By Zack Quaintance — Today’s Black Hammer Visions #1 marks a new evolution for the Black Hammer Universe, an understated superhero homage series masterminded by Jeff Lemire. This book is an anthology series, set to welcome a host of new creators to this world as they tell one-off stories about its people, places, and characters. In this first edition, comedian/celebrity comic fan Patton Oswalt teams with veteran comics artist Dean Kotz, colorist Jason Wordie, and letterer Nate Piekos.

This is an interesting comic from the start. The central characters are two childhood friends that we’ve never seen before, and they’re just civilians, in the sense that they are human people navigating a world of superheroes. Their connection to the wider Black Hammer world involves Golden Gail, a character who is essentially a reverse Shazam!, meaning that her resting form is an adult and when she says a magic word, she transforms into a super-powered young girl. The twist to the homage is that Gail has been stuck in her child form (due to reasons), leaving her looking like a kid with the appetites, experiences, and bitterness of an adult.

The central creative choice made in the conceptualization of this one-shot story is to keep Gail on the periphery, and it’s a choice I liked quite a bit. I won’t go into the dynamic between the two central characters, because it’s pretty emotionally rich and watching it unfold is a big part of what’s for sale in this story. I will say, however, that putting reader perspective outside of the heroes who are already themselves an homage layers the feel of this book in fantastic ways, freeing up the creative team to explore yet another depth of what it would be like to have heroes in an understated, emotion-driven world like the one we’ve gotten to know in Black Hammer.

Of course, so little of this works if Oswalt (himself a relative novice to the craft of making comics) wasn’t paired with such an able and experienced creative team. Kotz is fresh off a historical fiction murder mystery — Butcher of Paris — seamlessly shifting gears here to deliver linework that is equally capable in a mundane dinner as it is giving us snippets of Gails superheroics. Wordie, meanwhile, imbues the aesthetic of the book with colors that serve up a false sunshine, lighting that is a little too cheery in a way that perfectly emphasizes Gail’s plight and desperation. It all comes together quite well, with Piekos lettering pacing the eye through it.

In the end, it’s the character payoff that really makes Black Hammer Visions #1 shine (the one I don’t want to spoil for you — ugh, I know), which also makes it sort of hard to predict how strong the series will be moving forward, so specific is it to this one-shot and these characters. It’s a credit to this creative team, who made so many good choices, though, and it does leave me with a feeling of optimism as we wait for seven more one-shot stories from a lineup of creators that includes Geoff Johns (uh oh) and Scott Kollins; Chip Zdarsky and Johnnie Christmas (now we’re talking); and Mariko Tamaki and Diego Olortegui, among others.

Overall: Black Hammer Visions #1 is an understated and somber one-shot story that relies more on emotional character beats than superhero punching…just like all the other best stories in the Black Hammer Universe. Buy this comic without hesitation. 9.5/10

Black Hammer Visions #1

Black Hammer Visions #1
Writer: Patton Oswalt
Artist: Dean Kotz
Colorist: Jason Wordie
Letterer: Nate Piekos
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Patton Oswalt! An exciting reimagination of the Eisner Award winning Black Hammer series told by guest writers and artists such as Patton Oswalt, Geoff Johns, Mariko Tamaki, Chip Zdarsky, Kelly Thompson, and more of comic's top talents! Patton Oswalt joins artists Dean Kotz and Jason Wordie to explore the life of youthful super heroine Golden Gail on the Black Hammer Farm before the beginning of Black Hammer #1, and her struggle to maintain sanity as a middle-aged woman trapped in the unchanging body of a superpowered grade- schooler. Written by Patton Oswalt and drawn by Dean Kotz with colors by Jason Wordie!
Price: $3.99
Buy It Digitally: Black Hammer Visions #1

Read more great graphic novel and comics reviews!

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.