Dark Horse Comics has been collecting the entirety of writer Jeff Lemire‘s Black Hammer universe of comics into handy, softcover omnibus editions. Later this year will see the release of The World of Black Hammer Omnibus Volume 4, which collects the six-issue Skulldigger & Skeleton Boy miniseries by Lemire and artist Tonči Zonjić, as well as the four-issue The Unbelievable Unteens mini by Lemire and artist Tyler Crook. The collection, featuring letters by Crook and Steve Wands, sports cover art by co-creator and original Black Hammer artist Dean Ormston.
Here’s how Dark Horse describes the two stories included in The World of Black Hammer Omnibus Volume 4:
In Skulldigger and Skeleton Boy, Spiral City is trapped in a vicious cycle of crime, corruption, and violence. With the heart of the city at stake, a vigilante rises as Skulldigger. However, when the nefarious Grimjim escapes from prison, Skulldigger and his ward, Skeleton Boy, find themselves pitted against a truly deadly and unstoppable force.
In The 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.
Both Skulldigger & Skeleton Boy and The Unbelievable Unteens are available currently in individual softcover collections. The two have also previously been collected together in the oversized The World of Black Hammer Library Edition Volume 4 hardcover, which is also where Ormston’s cover for this new softcover omnibus originates.
Black Hammer has expanded well beyond the edges of its original farm story, with Lemire, Ormston, and a cadre of other all-star artists filling in the corners of Spiral City with loving homages to past superheroes and stories. Zonjić’s art on Skulldigger & Skeleton Boy evokes the gritty realism of Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli‘s Batman: Year One, while The Unbelievable Unteens captures the best, wildest elements of classic X-Men and Doom Patrol stories with the beautiful painted work that Crook is known for.
Check out an extended preview of the new collection – the first 20 pages of Skulldigger & Skeleton Boy – below. With a cover price of $29.99, the 288-page The World of Black Hammer Omnibus Volume 4 softcover is due out in bookstores on September 9th, and in comic shops on September 10th.
