Black Hammer '45

The World of Black Hammer #4

by Jeff Lemire, Ray Fawkes, Matt Kindt (Illustrator)

From the world of the Eisner-award winning Black Hammer series comes a gripping World War II action adventure tale!

During the Golden Age of superheroes, an elite Air Force crew called the Black Hammer Squadron bands together to combat the Nazis, a host of occult threats, and their ultimate aerial warrior the Ghost Hunter.

This volume collects Black Hammer '45 #1-4 from the all-star creative team of Ray Fawkes, Jeff Lemire, and Matt Kindt, as well as a sketchbook section.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Superheroes, Comic Book, Fantasy

120 pages, Paperback

First published October 29, 2019

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Jeff Lemire is a New York Times bestselling and award winning author, and creator of the acclaimed graphic novels Sweet Tooth, Essex County, The Underwater Welder, Trillium, Plutona, Black Hammer, Descender, Royal City, and Gideon Falls. His upcoming projects include a host of series and original graphic novels, including the fantasy series Ascender with Dustin Nguyen.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Black Hammer '45 tells the tale of the last mission of The Black Hammer Squadron in the dying days of World War II.

I love Jeff Lemire's Black Hammer universe but I did not love this.

The story is fine, an homage to Blackhawk, Enemy Ace, and the rest of DC's war comics. The art is not my cup of tea, though. I don't know what Matt Kindt was going for but the art was muddy as hell at times. I think the style was wrong for the story, even though he mentioned trying to channel Alex Toth in the afterword. If he was going for a Harvey Kurtzman look, he failed.

That's all I have to say about that.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Give 'em hell, Black Hammer!"

Boy, Lemire and his friends are sure having fun in Black Hammer, this multi-volume homage to comics of all kinds. In this new aspect of the Hammerverse Lemire gets together with his buddies Matt (and Sharlene) Kindt and Ray Fawkes and imagines the collection of aging superheroes as an Air Force crew called the Black Hammer Squadron taking on (gulp!) The Ghost Hammer, the greatest Nazi aerial killer ever.

A sort of (deliberately) goofy, retro story in the vein of any macho/patriotic DC war comics of that period, it ups the ridiculous ante by adding in three-story Mecho fighting machines equipped with flamethrowers raging against a Thor-like creature with a hammer shouting "Die Before the Fury of the Master Race!" The Black Squadron, led by the Black Hammer itself, is on the fringe of the armed forces because it is comprised of (mostly) people of color (and a woman or two).

Their outfit was especially effective at battling the Third Reich Nachtwulf patrol (yes, with actual wolves), and so, though it is nearly hopeless, the Squadron takes on the Ghost Hammer. Can they succeed, or is it a suicide mission?!

"Prepare to die!"

Just before posting this I saw that even Lemire fans don't like this volume, primarily because so many people don't like the sketchy artwork of Matt Kindt. Well, this approach is very much like the approach of Lemire and Fawkes, and I like the roughness of it. But maybe the best feature here is the coloring of Sharlene Kindt, it really stands out! Some find the story lame, but hey, that's DC war comics, what do you expect? C'mon! It's comics nostalgia!

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first of the Black Hammer offshoots I didn't care for. This is Lemire's ode to DC's old war comics like Enemy Ace or Sgt. Rock. The story was your standard WWII fare. The Kindts crayon looking art really ruined this for me. As an ode to DC's war comics, I don't know why Lemire didn't bring in someone who had more of a Joe Kubert look to their art. The lettering was exceptionally bad as well. The font was supposed to look hand printed but the letters were butting up against one another making this really difficult for me to read.

[Rod Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ooof! I finish my week-long Black Hammer reading binge with the single worst volume of the series.

Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes write a homage to DC Comics' World War II combat aviators, the Blackhawks, that is simply dumb and listless. With the end of the war looming, the men undertake one last mission to rescue some Jewish scientists from Nazi execution or Soviet abduction. The stupidest action scenes have a pilot survive bailing out of his crashing plane as it nears ground as if he were just rolling out of a car going 10 m.p.h. and another somehow successfully deploys a parachute fully despite bailing out ten feet above the ground. (Ejection seats weren't mentioned and were not actually utilized by U.S. forces until after the war.)

