Yes this book is set in the "Black Hammer" universe, but really just a couple of passing references, and short appearance from Abraham Slam. For me the story was fun, and they mixed that with the sentimental retelling of it by the heroes grown old. But the art...

I realize that they were trying to go for the old (I mean REALLY OLD) pulpy feel of the first comic books, but it's just so terrible, it's distracting and embarrassing. There was a "sketchbook" section at the end where the artist talked about how exciting certain parts of it were to draw, and I'm happy for him, but I would definitely be okay with never reading another comic with that type of art again. ( )

Ooof! I finish my week-long Black Hammer reading binge with the single worst volume of the series.

Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes write a homage to DC Comics' World War II combat aviators, the Blackhawks, that is simply dumb and listless. With the end of the war looming, the men undertake one last mission to rescue some Jewish scientists from Nazi execution or Soviet abduction. The stupidest action scenes have a pilot survive bailing out of his crashing plane as it nears ground as if he were just rolling out of a car going 10 m.p.h. and another somehow successfully deploys a parachute fully despite bailing out ten feet above the ground. (Ejection seats weren't mentioned and were not actually utilized by U.S. forces until after the war.)

Matt Kindt turns in some of the worst art of his career, making a sloppy, scratchy mess of everything.

Final assessment of the World of Black Hammer: The main series is fine, but most of the spin-offs are just barely okay. I probably liked Sherlock Frankenstein and Quantum Age the best. I really don't see how any of this material would be interesting to anyone who was not a teenager reading DC comic books in the 1980s. ( )

Black Hammer ‘45
Author: Lemire, Fawkes, Kindt, Kindt, Enger
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Publishing Date: 2019
Disposition: Hoopla eBook via Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
The waning days of World War Two, the Golden Age, the elite Black Hammer Squadron has one more mission that will put them up against their nemesis The Ghost Hunter, Nazi pilot who has killed soldiers, sailors, airmen, costumed superheroes, and most of the original members of the Black Hammer Squadron. Add in stories tall, walking Russian mechas. All of them on a collision course with a scientist who has been held with his family outside of Vienna. Heroes and villains, death, the fog of war.
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Genre:
Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Graphic Novels
Superhero
War
Mecha
Science Fiction

Why this book:
Because I love the world of Black Hammer that Lemire has created.
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Cover Art:
Love the cover of the crashed, shot-up airplane with the Blackhawk-pastiche hero group standing on the fuselage.

The Feel:
The Black Hammer Squadron, nice. That's a nice homage to both the Tuskegee Airmen and DC Comics’ Blackhawks. That's pretty damn cool. With a healthy dose of Weird War Tales thrown in.

Favorite Concept:
Love the design of the Red Tide. Big fan of giant mechs with drivers.

The Unexpected:
The art is sketchy and scratchy, sort of Sunday newspaper comics looking, but it works with the tone and the subject matter. Not sure if the comic would’ve had the same feel with hyper-realistic or Saturday morning cartoon art.
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Last Page Sound:
This was a pretty good story.
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The lettering was extremely difficult to read. My eyes aren't *that* bad but I still had to put my face and the book and a light too close together. Beyond that, it was an okay story. Lacking in some of the glee and silliness of the other installments in the Hammerverse, this was more grim. I admit that I'm tiring of the teasing of any of these, where some sense of how it all connects will be revealed but well, not really. If the story stands on it's own I can deal with that, but here I think it was just a bit underwhelming. I know WWII Comics are their own thing, and maybe if that's a genre you enjoy you'd like this better than I did. ( )