Advance Review — ‘Black Hammer: The End’ #2 Unleashes Multiversal Madness

If you have to tell tired stories about the multiverse, it’s best to really lean into them.

That’s the approach that Jeff Lemire is taking in Black Hammer: The End, his homage to Crisis on Infinite Earths and other tales featuring alternate versions of characters we know and love. Lemire is writing a love letter here, and if you are over the whole multiverse thing, well tough.

At least Lemire makes things mildly interesting by playing off of his own creations. Instead of Golden Gail, there’s Gorilla Gail. All-American hero Abraham Slam is replaced with Abram Slam, a Soviet super soldier. And the Martian Barbalien is instead Barbaliax, the despot rule of Earth 31. The only one missing is a Black Hammer, but most of them have been killed already.

This super team is being assembled to battle Anti-God and his minions, who are destroying the other realities and on their way to the Earth of our Black Hammer and team. Clearly, Lemire isn’t trying to hide his love of Crisis here. Good artists borrow while great ones steal.

In addition to these alternate characters, Lemire gives us some familiar family drama as mother and daughter Lucy and Rose go head-to-head over the older one’s decision to quit being Black Hammer. It’s tension that readers will find familiar and is likely setting up something bigger later in this six-issue limited series.

Malachi Ward artwork continues to disappoint. While some of the backgrounds are nicely done, many of the human characters appear flat. The more exotic the subject, the better looking they are, with his ghost-like Anti-God illustrations as a highlight.

Fans of the Black Hammer universe have a pretty simple choice. They either follow Lemire’s lead and lean into the multiverse story, or stop reading now and pick up something else.

Black Hammer: The End will be available for purchase tomorrow.