What comes next is worse than death.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Lemire
Art: Dean Ormston
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Todd Klein
What They Say:
All is revealed when Lucy makes her way back to the farm from Dreamland, confronting the mastermind of their current situation. The revelations here will alter the fate of the Black Hammer family forever!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
When it comes to reveals that are a long time in coming, Black Hammer is one that certainly fits the bill. Jeff Lemire may have drawn out events more than some would care for as we get a big reveal here but for me it’s been about the journey, and that’s worked wonderfully well in creating this world, these characters, and what they’ve been through to date. And with so many issues of great artwork from Dean Ormston I’m not going to complain about things taking time to get there as he’s provided for some really great looking pages with this cast and the locations, including the more surreal aspects such as we had for Lucy recently and some of what Colonel Weird has gone through.
Lucy’s discovery of what’s going on has her doing the whole confrontation thing with Dragonfly while the Colonel hangs in the room in his own off-putting way. It’s a standard setup to start the push for the reveal that comes at the end after everyone is brought together. That lets the bulk of the book focus on that happening, with Abe and Tammy now back together and him finally revealing the truth to her – superhero suit and all. Of course, she just thinks it’s all a joke and looks forward to hearing the real truth later, but it’s good to see them back on the same page. The problem is that once that happens and we get Barbalien talking to Abe about his own luck recently with the priest, that has Abe wondering aloud if this place is working to keep them subdued and content here since they were talking of figuring out how to get out again. The tension is nicely played in this and sets the tone going into the back half.
The real catalyst beyond Lucy is seeing Gail tinkering with Talky only to accidentally start him up again, resulting in his discombobulated reveal that it was Dragonfly that betrayed them. And a pissed off Gail is a dangerous geal, which leads to everyone ending up there. The big reveal works wonderfully for me as we see how Dragonfly feels relieved in a way to not have to hide this anymore and fill them in on the reality of it all, though it’s just scraping the surface I’m sure, as we see where they really are. The why of it, the how of it, and the greater meaning behind it is still to be explored and this really feels like we’re getting to the start of the real story of what’s going on. The reactions, the uncertainty, and just how Dragonfly comes across throughout it made for a really good read.
In Summary:
Black Hammer: Age of Doom continues to give me exactly what I was looking for in it. While it could have drawn things out a bit more before getting to the reveal I’m glad it happened here because it throws everything into uncertainty and the way the core group reacts to what happened, the why of it, and what they may have just lost could be some pretty great material ahead. With so much strong work released so far from Lemire and Ormston, I can’t wait to see where they go next.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: August 22nd, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
