Lucy Weber, formerly the powerful hero Black Hammer, is struggling to keep her daughter from following the same path of heroism — a battle she seems destined to lose as the family is confronted with spatial warps, shark monsters and familiar faces from the past that threaten to bring more violence into their lives than they ever wanted. Let’s get reborn again with Black Hammer Reborn #2, written by Jeff Lemire, drawn by Caitlin Yarsky, colored by Dave Stewart and lettered by Nate Piekos.
Vishal Gullapalli: Shark Week may have just ended, but that’s not stopping Jeff Lemire from throwing his interdimensional sharks onto our comic pages! Of course, Skulldigger’s totally destroying them, but still — sharks are cool.
You know what’s also cool? Family drama about living up to one’s own potential as mythologized through the lens of the superhero. And we get that, too. Black Hammer Reborn #2 is officially cool. How’s that for a pull quote?
[Grote’s note: Slap that ish on the trade, Dark Horse, you coward!]
Mark Turetsky: I wouldn’t be able to come up with a better one if I tried. This comic has everything: flying Para-Zone sharks, teens doing drugs, Jeff Lemire’s patented parental angst…
Reborn at Last!
Vishal: I complained a decent amount about the first issue of this relaunch, and while I know the schedules of comics prove this isn’t true, I’d like to think that Lemire took some of that to heart. This issue was pretty much immediately more gripping and substantial than the previous, starting right away with two teenagers’ ill-advised excursion into the most dangerous part of town.
Mark: Yes, absolutely. And I thought the interplay between the modern and flashback stories in this issue worked a lot better than in issue #1. It was much more effective to see what Rose is up to rather than just having her being a petulant teen talking back to her mother. Also, I just have a soft spot for Skulldigger. Here, he’s leaning more on his Batman side than on his Punisher side.
Vishal: Yeah, I thought it was noteworthy that he seemed softened compared to his attitude in the Skulldigger + Skeleton Boy miniseries. He tries to reason with Lucy, explaining his worldview, and while I would be hard pressed to come away from a comic book thinking, “Yes, it’s OK to kill people,” I definitely felt more sympathetic to his side. There’s still something a little sinister about him, though — I’m wary of his leaving tokens to children, after the last time we saw him try to take one in.
Mark: Ohh, good point. I hadn’t considered his possibly taking Rose under his wing in the same manner as Skeleton Boy, but he’s definitely trying to recruit her. If she becomes the next Black Hammer, she’d be an incredibly powerful ally.
What’d you think of Skulldigger’s unlikely team-up with Doctor Andromeda?
Vishal: That really surprised me. I’m very much wondering what’s going on with Doctor Andromeda’s apparently new outlook. There are few things as haunting to see someone say as “I want you to remember me as I was. … Not as I will be.” What’s his gambit here? It likely has something to do with the Para-Zone incursions we’re seeing pop up everywhere, but beyond that?
My other thought about that may just be more wild speculation, but I wonder if Skulldigger gave anything to Rose’s friend Sarah. We don’t see her after Lucy comes to pick Rose up, and I’m wondering if that’s because she’s inconsequential or because we’re just not allowed to see her side of things yet.
Mark: See, my take is that Skulldigger was on the lookout for Rose personally. From what we’ve seen of Skulldigger in the past, he doesn’t seem like the kind of hero who’s just going to make sure some tripping teens don’t get into too much trouble. He’s more about beating up bad guys. His contact with Rose is tied to his past attempt to recruit Lucy, which we see in this issue.
I should also point out that if you’ve only read Doctor Andromeda in its previous incarnation as Doctor Star, the gauntlet thing might be a bit confusing. In Doctor Star, he got his powers from a cosmic-powered lamp, but that got changed to a gauntlet when the comic got retitled Doctor Andromeda, and they’re the same gauntlets that Skulldigger uses in this issue.
Vishal: Oh, that is actually something I didn’t know! The curse of copyright strikes again! This definitely changes how that entire interaction plays for me, I was a little confused by Lucy’s remark on the gloves. Doctor Andromeda’s obviously up to something, and I’m so fascinated by the fact that he’s already regretful of it.
