I’m not sure if I’m caught up on Black Hammer: Age of Doom. I might be one issue behind. I know the big reveal, but I don’t know if I missed one since. This issue is apparently a new arc—not really a jumping on point because, even though it’s accessible to new readers (the cast is starting over in a bland version of reality), none of it means anything if you’re not aware of what they’ve lost.
Writer Jeff Lemire splits the issue, unevenly, between next generation superhero Lucy Weber, previous generation superhero Abraham Slam, and then the Martian Manhunter stand-in, back on Mars and suffering their anti-gay bigotry versus Earth’s anti-gay bigotry. Lucy’s got the biggest part, then the Martian, with Abraham Slam basically a cameo. He’s a museum guard, living a lonely old existence, reading comic books and feeling out like something’s missing. Lucy’s working the phones in a pizza place, living a lonely younger person existence (she’s got a cat—in the most unrealistic moment in Black Hammer ever, the cat wakes her up three minutes before the alarm instead of an hour); Lucy does the narrating. The narrating is okay (though sans serif font for it is more than a little lazy and impersonal), because the whole point is the Dean Ormston art. He does the melancholy bland reality thing so well. Spiral City is amazing in the background and above the miserable people existing in this world without wonder.
Black Hammer has disappointed on multiple levels since its rather strong start, but it’s nice to see Lemire and Ormston (thanks to Ormston) able to turn in such a solid issue. Not sure it’s worth getting back into the book (and the tie-ins are a whole other thing), but Ormston’s still got it. And Lucy’s still a great character.
Not sure why we needed the Abe Slam cameo though. Yes, it gives Ormston some more stuff to draw (the museum interiors) and it adds some texture, but… the character’s entirely passive.
Black Hammer goes Vertigo. At least Lucy’s half of the comic. Not only does she go Vertigo and to Hell, she meets a former costumed hero-type who’s now in Hell as well. Lots of almost rhyming, sorry.
Not a lot of content in Age of Doom #1 but it’s sure nice to have Dean Ormston back on Black Hammer. He didn’t ever really leave but the book’s been on hiatus awhile and you don’t realize how much you miss his sad superheroes’ faces until you see them again.
This issue wraps up the second arc. I haven’t decided if I’m going to wait for the trade or just read the second arc again in one sitting, because Black Hammer has arrived. Lemire and Ormston do New Gods, they do Darkseid (sort of), they do a big climatic finish, and it all works. Even when it seems, for a panel, like the pace is off, all of a sudden it’s right back on.
It’s a bridging issue–though it’s still unclear what Lemire’s setting up. Lucy Weber continues her investigation, sort of recapping everything. Nothing new exactly, just some rather nice Ormston art. Barbalien has a showdown–both in the present and in flashback; it’s well-written, but it’s character development, not progressing the overall narrative. Again, some great Ormston art. Gail has the most dramatics, but not character development. Meanwhile Abraham sort of pops in to keep a couple of the other subplots alive. Black Hammer isn’t in idle, Lemire is arranging the pieces to move forward. It’s almost a mellow issue, even if it’s got a lot of emotional heft.