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Today marks ten years of Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston’sBlack Hammer from Dark Horse Comics. And since the series has also just begun its third phase, we figured what better way to celebrate than to revisit the reading order.
For those of you new to Black Hammer, this reading order is a guide for those that really want one, but it is by no means necessary. For the main Black Hammer series you can simply follow the numbering on the books’ spines, and the spinoffs (anything with “From the world of Black Hammer” on a band along on the top of the cover) are designed to standalone for new readers, so just dive into whatever catches your eye. But for those of you that like to catch every detail, especially when there are two layers of continuity (in-universe continuity and meta-continuity), this is the reading order for you. My only additional note is when you get to The World of Black Hammer Encyclopedia (collected in the Black Hammer: Streets of Spiral trade paperback and the Black Hammer – Volume 2 library edition and omnibus), skip it until you’ve finished reading Phase One if you want to stay completely spoiler free.
Before you get started, some quick notes on formats. Most stories are originally collected in trade paperbacks, though there are a few special books that went to hardcover instead. As for library editions and omnibuses, these are the same as each other, just presented in a different format. The library editions are hardcover with an oversized 12 inch tall page, whereas the omnibuses are paperback with standard page size. The hardcover crossover Black Hammer / Justice League: Hammer of Justice! has not been able to be collected in a library edition or omnibus due to it being an intercompany title. That may change in the future, but for now, if this one is tricky to track down, you can skip it quite easily.
Thanks to Daniel Chabon and Kaitlyn Nash from Dark Horse for their assistance putting this together.
