American comic book series created by writer Jeff Lemire and artist Dean Ormston, Black Hammer is published by Dark Horse Comics and tell a rather different superhero story.
Everything started ten years ago when the famous Black Hammer and six other superheroes from Spiral City fought the deadly Anti-God in order to save the world.
They win, but they also disappeared after the fight. The world believes them dead, but they became trapped in Rockwood, a small city in the middle of nowhere. They just can’t leave. Black Hammer died trying. They must live mundane lives in this timeless rural city.
They don’t really know where or when they are and they lost almost all hope to leave one day or to discover the truth about what happened to them.
Black Hammer Reading Order:
The Black Hammer series is telling a big central story arc centered around the old champions of Spiral City: Abraham Slam, Golden Gail, Colonel Weird, Madame Dragonfly, and Barbalien.
It started in the first Black Hammer titles and ended in Black Hammer: Age of Doom. The World of Black Hammer is also full of miniseries.
First, there’s now an omnibus collection:
- Black Hammer Omnibus Volume 1
Collects Black Hammer issues #1-13 and Black Hammer: Giant Sized Annual. - Black Hammer Omnibus Volume 2
Collects Black Hammer: Age of Doom #1-12, Black Hammer: Cthu-Louise, and The World of Black Hammer Encyclopedia.
In details…
- Black Hammer: Secret Origins
Collects Black Hammer #1-#6. - Black Hammer Giant-Sized Annual
An anthology issue features five Black Hammer stories from Jeff Lemire, each focusing on one of the stranded heroes. Collected in Black Hammer: Streets of Spiral. - Black Hammer: The Event
Collects Black Hammer issues #7-11, and issue #13. - Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil
Collects Black Hammer #12 and Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil #1–4. - Doctor Andromeda and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows
Collects Doctor Star and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows #1–4. - Black Hammer: Age of Doom Part One
Collects Black Hammer: Age of Doom #1–5. - Black Hammer: Age of Doom Part Two
Collects Black Hammer: Age of Doom #6–12
From the World of Black Hammer
This is where the first main Black Hammer story ends. But the Black Hammer Universe continues. What comes next are miniseries about the past and the future with familiar and new characters.
- Quantum Age: From the World of Black Hammer
Collects The Quantum Age #1-6. A spin-off set in 2141. 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. Collects - Black Hammer ’45: From the World of Black Hammer
Collects Black Hammer ’45 #1-4. The first Black Hammer story not written by Jeff Lemire, but by Matt Kindt, brings us back in 1945, where the Black Hammer Squadron bands together to combat Nazis, a host of occult threats, and their ultimate aerial nemesis, the Ghost Hunter.
- Black Hammer: Streets of Spiral
Collects: Black Hammer: Giant Sized Annual, Black Hammer: Cthu-Louise, World of Black Hammer, and material from Free Comic Book Day 2019. - Black Hammer / Justice League: Hammer of Justice!
Collects Black Hammer/Justice League: Hammer of Justice #1-5. A DC Comics/Dark Horse Comics crossover. - Skulldigger + Skeleton Boy: From the World of Black Hammer
Collects Skulldigger and Skeleton Boy: From the World of Black Hammer #1-6. With the heart of the city at stake, a vigilante rises in Skulldigger. However, when the nefarious Grimjim escapes from prison, will Skulldigger and his ward, Skeleton Boy, be enough to save Spiral City? - Colonel Weird: Cosmagog
Collects Colonel Weird: Cosmogog #1-4. Wacky space adventurer Colonel Randall Weird leaves Black Hammer farm and embarks on a strange journey through space and time for something that he’s long forgotten, with his sanity and life at stake!
- Barbalien: Red Planet: From the World of Black Hammer
Collect Barbalien: Red Planet #1-#5. Mark Markz has found his place on Earth as both a decorated police officer and as the beloved superhero, Barbalien. But in the midst of the AIDS crisis, hatred from all sides makes balancing these identities seem impossible–especially when a Martian enemy from the past hunts him down to take him back, dead or alive. - Black Hammer: Visions Volume 1
Collect Black Hammer: Visions #1-4. - Black Hammer: Visions Volume 2
Collect Black Hammer: Visions #5-8. - The Last Days of Black Hammer: From the World of Black Hammer (prequel to the events of Black Hammer volume 1)
- Colonel Weird and Little Andromeda
Black Hammer: Reborn
The next era of the Black Hammer Universe. The Story is set twenty years after the end of the first one. Lucy Weber, the daughter of Black Hammer, has moved on. Living in the suburbs of Spiral City, she is married and has children. For mysterious reasons, she hasn’t picked up the hammer in years. But, as her domestic life begins to crumble, the secrets of the last twenty years, and the reasons Lucy really gave up being Black Hammer, begin to resurface.
- Black Hammer: Reborn – Part One
Collects Black Hammer: Reborn #1–4 - Black Hammer: Reborn – Part Two
Collects Black Hammer: Reborn #5–8
- Black Hammer: Reborn – Part Three
Collects Black Hammer: Reborn #9–12 - The Unbelievable Unteens: From the World of Black Hammer
Collects The Unbelievable Unteens #1–4
Black Hammer Library Editions:
What are Library Editions? It’s a deluxe, oversized hardcover format with a new cover, sketchbook extras, and more.
- Black Hammer Volume 1
Collects Black Hammer #1–13 & Black Hammer: Giant-Sized Annual (2017). - The World of Black Hammer Volume 1
Collects Sherlock Frankenstein & the Legion of Evil: From the World of Black Hammer and Doctor Andromeda and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows.
- Black Hammer Volume 2
Collects Black Hammer: Age of Doom #1-#12, Black Hammer: Cthu-Louise, and The World of Black Hammer Encyclopedia. - The World of Black Hammer Volume 2
Collects The Quantum Age and Black Hammer ’45. - The World of Black Hammer Volume 3
Collects Colonel Weird: Cosmagog and Barbalien: Red Planet. - The World of Black Hammer Volume 4
Collects Skulldigger + Skeleton Boy #1–6, “Horrors to Come”, The Unbelievable Unteens #1–4. - The World of Black Hammer Volume 5
Collects Black Hammer: Visions #1-8.
Last Updated on June 7, 2023.