Black Hammer Reborn #1

Black Hammer Reborn #1

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Written by Jeff Lemire

Illustrated by Caitlin Yarsky

Coloured by Dave Stewart

Lettered by Nate Piekos of Blambot

Now, it's twenty years later, and Lucy, and the world, have moved on. Living in the suburbs of Spiral City, Lucy is married and has children. But all is not blissful. Her marriage is falling apart, her job has reached a dead end, and for mysterious reasons, she hasn't picked up the hammer in years. But, as her domestic life begins to crumble, the secrets of the last twenty years, and the reasons Lucy really gave up being Black Hammer, begin to resurface, threatening her family, and the peace she has tried hard to find for herself.

I really like this issue and it does a brilliant job in setting up the story arc. Lucy is a great character and to see some of what we see in this issue we can understand why she’s reticent to pick the hammer back up. However there’s always more to the story than what we’ve seen so I look forward to seeing the whole scene unfold in the coming months. What does surprise me is how many people know Lucy’s secret and I look forward to learning why that is and who Amanda is or was.

I am enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development that we see is phenomenal thanks to the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react tot he situations and circumstances that they encounter. The pacing here is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way as it reveals the story, introduces the characters is exceptional work.

I am enjoying how we see this being structured and how the layers within emerge and grow. It is the layering that contains most of the characterisation that both impacts the main story arc as well as providing background information and all of which adds this depth and complexity to the storytelling. What we see and how we see it presented brings us inside Lucy’s head leading to a better understanding of her now. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is perfectly achieved.

I really like the interiors here. The linework is great and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work that we see is astonishingly rendered. The faces, facial expressions and body language really help further the characterisation too, plus i love the realistic skinny legs and thicker belly on Elliot. I like the backgrounds we see, I’d like to see more mind you, as they do wonders in enhancing the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels to bring us depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stellar eye for storytelling. The colour work is beautifully rendered as well. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is extremely well rendered.

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This is off to an exceptional start. There are so many different warring emotions happen within Lucy and you can tell she misses being the Black Hammer. She is going to have to deal with whatever went down that cause her to put the hammer down and walk away from being the world’s greatest superhero. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out and how and whom she turns to for this to happen. Then there’s dealing with her children who come from a line of superheroes and that will and determination is something that I’m sure is passed down through the bloodline and if it is then she’s going to have her hands even fuller than she already does. I mean they can’t all be The Incredibles.