The Black Hammer universe continues to expand. Jeff Lemire has created a world that juts out to the left, then the right, looping back on itself and expanding to the past, the present, and now the future with The Quantum Age. Not only is it a play on the Golden Age of comics (as the series has been very meta), but what we know about the Quantum Zone is that you can travel through different times and realities, leaving a very plausible connectivity directly back to the main series.

While other chapters of the series have dabbled in science fiction, this one takes a hard left turn directly into the territory. What we know about this future is that the aliens, who in the central story of Black Hammer are represented by Barbalien, have been pretty much obliterated. How and why we’re still finding out, but with a curfew in place and hyper security to keep aliens off the street, the remaining few have gone into hiding, except one, who is seeking the daughter of another familiar character. I’ll let you read it to figure out who, but it leaves the door open to some interesting questions about what’s to come in Black Hammer.

Each Black Hammer adventure – be it sci-fi, film noir, or straight-up superhero tale – has always had something incredibly human grounding it. While we have a few story threads in The Quantum Age pushing us forward thus far, the scope of everything has yet to unfurl, and the personal stakes are still slightly shrouded in mystery. To me, that makes it all the more appealing. Since we’re about to have a huge reveal in the central Black Hammer story, I’m incredibly curious to see where this goes and how it’s going to connect to the past and our farm-bound heroes.

Creative Team: Jeff Lemire (writer), Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston (creators), Wilfredo Torres (art), Dave Stewart (colors), Nate Piekos of Blambot (letters), Ethan Kimberling (designer), Daniel Chabon (editor), Brett Israel (assistant editor)
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Click here to purchase.