Or a movie starring a happy-go-lucky do-gooder who is depressed by the current trend of dark and gritty heroes but feels compelled to adjust to the changing times. Imagine a superhero movie that acknowledges it’s a reboot with a new lead actor. That meta commentary is not easily achieved, but when it works well - and Black Hammer works so damn well - the result is truly spectacular. It was a slasher flick about slasher flicks. Sure, Scream was a great slasher flick, but it was more than that. In a way, it’s like the Scream films and how they satirize horror movies. Why Black Hammer Deserves to Be the Next Superhero Cinematic UniverseIn the truest sense, Black Hammer is not a superhero universe like Marvel and DC, it’s a superhero universe about Marvel and DC. Want to hear about another rad indie comic? Check out this video on the dark fantasy saga Monstress:
Black hammer series#
You start off feeling like you already know them and the series uses that to its advantage. The heroes in the pages of Black Hammer - Abraham Slam, Golden Gail, Colonel Weird, Madame Dragonfly, and Barbalien - are all homages to classic, popular comic book heroes. It weaves through different eras and cliches of comic books to tell a story that feels familiar (because it is), but also wholly unique. It’s an exploration of superhero comics and their history. The second and most important distinction is that Black Hammer is not a superhero comic book, but rather a comic book about superheroes. You could easily see Black Hammer unfolding more like True Detective, a carefully-plotted story that develops through a mixture of past and present events. It’s not just another Marvel or DC clone, despite its fantastical setting and crazy adventures. That, coupled with the slow-burn mystery, make it perfect for a shared-universe adaptation. Action takes a backseat in Black Hammer and Lemire and Ormston instead focus on the people behind the masks. What Sets Black Hammer ApartNow, Black Hammer is very, very different from your typical superhero comic in two distinct ways. Lemire and Ormston don’t stick to one lane they let Black Hammer play in the vast world of superheroes and nothing is off limits. Any issue centered on Colonel Weird feels like a trippy Grant Morrison comic cranked to 11. There’s an issue of the main series focused on Golden Gail - a reverse Shazam-type character who says a magic word and turns into a superpowered child - and her desire to give up superheroing so she can just smoke, drink, and relax it’s funny and a great play on the typical hero worship narrative. The recent one-shot Black Hammer: Cthu-Louise was a gut-wrenching tale of teenage angst and horror.
Black Hammer is peppered with Lost-style flashbacks to the characters’ days of high-flying superheroics and it has produced a handful of miniseries that help flesh out the world and its colorful cast. How they got there and why they are trapped is a mystery that slowly unfolds over the course of the series. A team of superheroes find themselves trapped in a small town after an epic battle with a Galactus-type villain called the Anti-God. At first glance, Black Hammer seems like a big, bold superhero story.