REVIEW: Black Hammer Reborn No.10

String theory be damned, the family of Black Hammer’s just do not care. From Lucy to her pops, in this issue they end up cavorting the universe while Black Hammer original recipe does what he can to reunite his family so he can create his perfect universe. On the other side, Sherlock Frankenstein and Doctor Andromeda are shooting portals and collapsing the space time continuum, it’s like this entire corner of the Dark Horse Universe doesn’t care for the way things are. I can understand this though.

Looking at the way that retro Black Hammer is so focused on getting his family back, that even for a time he entices his daughter onto his side which could be easily seen as the side of the villain. I understand though, the loss of family can drive people to extraordinary lengths to gain that societal pillar back. I ended up getting my Jericho Drumm a few years back and to my avail, I stuck a little something to grind the gears of the Wheel of Fortune for a short time until I eventually gave in. I would love to stick it to any demiurge or karmic force outside of myself that plays with people’s lives and forges destinies, hypothetically. So to see retro-Black Hammer go to the lengths that he does, eliminating other iterations of himself to get to where he needs is haunting to see him empowered by so many hammers in one panel, but overall his reasoning for collapsing the space time continuum is the more sympathetic than Jet Li in “The One” or other stories that follow the same tune, where a person murders the alternate versions of themself to gain more power. Black Hammer is doing this to gain family so he doesn’t have to be consumed by the utter loneliness that is existence at its most base.

Lemire corrupts the star of the Black Hammer Universe , Dark Horse’s All – Might, simply with the threat of loneliness and I as an audience member can do nothing more than cheer him forward because that loneliness is shared. The callousness when he runs into Lucy’s mother, because she doesn’t agree with his mission is only seconded in power to when Lucy snaps out of her father’s selfish tirade and hugs her mother in a scene Yarsky and Stewart put together that would look lovely in a frame in the MOMA. That, and Inspector Insector hopping into a portal after beating down a Greek God in an effort to rescue Lucy’s son, who I could have sworn was vaporized in previous issues.

I know for certain I didn’t have to read those back up stories that were a prominent b-side a few issues ago, and I am happy to see that was not included at the end of this book. Side stories typically take away from focus on the main story, water down the importance of the A-side, so I’m glad to see that things are back to normal as much as they can be in this weird-ass publication that I never want to end.

Score : 4/5

(W) Jeff Lemire (A) Caitlin Yarsky (CA) Andrea Mutti