The world of Dark Horse Comics. Black Hammer - the Eisner Award-winning series - has had numerous spin-off series, but its newest promises to be one of its best. A different superhero team is ready to take flight and continue Phase II.
Black Hammer was first published in 2016. It focused on a team of superheroes who are stuck in a quiet town after saving the day during a multiversal crisis. The series was a love letter and commentary on the superhero genre and storytelling as a whole. Since then, the world of Black Hammer has expanded into a broader story with multi-phase vision, spawning additional spin-off series, including The Quantum Age, Sherlock Frankenstein & the Legion of Evil, and Black Hammer: Age of Doom. Now, Phase II is in full swing and a new mini-series will be a part of it.
An exclusive press release from Dark Horse Comics has announced The Unbelievable Unteens - a new four-issue miniseries from co-creator Jeff Lemire and artist Tyler Crook. Crook previously worked with Lemire on Colonel Weird: Cosmagog, another story taking place in the world of Black Hammer, focused on one of the original of the hero team. Now, Lemire and Crook are assembling a new team. The Unteens will be ready to meet readers in their debut this August. Check out the cover, a variant cover, and the series summary below:
After g at a comic book convention, Unbelievable Unteens artist Jane Ito finds herself visited by one of the characters from her own creation - but was it her own creation? Were the Unteens an actual school of teenaged misfit superheroes who battled supervillains under the lead of the mysterious Dr. Miles Moniker? And if so, who wiped their memories and why? As Jane's world is turned upside down and she learns the true nature of her identity she discovers a sinister plot leading her to assemble a team she had suspected was purely fictional.
According to the critically acclaimed author Jeff Lemire, "The Unbelievable Unteens is a Black Hammer story that I have been working on for a few years and was just waiting for the right time and the right collaborator. After doing Colonel Weird with Tyler Crook I knew he would be perfect to bring the creepy and wonderful teenage super hero world of the Unteens to life. This series stands alone but will also tie back into the new Black Hammer: Reborn series in unexpected ways!"
Crook shares Lemire's excitement, saying he, "loved working with Jeff Lemire on Colonel Weird: Cosmagog and was very excited that he wanted to continue working with me on The Unbelievable Unteens. I haven't had many opportunities to work on superhero stories and this book gave me the chance to scratch that itch."
Black Hammer has developed from a single series into a much broader world since its original release. Initially, it was a story about a banished superhero team, though it wasn't a traditional superhero story. It focused heavily on the emotional horror and challenges that each hero faced in their lives. Later series continued in this vein, twisting preconceived notions of what superhero and science fiction stories are into what they could be when viewed from a different perspective. This appears to be what The Unbelievable Unteens hopes to continue doing - albeit from a different perspective.
With a shift in how superhero stories are viewed, Black Hammer has shifted along with it. The story of the world has continued to grow by focusing on different characters and telling their stories. Though Phase I, as it is referred to, ended where the series began - with Black Hammer: Age of Doom finishing the story begun in the original series. Phase II has turned the focus on other characters like Skulldigger and Black Hammer's daughter, Lucy Weber, who's operating under her father's mantle in Black Hammer: Reborn. It has also grown the stories of familiar characters from the original team, including Colonel Weird and Barbalien. How far the world of Dark Horse Comic's Black Hammer grows is truly anyone's guess since it has expanded significantly since its initial introduction and shows no signs of stopping. The Unbelievable Unteens #1 releases August 11, 2021.