Half a Person
Vishal: I think where the real core of the issue is for me is in Lucy and Rose’s conversation in the car. I love post-climax stories, the ones where the entire world along with our characters need to adjust to this new status quo where the conflicts aren’t simple good-guy-punching-bad-guy. Rose saying she only feels like half a person scratched that exact itch for me — it’s gotta be terrible for her growing up knowing her mom used to be a superhero, but isn’t anymore. She can feel the loss of her inheritance in a way that’s ripe for even further exploration.
Mark: Legacy is such a huge part of the Black Hammer story. Not only in the sense of Lucy carrying on Joseph’s legacy, but also Joseph carrying on the legacy of the lost world of New World. I think it’s important to remember that New World was destroyed when Joseph wouldn’t heed the call to defend it because it was Lucy’s birthday, so this whole balancing heroism with parenthood theme is a real strong one for a Black Hammer.
Vishal: This is such a unique dynamic in the superhero space, because of the omnipresence and inertia of the Big 2. Lucy’s relationship with being Black Hammer is so different from what we expect from superheroes, and that dynamic is something that I’m really enjoying seeing explored. And Rose’s relationship is even more removed from the “standard” that I don’t think there’s any mainline analogues I can point to. There’s the obvious resentment, but that sense of loss, of not being able to reach her true potential – that hits hard. I’m really interested in seeing how her Skulldigger encounter plays into that.
Mark: And Yarsky’s acting in that scene is so, so good! The way Lucy and Rose emote is just sublime. You can see the echoes of young Lucy in Rose’s passion, and the pain and resignation on Lucy’s face. In an issue where a man in a skeleton outfit beats up a shark with a metal skull on a chain, this argument between a mother and daughter is somehow the most visually compelling scene. More of this, please.
The Team-Up Nobody Was Expecting
Mark: Getting back to the central mystery, such as it is. The encounter with Skulldigger and Doctor Andromeda is one of those frustrating situations that comes up a lot in superhero comics where the characters flat-out refuse to communicate with each other. Or, at least, one side is trying to explain, “No wait, it’s not what it looks like” and not getting a chance to explain what’s going on. It’s so clear there’s something much bigger going on here, and if there’s one moment I found frustrating about this issue, it’s this one. I know they can’t just reveal the mystery outright, and we’re only in issue #2, but it’s the sort of trope that I just don’t think is used very well here.
Vishal: Yeah, I agree with that. I think there’s a way to seed intrigue and future payoff that doesn’t boil down to “I know but won’t tell you yet.” I am interested, but where the first issue was too vague with its mystery, this one got a little too close before backing off.
Mark: I’m not sure if it’s a red herring, but it really seems like Doc Robinson wants to prevent another return of Anti-God. If that’s the case, this becomes Black Hammer: Redux instead of Reborn.
Vishal: I’ve read enough of Heroes Reborn (the original, not the one from this year) to know that the two are often the same.
Dispatches from the Para-Zone
- I’m not sure how long it’s been since the first issue — the kids seem to have adjusted to their dad being out.
- Personally, I’m pulling for Lucy’s other kid, Joseph, picking up the hammer at some point. He’s got gumption, he likes big sandwiches. What’s not to like?
- The layouts in the Para-Zone part of town get a lot more groovy vs. the “square” parts of town. I dig it!
- Next issue’s cover has some sort of valentine feel — I wonder whose love is in the air.
- With her yellow top and green hairband, Rose isn’t quite cosplaying as Black Hammer, but she’s definitely bounding.
- With Doctor Andromeda’s cryptic talk of being seen as he was, and not as he will be, I can’t help but wonder if Lucy somehow killed a younger version of him on the final page of issue #1. If he’s “seen the pattern” and “seen what happens next,” we might be in for some time travel shenanigans via the Para-Zone.
Vishal Gullapalli is highly opinionated and reads way too much.
