Truth be told, I've been waiting to write this article for over a year, now. How is that possible? Well, with Hollywood gobbling up every indie comic book property under the sun as of late, it was only a matter of time before someone became hip to Jeff Lemire's pulpy and otherworldly BLACK HAMMER series. If Lemire's name sounds familiar to you, that's because his Top Shelf Productions-published graphic novel, THE UNDERWATER WELDER, is currently in development with BLADE RUNNER 2049 actor Ryan Gosling set to co-produce as well as direct. Furthermore, I conducted an exclusive interview with Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino for the upcoming television adaptation of their horror comic series GIDEON FALLS, back in October. In other words, you've heard of them, be it directly, subliminally or otherwise.
Today, it's been announced that Legendary Entertainment is getting into the BLACK HAMMER business, with plans to adapt Lemire's award-winning series for both television and the big screen. Since the book's 2015 debut, BLACK HAMMER has been nominated for eight Eisner Awards, garnering two wins, including the coveted award for Best New Series in 2017. For those of you who're unfamiliar with the series, BLACK HAMMER centers on a group of heroes and villains living in exile under a dome in a spooky podunk locale called Spiral City. As the group struggles to find meaning in their lives after being forced to go into hiding, the cracks begin to show once locals discover that the group is housing a dark secret in a nearby barn. It's a superhero deconstruction story of grand design, with several of the characters unwilling to obey the rules of their new and aggravated living situation.
Lemire will serve as an executive producer on any forthcoming Black Hammer projects alongside co-writer and artist Dean Ormston. Together, both creatives launched the original BLACK HAMMER series in 2015, which has since spurned serveral spin-off series including Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil, Black Hammer: Age of Doom, and more.
Fans of WATCHMEN are going to want to keep an eye on this one. In my experience, BLACK HAMMER is a dark and devilishly clever series that harkens back to the sci-fi days of old, when pod people were your neighbors and aliens saw fit to hide mysterious doomsday devices right under your nose. It's a little something different from the superhero genre that's bound to make old school sci-fi fans squee with excitement and intrigue.
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