Matt Kindt turns in some of the worst art of his career, making a sloppy, scratchy mess of everything.

Final assessment of the World of Black Hammer: The main series is fine, but most of the spin-offs are just barely okay. I probably liked Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil and The Quantum Age the best. I really don't see how any of this material would be interesting to anyone who was not a teenager reading DC comic books in the 1980s.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeff Lemire and friends bring us another adventure into the World Of Black Hammer, this time flashing back to the original Black Hammer Squadron, a group of fighter pilots from the Second World War, and their last ill-fated mission that will change (or end) their lives forever.

There’s not too much to say about this one – the conclusion’s pretty forgone given the context clues from the present day storyline, it’s mostly just a question of how the surviving characters get to the position they’re in. The link to the main Black Hammer series is tangential at best, with a few throwaway comments about Project WEIRD (which I’d find far more interesting than this, to be honest), and a few cameos from the characters you’d expect to see. Otherwise, it’s just a straight forward war story, which isn’t generally my cup of tea.

The art isn’t really my cup of tea – Matt Kindt’s style is very fast and loose, and he lets the colours do the talking most of the time which is fine, but it means things get a bit messy quickly. The style fits the pulpy atmosphere that the story is going for, but I think if the series was any longer than the four issues I’d start to complain a little louder. As it is, I can bear it for four issues.

If you like this sort of thing, you might get a bit more out of it. For me, it was just okay. I like that Lemire and co. are trying new things, and they’re building up a very rich universe with Black Hammer, so I suppose it makes sense that there are some corners that won’t land quite as well as others.

[Chris Greensmith · Rating 1 out of 5]

"If I'm going to Hell...then you're coming with me!"
Reading this was like being sent to hell. The art was awful, the font was poor, made it difficult to read, no real connection to main series, I just assume the Black Hammers, the worse Black hammer spin-off...

[Maksym Karpovets · Rating 1 out of 5]

Натягнута, зайва річ, яка зовсім нічого не змінює у всесвіті Чорного Молота. Це така спроба показати супергероїв під час війни проти нацистів, де останні використовують суперзлодіїв. Банально й тривіально, тому тут треба ну дуже особливий фокус обрати. На жаль, ані Лемір, ані Кіндт цього не роблять. Перший вдається до довгих монологів і діалогів, які розмивають своїми хвилями й так слабкий наратив, а другий зовсім не старається у своєму малюнку. Спробати закосити під ретро супергероїку провалилась, бо тут нема ані ностальгії (яка була в центральних арках "Чорного Молота" Леміра), ані якоїсь вінтажності у стилістиці (я б взагалі порекомендував Кіндту попрацювати з контурами, а точніше - суттєво зменшити товщину ліній, які виглядають як недолугий грим у тінейджерок, які збираються на свою першу дискотеку). Сподіваюсь, що Dark Horse не включать цей опус у бібліотечні видання "Чорного молота", а українські видавці також не будуть його видавати.

[Lashaan Balasingam · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.

What I love most about a fictional world is the characteristic boundlessness that allows all creative minds to expand it in any direction they want. To be able to take elements from an original series—those signature features that make it so distinctive and beloved by fans—and to mold it around completely new settings, eras, and characters is a gift for writers and artists. However, it is also a trap at its core as the possible stories become infinite as long as one’s internal creative machine keeps the wheels turning, whether the story-telling or the artwork is awe-inspiring or not. Take, for example, the ongoing Eisner-award winning Black Hammer series now exploring a World War II action-adventure tale. While the idea might seem promising, it remains to be seen if it can be done tactfully.

