and she’s orchestrating these events to mollify her friends. I’ll still call them that because, even though she’s threatening the good Colonel over this, they’re both doing this to protect the rest from something bigger out there. There’s a reason for all of this to be revealed.
Lucy’s story is one that’s definitely fun as we see her and Jack continue their journey to try and find a way out for her. Ending up in Dreamland, with all of its references to the Sandman comics in the right way, we see how Lucy deals with being distracted from her goal of trying to get out. There’s not much in terms of meaty material to this interlude but it is fun and expands upon the Black Hammer universe as a whole and gives Lucy her first time being called by that name. She’s figured out the truth of what’s going on and is looking to get back but is coming to terms with the role she has to play, including remembering that she’s both Lucy, reporter, and Black Hammer with all the abilities that comes with it. Seeing her growing into confidence with it and making for a big confrontation at the end is one of the bigger moments of the run.
In Summary:
Black Hammer adds another solid and engaging issue where more of the truth is starting to come out. It makes me hugely curious to go back and re-read everything (something I get from almost every issue) just to see how I missed with what was put into motion. I really like Lucy’s side trip adventure here as she’s being forcibly delayed but I also really enjoyed what we got from Abe and Barbalien with how their stories are going. There’s just so much to like that this issue left me grinning from ear to ear as we get closer to just what may be happening here.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: June 20th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
