The terror of spiral city!
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Lemire
Art: David Rubin
What They Say:
Lucy’s search for her missing father–the famed superhero the Black Hammer–leads her to his greatest enemy of all: SHERLOCK FRANKENSTEIN!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While I could easily see a series like this going on for a dozen issues and weaving a lot of tales, I’m glad Lemire and Rubin have kept it to just four. It gives it a little more meaning and it brings things to a conclusion with our title character that segues into the previous events of the main Black Hammer series. It’s simply that the team here has done such a great job of introducing neat characters, settings, and arcs without a lot of space overall that I want to delve more and more into this world. There’s plenty of familiarity to longtime comic fans to be sure with what it does, and we’ve seen these alternate takes on standard superhero universes before, but there’s just that extra edge that Lemire brings to the scripts and dialogue and there’s just something disturbingly wonderful about Rubin’s designs for it all that makes me grin like I’m discovering comics for the first time.
Lucy’s journey brought her to Sherlock at long last and that provides for the expected but enjoyable monologue piece – even if she’s frustrated with how he talks in the third person. Sherlock’s history going back to the late 1800’s is interesting, watching as he went from dying to immortal and then gifting the world with so many inventions while being a hero. That journey is fairly short lived overall with the death of one who cared for him, one that he couldn’t save, which turned him from one of a kind of classic adventurer type character into one filled with rage. That raged razed part of his time overseas before deciding for a fresh start in America in Spiral City, where he went in full out as a villain just as the age of heroes was beginning. The thrill of a challenge, something to distract himself from, made for an engaging career to watch and you know he had a thrill in it all while getting caught up in it.
Lucy’s peppering him with questions after the initial reveal is solid as she’s convinced he had something to do with her father’s disappearance and isn’t sold on his whole conversion from her to villain to secret philanthropist that’s retired. But what sets things in a really challenging way for her is the reveal of his discovering a new love in Gail and how that altered everything. The nod toward the change in the ages (golden to silver to tarnished bronze) factors nicely into it but the loss of Gail simply sucked the energy out of him once more like his first love. So getting to see him here in how someone like Lucy can find the right way – unknowingly – to poke him back to life and to do what’s needed is definitely intriguing. I really liked what Sherlock brought to this issue with how it expands on the world overall and his stories across the decades and just how much of a catalyst Lucy is for it all.
In Summary:
Serving as exploring more of the Black Hammer universe and some of how Lucy ended up where she is in the main storyline, this four-issue miniseries was a wonderfully fun trip down some of the intriguing avenues of the world. I enjoyed all of the characters and their quirks that Jeff Lemire bright to life with the dialogue and their stories. And I thoroughly loved the visuals for all of this with the weirdness of a lot of it and some utterly engaging and strong layout designs to move the dialogue through, especially in an issue like this. I’ve been a huge fan of David Rubin’s work for a while now and this simply cements it further and has me hopeful for some intriguing projects in the near future for him, both in this world and his own.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: January 24th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