What is Black Hammer ’45 about? Set in the Black Hammer universe, this story follows an elite Air Force crew called the Black Hammer Squadron as they set off on a mission to take down the Nazis and their unusual weapons of war, including their invincible aerial pilot, the Ghost Hunter. Collecting Black Hammer ’45 issues #1-4 as well as a short sketchbook section at the end of the volume, this story arc explores the Golden Age of superheroes, paying homage to World War II comic book stories, while remaining very loosely tied to the ongoing Black Hammer series by writer Jeff Lemire and artist Dean Ormston.

Was it so bad? No. It was unfortunately unnecessary. The story unfolds with a dual narrative with one set in the future with some members of the Black Hammer Squadron having reached old age and reminiscing on their past traumatic adventures, and one set in the past, exploring the action-packed ground and air combat between all war parties. While a lot of the action sequences are choppy and barely capture the tense atmosphere that was hoped for, it didn’t help that there was an underlying theme of racism and politics that wasn’t handled skillfully regarding this squad composed of a diverse cast that is constantly overshadowed by the dominating ethnicity despite the risks they take and the bravery they showcase.

Where this story arc particularly lost me is in its mediocre artwork. Although it isn’t my first time running into Matt Kindt’s work, I can indubitably assert that it didn’t work much for the story that wanted to be told. The character designs are horrendous and the transition between panels is incomprehensible; there really isn’t much that’s worth praising about. Rarely, there are some fun splash pages that illustrate some crazy fantasy ideas but in the end, they aren’t enough to save the story or the overall impression left by the artwork. Even Sharlene Kindt’s watercolouring is irrelevant and unimpressive and Marie Enger’s lettering is rough and unfitting. You’d think that a World War II story would know how to translate the emotions felt by the characters—especially in a series that is known to dive deep into the psychology of its characters—but this one just needs to back to the drawing board.

Black Hammer ’45 is a visually disastrous tragedy expanding a thought-provoking series into uncharted World War II territory only to see it crash and go up in flames.

Yours truly,

Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/
_______________________

Unnecessary visual tragedy...

Yours truly,

Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/

[Jakub Kvíz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've basically forced myself to finish this and those 3* are very generous.

Matt Kindt's art is usually hit or miss for me and this time it was "Blair Walsh missing a 27-yard game-winning field goal against Seahawks in 2016" level of miss. I wasn't able to tell the main characters apart and some of the panels were just hilarious (like Nazi in issue #4 with legs skinnier than the scope of his machine gun).

I usually enjoy WWII stories and I think that Lemire tried to diminish the role of superheroes in the war and give credit to a band of hard-nosed soldiers but it hasn't really worked for me.

By far the weakest spinoff from the Hammerverse.

[Little Timmy · Rating 1 out of 5]

OK everything abut this comic series is horrible. The art could have been done better by a class of 6th graders still hopped up on candy and recess energy. The story line has some possibilities but totally fails to use any of them. Also the plot is just rehashing of old tried and true ideas with nothing new added. I don't think I have ever given a 1 star rating to a comic series before but here is new a 1st for me. Don't waste your money, time and brain energy on this. Not recommended even to the blind

[RG · Rating 2 out of 5]

A solid world war II story set amongst the Black Hammar Universe. The art isnt my style and the story was good but unnecessary for the universe.

[Václav · Rating 2 out of 5]

(2,3 of 5 for this, this..., this abomination)
I'm fanboy neither of Lemire or Kindt. But I have hopes for both of them. They usually pick interesting and clever topics and they are no hacks. But they prone to fail me. Sometimes a big-time, like in the case of Black Squadron tales. I know that Kindt tried to do some "stylization" but despite that, it visuall looks far, far from appealing to me. Band of potato heads convulse through the pages in sake for something I could barely call a story. This was almost as boring and annoying as Quantum Age, but with uglier art. I was thinking of what else to add, but I came up with nothing. This was just an unpleasant reading experience.

