The merger begin!
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Lemire
Art: Caitlin Yarsky
Letterer: Nate Piekos of BLAMBOT
What They Say:
Lucy Weber has been searching for her father for years, and when he finally appears at her door, he turns out to be from an evil dimension–will she take his Faustian offer to be a family again or face off to prove there can only be one Black Hammer?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Black Hammer delivers some big material here as the multiple Spiral City’s are closer to a full-on collision and there are some amusing twists along the way. Lemire’s got a knack of expanding and introducing things while playing off the core material – and the classic comics of decades from long ago – and that makes for an intriguing turn of events. Lemire’s pick to work with Caitlin Yarsky was a huge high point for me and I’m glad to see them back on the book at this point. It made sense to change things up for Weird’s arc but having them back works well here as things escalate. It reminds me a lot of what the original series had, which I can attribute to Dave Stewart’s masterful use of color design, but it has a different kind of expressiveness that works just as well to amplify the situations.
The arrival of Lucy’s father, aka the original Black Hammer, has certainly changed the narrative for her. She knows that it’s not actually her father but one from a different timeline but that’s a hard thing to shake considering her life and how things have gone. What makes it more difficult for her is that he’s making it clear they can find her family and after what she lost there, that’s definitely a hard thing to let go of. She does have the others in the room trying to convince her otherwise, but as much as she wants to be the hero she needs to be, the reality is that the best things in her life came from when she put the hammer down. And the chance to get that back is really driving her at this point and Black Hammer knows exactly how he’s handling things to get her on his side.
But it does become clear quickly that he’s just doing this out of his own interests and that she’s just one of some number of Lucy’s he’s tried to sway to his side. It’s not exactly painting him as evil but he has such a distorted view of things that even when Lucy ends up at her real mother’s home, she makes it clear to Lucy that Black Hammer’s eyes are dead inside and not to be trusted. Even worse is that all of this is happening as things go very badly with Doc Andromeda and what was happening there as the various worlds are all now starting to bleed into each other and all sorts of versions are coming through, including comical ones, and that includes Inspector Insector as well which is opening up its own subplot that could be really fascinating and potentially quite emotional.
In Summary:
Black Hammer is going full crisis here and throwing all kinds of things at us that are definitely intriguing and, yes, comical. I do love that aspect as there’s a real Zoo Crew feeling here that delights me to no end. Lemire keeps his core focus on what Lucy is going through and that’s to the story’s advantage in a big way as we’ve been through thick and thin with her for so long now. Watching her face this problem of her “father” and what he represents is definitely not something she expected to face, though a subconscious fear may have been there. It’s a solid installment that ups the ante more and looks great as Yarsky gets to have a ton of fun with all the variations.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 23rd, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
