This makeshift family forms the heart of Black Hammer as each issue progresses we get closer and closer to the emotional truth of our heroes, exploring a specific part of comic book history to visualise that what is going on internally: Abe Slam represents a pulpy 1930s/40s crime-busting pugilistic hero out of step with the world around him Golden Gail, a Golden-Age Captain Marvel/Shazam-esque hero who, upon arriving at the farm, finds herself permanently trapped in the pre-teen body of her superhero alter-ego Colonel Weird is a Adam Savage/Captain Comet type of space adventurer cliché that soon develops into something both psychedelic and heartbreakingly tragic Barbalien, a Martian Manhunter/Silver-Age character who, in attempting to integrate himself into normal life, comes face to face with the ugly face of prejudice and repression and then finally, there’s Madame Dragonfly – an EC Comics/House of Mystery familiar who, after a curse from an old witch, finds her fate forever entwined with an old cabin with doors leading to places beyond the realm of man.īlack Hammer isn’t just a box-ticking exercise in nostalgia using the idea of a Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event to comment on the way such events now anchor the industry, Lemire and Ormston, literally take their heroes back to their roots (Superman went from a small town to the big city, Black Hammer does the opposite), recontextualising each superhero origin story to make the familiar seem strange once again. Trapped on a small farm in a rural town with no way to escape, they are forced to live ordinary lives, but the memories of their incredible past exploits complicate and exacerbate their current quandary. Taking place in the aftermath of an apocalyptic event, our heroes – Golden Gail, Abraham Slam, Colonel Weird, Barbalien and Madame Dragonfly – save Spiral City from a gigantic Kirby-esque beast known as the Anti-God but are cast out of their universe. That’s the conundrum answered by Black Hammer – a love letter to comics of yore by writer Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth) and artist Dean Ormston (Lucifer, Bodies) – which takes the genre’s past and reinterprets it into a complex story rooted in personal tragedy. Nothing is safe from its all-seeing, all-destructive wrath until, inevitably, everything is safe once again – but what happens to the heroes who don’t get to re-emerge six months down the line with a brand-new battle-hardened costume, back-story and outlook? What happens to the super guys and gals who get deleted by the continuity course correction? And just how do you make your apocalypse stand out in a veritable market of competing doomsday comic events? ![]() ![]() ![]() A celestial force, a cosmic god or whatever form the destructor takes, decides to grasp the carefully laid out plans of the DC and Marvel editors and seemingly tosses all that we know and love into the nearest bin. Every year, superhero comics decide to blow up the universe. Following the big news that Legendary have picked up the movie and TV rights for Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston's 'love letter to superhero comics' Black Hammer, there's no better time to dig in to the comic-book original.
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