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I didn’t care much for the style of artwork, except for some of the backgrounds, I enjoyed the story about an elite squadron, the Black Hammer Squadron, who had many successful missions behind German lines.
The story begins in present day Spiral City with a few living members of the squadron. They recount their last very dangerous mission together, right at the end of the war, when they must rescue a scientist and his family from an unmarked German camp.
It was great seeing select members of the Black Hammer superheroes using their abilities to fight in the war (Golden Gail and Abraham Slam) and even more great to see that Black Hammer aerial squadron was full of men of colour, taking on tough missions and successfully completing them despite the long odds. And werewolf SS officers and Russian giant mechs! Giant mechs! In WW2!

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

This did not need to exist. At all. Lemire is among my favorites and Black Hammer has especially been up my alley, but this missed the mark entirely.

Calling it the world of Black Hammer just by slapping a few panels of main characters is pretty lame. This felt like a pet project that got attached to a bigger series just to bring more eyes to it. I actually only gave it 2 stars instead of 1 because I dug the giant Russian robots and the Ghost Hunter character. Everything else was...well, bad, not to be too blunt about it.

It doesn't sour my opinion of Lemire or the Black Hammer universe at all, but I definitely feel like I wasted 40 minutes of my life.

[Frédéric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loosely tied to the Black Hammer universe this volume is your average WWII pulpish action comic book so nothing amazing to expect here.
What's amazing is that an editor would give a job to Matt Kindt, probably the crappiest illustrator I've ever seen in my life. How this guy can get a job in this industry is beyond me.

[Valéria. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ja milujem jak Kindt kreslí. Proste je to tak divné a hnusné, až mi to prirástlo k srdcu a naozaj sa mi to páči. Ale boha, keby sa tu neoslovovali, tak nemám páru kto je kto. Všetko bolo v pohode až na hlavné postavy. Stačil malý nejaký farebný detail, aby sa dali odlíšiť trochu a možno by som sa v tom nestrácala polku príbehu kto je kto a možno by ma to aj viac bavilo. Ale i tak to bolo to najslabšie čo vyšlo doteraz, čo som čítala a týka sa Black Hammeru. Nebolo to úplné zlé, ale ani nič, čo by mi do budúcna utkvelo v pamäti. Ani postavy ma nechytili, ani som nejak nesúcitila, ani sa nebavila. Proste také viacmenej nútené čítanie. 3/5

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This pretty much ticks all my boxes.
Love golden age comics and a big fan especially of the adventure team stories that DC did in the silver age ( Blackhawk, the Challengers etc.)


A team of black pilots are sent on one last mission near the end of the war and along the way encounter their arch-foe, Russian war robots, prejudice from both sides, a guest appearance by a norse god and a brief team up with a familiar face from the Black Hammer universe.

Written with a great pulpy vibe and the sketchy art style reminding me of old Golden age comics, this was a fun interlude in the increasingly complex Blackhammer universe.

The framing sequence feels heavy handed and unnecessary, but the rest is a lot of fun.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black Hammer '45 offers a satisfying weird WWII tale, with mechs and ghost pilots and werewolf Nazis. The action is nearly continuous, broken up only with brief glimpses of the remaining heroes in modern times, reminiscing. It's an easy read, nothing fancy, clearly not striving for the same heights of strangeness as the main Black Hammer series. Matt Kindt's art is not suited to WWII combat, though it's not as egregious as most reviewers seem to be arguing.

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Black Hammer '45 about a squadron in world war 2. Of course it's all crazy with super heroes and the Russians have giant Mechs! It was the worst Black Hammer book I've read so far. Pretty boring and predictable, plus the art wasn't the best. Still entertaining enough... but it has me worried about the next book.

[Javier Muñoz · Rating 2 out of 5]

No le veo el sentido como spin off de Black Hammer más allá de aprovechar el nombre de la franquicia y como historia bélica de la segunda guerra mundial no es nada especial más allá de los elementos fantásticos. El dibujo no me gusta. Para mí llega al 2 justito. El peor spin off de Black Hammer que he leído hasta ahora.

[Chad Jordahl · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's meant as an homage to old World War 2 books but the story never clicked for me and I really disliked Matt Kindt's artwork.

