The World of Black Hammer — Reading Order
Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston’s Black Hammer universe is relatively new, but from the sound of it, could be the next Mignolaverse for Dark Horse Comics. So here is a suggested (but not necessarily chronological) reading order that will be continually updated as new volumes are announced and released.
Secret Origins
- Black Hammer #1–6
- Black Hammer Giant-Sized Annual (Only included in the Library Edition)
Once they were heroes, but the age of heroes has long since passed. Banished from existence by a multiversal crisis, the old champions of Spiral City — Abraham Slam, Golden Gail, Colonel Weird, Madame Dragonfly, and Barbalien — now lead simple lives in an idyllic, timeless farming village from which there is no escape! But as they employ all of their super abilities to free themselves from this strange purgatory, a mysterious stranger works to bring them back into action for one last adventure!
Collected: Black Hammer Volume 1: Secret Origins, Black Hammer Library Edition Volume 1
The Event
- Black Hammer #7–11, #13
When a visitor from the outside world arrives on the Farm, looking for the Black Hammer and bringing news of Spiral City to its Golden Age heroes, everything changes. Her arrival stirs up old memories and awakens new hope in the marooned heroes and they make a new attempt to escape their strange prison.
Collected: Black Hammer Volume 2: The Event, Black Hammer Library Edition Volume 1
Sherlock Frankenstein & The Legion of Evil
- Black Hammer #12
- Sherlock Frankenstein & The Legion of Evil: From the World of Black Hammer #1–4
Twenty years ago, Joseph Weber became the Black Hammer. Ten years ago, Lucy Weber lost her father when he defeated Anti-God, saving Spiral City and the world. Two years ago, Lucy started looking for him. And she found more than she ever expected.
All answers seem to lie in Spiral City’s infamous insane asylum where some of its dangerous super-villain tenants reside. As she gets closer and closer to the truth she uncovers the dark origin stories of some of Black Hammer’s greatest foes and how they tie into the puzzle of what happened to Spiral City’s greatest hero.
Collected: Sherlock Frankenstein & The Legion of Evil: From the World of Black Hammer
Cthu-Louise
- Cthu-Louise #1
From the pages of Sherlock Frankenstein comes this horrific tale of Lovecraftian teenage angst. Spawned by the emissary of a Cthulhu god, Cthu-Louise struggles and is teased at school due to her monstrous appearance. Finally fed up with the bullying and abuse, she decides she will do anything to make herself ‘’normal.’’
Collected: Black Hammer: Cthu-Louise
Doctor Star & The Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows
- Doctor Star & The Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows: From the World of Black Hammer #1–4
An aged crime fighter desperately wants to reconnect with his estranged son, who he hoped would one day take the mantle of Doctor Star. Over the course of the story we learn his World War II-era origin, how he got his powers, his exciting astral adventures, the formation of some of Black Hammer’s greatest heroes, and more in this heartbreaking superhero tale about fathers and sons.
Collected: Doctor Star & The Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows: From the World of Black Hammer
Age of Doom Part One
- Black Hammer: Age of Doom #1–5
Lucy Weber has become the new Black Hammer and right as she’s about to reveal to our heroes how they got stuck on the farm and can escape she vanishes. Now our new Black Hammer finds herself trapped in a gritty world filled with punk rock detectives, emo gods, anthropomorphic humans, absurdist heroes, and many more weirdos, in a mad world in which there is no escape!
Collected: Black Hammer Volume 3: Age of Doom Part One
The Quantum Age
- Quantum Age: From the World of Black Hammer #1–6
… a collection of superheroes, inspired by the legendary heroes of Black Hammer Farm, must band together to save the planet from an authoritarian regime. A young Martian must find a way to reform The Quantum League to save the world while solving the riddle of what happened to the great heroes of the twentieth century.
Collected: Quantum Age: From the World of Black Hammer Volume 1
Black Hammer: Age of Doom Part Two
- Black Hammer: Age of Doom #1–?
Colonel Weird finds himself a stranger in a strange land, where reality is ever-changing! The Black Hammer team all are out of their element, literally.
Collected: N/A
‘Black Hammer ’45
- Black Hammer ’45 #1–4
Travel back to 1945, where an elite crew known as the Black Hammer Squadron bands together to combat Nazis, a host of occult threats, and their ultimate aerial nemesis, the Ghost Hunter.
More info: https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/black-hammer-45-miniseries-dark-horse
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