A hard fought ending.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Lemire, Ray Fawkes
Art: Matt Kindt
Colors: Sharlene Kindt
Letterer: Margie Enger
What They Say:
From the world of Black Hammer comes a truly gripping tale of war and intrigue! The Black Hammer Squadron comes face-to-face with the Nazis, the Soviets, and the aerial killer The Ghost Hunter in a final showdown to save the family at the center of the fight.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The concluding issue of this miniseries helps to cement it as the weakest of the spinoffs to date for the property. Which isn’t exactly a bad thing as the other miniseries and the core series are fantastic, which makes a weak link still pretty good. Ray Fawkes has a solid enough story to work with here but it still has this certain something that’s missing from making it compelling to me. Matt Kindt has some great designs and I love his approach to artwork in general, though it needs to be with a particular project where it’s really suited to it. This series definitely is one of those so it hits a good sweet spot there in exploring the past and present with what’s going on. There’s a solid team here but that little bit that’s missing is just disheartening.
The fight in the past takes up the bulk of the book, which is part of the frustration as I did want more with the survivors in the present that we’ve seen so far. The final battle here outside of Vienna in the closing weeks of the war is the kind that goes unnoticed, as they say, since it’s focusing on the Black Hammer group and their fight against the Soviet machines while everyone is after the Greenbaum family. I do like that the Greenbaums will eventually become something more that ties directly into the main series as it’s a nice bit of foundational background. The fight itself is pretty good but with the way everyone has split apart at this point it’s definitely a book you want to read after re-reading the three previous issues so that it all comes together smoother. But there’s lots to like with the back and forth of it all and just how Hawthorne goes up against the Ghost Hunter with a hugely creative and dangerous idea.
The book does a good job of giving us some creative action sequences while making those involved, like JP, really feel like they’re struggling with what’s happening and doing their best to complete the mission. Hawthorne is the most fun to watch as he gets up into the sky without a plane and the whole aspect with Ghost Hunter, presented so white with his design as well, that you can feel the incredulousness just ooze out of him. This all serves to give the final pages in the present more weight, and it does, but it felt like we really needed just a bit more for it all to be really cemented as they go to the ceremony to celebrate this quite but pivotal moment in history. But it does have the right tone and feeling for those that have survived something so horrific and are attempting to find themselves in a place to honor it with the range of people that have survived because of Hawthorne’s actions.
In Summary:
I love the Black Hammer world and exploring some of the events in this time period of 1945 is definitely intriguing. It’s going in a very different way than the other spinoffs had and it covers different material than the ongoing series has as well, giving it a chance to really stand out as something unique but key to larger events. I like that this shared universe is growing and we’re getting a range of artistic talent to interpret it so that it’s not just a singular unified look, something that Kindt isn’t with his style. It’s fully appropriate here and makes for a strong storyline. This is one that I do think works a lot better when you can just sit and read all four issues in one sitting for it all to tie together more clearly. That said, I had fun with the run and hope for more stories from the past and with this team.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: June 5th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