[Nate]

The first Black Hammer book not written by Lemire is, perhaps predictably, kind of a let down. I worry we’ll see more of these as the series progresses and Lemire gets increasingly involved in the TV show. Still, he’s writing that upcoming Black Hammer/Justice League crossover, and if there’s one person who can juggle a bunch of different projects and still produce quality work, it’s him.

That said, I was disappointed by this miniseries. Black Hammer has done a lovely job of tributing comics history, from the Golden Age to 90s Vertigo. War comics offer fertile ground for the Black Hammer universe, what with their different angle on heroism and pulpy aesthetic. And there’s some good stuff here. But the new characters feel like (literal) sketches, and the writing by Ray Fawkes is flat more often than not. I’m not a fan of Matt Kindt’s art, either - the sketchiness creates a distance from the emotions of the story. His style might work better in other stories, but I don’t think it was good fit for this one.

The main title is still going strong, and I’m excited for what Lemire has in store next. But I haven’t loved the last two spin-offs as much as the rest of the series. They can’t all be winners, I guess.

[Ondra Král · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dost. Původní řada Černé palice byla krásným milostným dopisem superhrdinskému žánru. Jenže se prodávala víc, než měla, a tak začaly vznikat spin-offy. Výsledek? Celej vesmír se tím rozředil do víceméně okaté vykrádačky Marvelu/DC. Mám za sebou 4 knížky a všechny mi přijdou děsně zbytečné. Lemire sice občas hezky zabrnká na city, ale už mu to přestávám žrát.

1945 je příběh z války. Tečka. Nic víc tu není. Howling Commando (aka letka Černé palice) vyráží zachránit zajatce. Ruští mechové mi přijdou cool, ale tím to končí.

2,5*

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for alt-superhero World War II stories, and Jeff Lemire's "Black Hammer '45" delivers on that premise, blending Nazi werewolves, Russian mechs and all-star fighter pilot squads.

A principal inspiration is Kanigher and Kubert's "Enemy Ace," who is resurrected here as the Ghost Hunter. Rather than focusing on the superpowered heroes fighting for the Allies, though, Lemire keeps it more ground level with the Black Hammer Squadron.

Modeled on the Blackhawks, this group is tough, gritty and resourceful. They're also multiracial, adding another layer to the conflict, both in their hatred for the Nazis and their tension with their allies.

The story is well paced and engaging, with the weird encounters and sudden peril familiar to any story on the front. The art by Ray Fawkes is sketchy but evocative, although key characters can be tough to differentiate at times.

I enjoyed "Black Hammer '45," but like the main Black Hammer series, it can feel like an echo of other stories I prefer that have already reimagined and reframed classic superheroes. (BPRD 1946/1947 and Astro City come to mind here.) Still, it's enjoyable on its own merits.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise was better than the execution. Focusing on the black aviation group that Black Hammer later took his title from, we get a weird-style World War II action-packed volume, complete with some impressive mechs. Unfortunately, there either wasn't enough time to really develop the characters, or the art didn't make them distinctive enough, which led to confusion, especially in the final issue. I'm still not completely sure who lived and died, and the modern day interstitials were a bit jarring in their presence. There's a lot to like here, but it didn't quite pull off what it was aiming for, in my view.

[Ianire Garcia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Que pena. De verdad el universo Black Hammer me parece una genialidad. Pero que pena de tomo. No me ha gustado nada el dibujo y la historia me ha aburrido muchísimo. Siento que apenas está enlazado con la historia de Black Hammer, creo que el resto de comics que he leído hasta ahora tienen más relación.

[Jonathan Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stuff.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

More like 1.5 stars for me....totally not what I was expecting.

[Alican Kunta · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read only the first issue, because that's how long I could take this godawful art by Matt Kindt. Honestly, I thought the story wasn't even that uninteresting, but the art just makes this whole thing unreadable. It looks like a child drew this with crayons. The lettering doesn't help either. I normally adore Jeff Lemire, but what the hell were these guys thinking here!

[Eric Morneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

j'ai bien aimé la façon dont le lien a été fait avec les personnages de la série régulière