The World of Black Hammer, Vol. 5

The World of Black Hammer #9-10

by Jeff Lemire, Patton Oswalt, Scott Snyder

This collection features exciting stories taking place in the world of Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston's Eisner award-winning Black Hammer superhero comics!

Creators such as Patton Oswalt, Scott Snyder, Mariko Tamaki, Chip Zdarsky, Kelly Thompson, Cullen Bunn, Johnnie Christmas, Geoff Johns, Cecil Castellucci, and many more of comics' top talents take on some of the greatest heroes and villains of Spiral City!

Collecting Black Hammer: Visions #1-8 with pinups by Gilbert Hernandez, Evan Dorkin, Kelley Jones, Yuko Shimizu, Veronica Fish, Dan Brereton, Annie Wu, and more in a deluxe, oversized hardcover format with a new cover and sketchbook extras!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

248 pages, Hardcover

Published May 16, 2023

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

[Matthew Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection of stories set in the Black Hammer universe by other creators. Most of them felt right at home and I would’ve actually enjoyed more to them. The only issues holding this back from a 5-star review would be the Ms. Moonbeam issue (it was good, not great) and the soap opera issue (just really felt like it was trying hard for something that didn’t feel like it paid off).

[Rumi Bossche · Rating 3 out of 5]

The World of Black Hammer volume 5

More stories set in the universe build by Dean Ormstrong and Jeff Lemire.

Cool cats like Scott Snyder, Patton Oswald, Cullen Bunn, Chip Zdarsky and Geoff Johns get added to the mix and its a decent one, but i do like the main series alot better.. Still happy to have this in the ever growing collection.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

These 'world of black hammer' books vary in quality, this was one of my least favourite, due to it being a collection of single issues with no overarching story.

Skulldigger is always a highlight.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 3.5 of 5

I was/am unfamiliar with the Black Hammer graphic novel series, but when this came available to me and I saw Jeff Lemire's name, Geoff Johns' name, and Patton Oswalt's name in the credits I thought it was worth checking out.

The book appears to be a graphic novel anthology. There are eight stories collected here, each written and illustrated by a different team of creators. Sort of an Outer Limits or Twilight Zone for graphic novel creators. And like just about any anthology, there were some stories her that I really liked and some that didn't reach me at all.

The first story in the collection was "Transfer Student" by Patton Oswalt, illustrated by Dean Kotz (color by Jason Wordie). I did enjoy this but it wasn't particularly original and we could pick up on the gimmick very quickly. Think Harlan Ellison's "Jeffty is Five".

I enjoyed the story of the working man Cthulhu. Imagine a horrific monster working like Al Bundy. Just the concept made this one worthwhile.

There's a story with a character by the name of Ms. Moonbeam (I'm not familiar with this character) that I enjoyed. I didn't care for the art, however. It looked rough and amateurish (colors were awesome, however, but if what I noticed was the coloring, that doesn't speak well for the general art).

There is one story that I'm still not sure how to rank. A story within a story of actors and superheroes perform a soap opera but their offstage lives mirror their performing lives. I actually read this twice, trying to understand what was happening. The art was great. The story ...? I don't know 2 of 5? 5 of 5? Flip a coin - I can't decide.

The story titled "Uncle Slam" by Chip Zdarsky with art by Johnnie Christmas (Dave Stewart colors) reminded me of some of the Watchmen series, but, as I am an older reader, this hit home with me a bit more than I expected.

The collection rounds out with a couple stories that didn't really do anything for me at all but overall most of the stories fare pretty well.

Looking for a good book? Jeff Lemire's The World of Black Hammer Vol. 5 collects an eclectic group of fantasy graphic novel stories. Anyone looking to expand their graphic novel horizons might want to give this a try.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

[April Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collects the two volumes of Black Hammer: Visions into one omnibus volume, with a pin-up gallery and story sketches. The stories are little vignettes from the lives of some of the characters, written and arted (yeah, I know, that's not a word, but I like it) by a bunch of different people. As with any short story collection, one is likely to enjoy some stories more than others, but overall I enjoyed this. I like getting backstory stuff about characters, it's interesting to me, and there were some new-to-me faces here! My favorite of the stories was #4, which didn't have a title I could find, but involves the superheroes acting in a gothic soap opera-ish tv show being watched by the superheroes playing a different set of characters living in a space ship? station? and it's an odd, meta sort of thing, and oh hey! Colonel Weird is involved! He's my favorite of the group, so his story's my fave too. I also quite enjoyed the Ms. Moonbeam story - she's feisty, I liked her a lot! Cuthu-Lou's tale gets an honorable mention; he has the funniest of the stories, and some great lines. Was this the most exciting collection? No. But it was fun, and interesting, and a nice little break between bigger story arcs.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the series. This final World Of finished well but nothing was as amazing as that first volume. Man. I’m excited to read it again. Such a wonderful feeling. Gave me that Yellow and Blue vibe for a modern take on a classic (trope in this case). Magic.

Enjoyed the series. Probably a 3 overall.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 really

[John Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, just unnecessary.

[Cal Brunsdon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black Hammer is like pizza; even when it’s bad, it’s good. This edition contains the BH Visions series of stand alone stories, each written by a newcomer to the alternate superhero universe, and it certainly swings wildly between excellent and boring. Still, I adore the world these characters inhabit - it’s familiar, it’s creative, it’s brimming with ideas and it’s fun - so no real complaints from me.