Written by: Jeff Lemire
Art by: Dean Ormston and Dave Stewart
Publisher: Dark Horse
I look at most “normal” superhero comic books and see pages and pages of overstuffed clutter, of authors wanting their plot and their deep characters all at the same time. I get it, sure, but comic books aren’t novels; you don’t have pages and pages at your disposal to set scenes and moments. You have 20. Maybe a few more. Tense sequences are ruined by nonstop internal monologue, plot revelations are bogged down by exposition, and pacing is a mess of go-go-go-go!
Black Hammer isn’t a normal superhero comic. Black Hammer knows that you can’t cram both plot and character into a small space, and it takes the wise choice by opting for characters first.
Issue #2 of this comic is a thick, thick character piece, and it is wonderful.
The first issue of BH introduced us to a large cast of superheroes thrown into a…strange situation. All are old, some don’t have powers, and they’re all very much stuck. This plotline continues, but it largely takes a back seat to Gail, who was my favorite character last issue. She’s a 55-year old woman trapped in the body of a nine year old, and that is having a profoundly negative effect on her.
I’ve read a handful of stories that tackle body dysphoria, but I think this one does it the best.
And we don’t just get present Gail either. The issue opens up with her backstory, which is a nice mix of sweet and surreal, and then cuts to her getting on a bus to go to school, complaining and smelling of gin. The dichotomy is profound.
I could probably write a very large essay on why Gail is an amazing character, made all the better by the way Lemire and Ormstron/Stewart handle her. She’s an adult, a woman nearing retirement age, yet she looks nine. I know that; her fellow superheroes know that. I also know that it’s impossible to think of her as a 55 year old. It’s always, “Oh, that little kid is smoking cigarettes and talking about drinking gin.” “Oh, That little kid is swearing in a more bitter, depressed way than I do.” “Oh, that little kid is…” and so on.
It’s killing her on the inside.
This is the kind of plotline I occasionally have nightmares about. I don’t know what it is, but I find it captivating. The whole story could focus on her and do away with the superhero stuff altogether and I’d still be enthralled.
But then we have the superhero stuff, and that somehow manages to elevate her even further.
I suppose I should talk about the art—which looks quite nice—but I missed out on a lot of the old comics BH is working with. I know of the “Golden Age” as a term rather than a set of stories. I look at these pages and imagine what we’re seeing is heavily tied to that, of a simpler, happier time, and thematically I can do nothing but grin. Take the happy colors, the happy designs, and place fear and sorrow underneath. It’s wonderful.
That’s only a guess though, and not a very educated one at that.
I leave Issue #2 with a lot of questions, most of them involving the world and the ongoing plotline, but I’m far from unsatisfied. Yes, in a “normal” superhero comic we’d probably be much further along in our plot, but that’s to the detriment of “normal” superhero comics. How these characters are reacting and dealing with being stuck is far more compelling than why and how.
It’s what makes this comic absolutely amazing.
