Jeff Lemire is not letting the library of DC superheroes go unused in his Black Hammer / Justice League: Hammer of Justice. More and more characters begin to pop up in the series, and they all have very distinct styles of dealing with the villain who is revealed in this issue.

Someone or something has taken the characters from Black Hammer and switched them out with the characters from Justice League – Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Flash to be exact. The Black Hammer characters know something has happened as they toil away against other DC Universe characters, but the Justice League characters have been at a loss… until now.

Lemire is playfully toying with expectations. He’s giving this reader exactly what I would want out of a crossover of this nature and also surprising me with elements that are really bringing this story to life in ways the previous comic industry crossovers have failed at. What a joy it must be for Lemire to play in this sandbox.

One really interesting thread that’s paying off in an impressive way is with Colonel Weird. He knows the future and past. Like LaPlace’s Demon, he can see the trajectory of everything, so when he says things like, “This isn’t how it’s supposed to happen,” anyone who has been reading Black Hammer now knows exactly what he’s talking about. What would be interesting is if Lemire used this as a way to jostle the story he’s already told – to upend it in a way. Most likely, everything will fall back into place as it was, but that’s the joy of the universe he’s created; the rules shift this way and that, and literally anything is possible.

Creative Team: Jeff Lemire (writer), Michael Walsh (artist), Nate Piekos of Blambot (letters), Daniel Chabon, Michael McCalister (editors)
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics
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