By Dustin Cabeal

I was early in checking out Black Hammer, but then sadly fell behind on the series. Something told me that I needed to catch up before I let our “Best of” list roll out and so that’s exactly what I did. Fantastic. The best thing that Jeff Lemire has written all year (slash, whenever he wrote it) and has indeed made Dean Ormston a name to pay attention to in the future.

Now you could write off Black Hammer as homage and even say that its success only comes from decades of other comics, but hey that argument could be made about a lot of comics. What makes this story better than “just homage” is the way that Lemire dives into the inner psyche of his characters. Showing their frustrating current life, but then also the character’s not so simple superhero life.

All of this is nothing without Ormston’s artwork which just goes to show that Lemire and Dark Horse were absolutely right in waiting for him on the series. The grittiness of the art brings forth a realism of the story, but then also keeps it from looking like an average superhero comics. It’s darker than that, and I don’t mean in the inking or coloring from Dave Stewart, but the actual tone. If you haven’t checked out Black Hammer, then do so or as Chris on the site said, “it’s one of the year’s best” and he ain’t wrong.