As the Unbelievable Unteens finally all gather, what happened to break them apart is revealed. Like with most of the Black Hammer Universe, we’re given a portrait of heroes whose human nature, even their desire to do good, often gets them into more trouble.

Jeff Lemire continuously finds the perfect balance between the characters’ real lives and their superhero lives, letting one complicate the other in some pretty heavy ways. That’s the world Lemire has created, and he keeps finding different ways to make those themes come to life. Here, with the artistic magic of Tyler Crook, we’re shifted back and forth from a more modern-day look into the pages of a worn-down Silver Age comic book to see how the Unteens fell from grace.

In the last issue, I wondered what more could be done with the X-Men trope (i.e., teenage heroes), and it took one issue to answer that. Hormones don’t make it any easier to be a superhero. In fact, hormones and superpowers are the worst cocktail, a cocktail that the original X-Men series never head-on dealt with in a way that highlighted the hormones on a dramatic level… it was the ’60s after all. With that in mind, I almost feel like this story could have pushed a little harder in that direction.

I’m curious to see what happens next, because I wonder how those themes will be handled.

Creative Team: Jeff Lemire (script). Art, Colors, Letters (Tyler Crook), Daniel Chabon (editor). Chuck Howitt, Konner Knudsen (assistant editor), Ethan Kimberling (design), Josie Christensen (digital art technician)
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
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