STEALTH HAMMER #1 – Review

STEALTH HAMMER #1, from Ryan Drost via Kickstarter, spins a yarn about a college student imbued with powers after her father’s lab accidentally explodes. Well, maybe not accidentally.

The Details

• Written By: Ryan Drost
• Art By: Joel Jackson, Alexandra Scott
• Colors By: Ross Hughes, Alexandra Scott, Evan Evans, Laci Hart, Julio Santos
• Letters By: Dave Sharpe
• Cover Art By: Joel Jackson
• Cover Price: $5 (digital copy)
• Release Date: March 2021 (estimated)

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Was It Good?

STEALTH HAMMER #1 is a charming indie project from creator Ryan Drost about a spunky college student who gets the Peter Parker treatment and acquires a range of spectacular superpowers after a lab accident. The oversized first issue could be described as “cute”. It’s a cute first issue.

The writing sets up a very familiar story for the origins of a colorful new superhero on the block. On the plus side, the powers are imaginative, the characters all have a quirky charm to them that feels like a throwback to the Golden Age of comics, and the main character’s first adventure is a perfect starting point for a new hero.

Continuing on the positivity love train, the art in this first issue is phenomenal for an indie book. The linework has a mildly cartoonish feel by design, and so it fits the wholesome, Golden Age style of the material. The standout in this issue is the coloring by… a small army of colorists. Every page pops with bold, exciting colors, so the extra hands make a huge difference in the quality of the visuals. Truly, the amount of coloring detail is almost shocking, and if nothing else, the visuals alone are worth the cover price.

In fairness, there are some down points. The dialog/narration is clunky in spots. The sequence of events feels very rushed (a typical side effect of trying to overdeliver on a crowdfunded story). By rushing to get too much into one issue, events and characters pop up without explanation or setup. For example, a gnome-like character appears in the lab and places a necklace on a machine without the slightest bit of explanation as to who/what/where/why/how, and then the gnome is gone. Brevity and efficiency are good, but too much brevity leads to disconnects. This is not the only example, but it’s the most egregious one.

Another example of rushing is how quickly Stealth Hammer comes together as a superhero. She isn’t born or made or grown. She’s assembled as quickly as a 4-piece jigsaw puzzle. The story manages to keep up (barely), but without more time to develop, there’s no reason to get behind a hero without established feelings or motivations.

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What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

Readers are introduced to Jami Taylor, an above-average college student with an unusual family. One day, Jami arrives at her family home to visit her scientist father in his lab. She bumps into her uncle leaving the lab and finds her father isn’t there. Suddenly, the lab explodes from a dark matter machine set to self-destruct. When Jami wakes up, she finds she’s been imbued with dark matter powers as well as the powers of every machine in the lab (cloaking, magnetism, etc.)

Her father nurses Jami back to health and they both figure out her uncle was the saboteur, and now, he must be found to return whatever secret plans he stole from the lab. Jami’s father just so happens to have experimental suits, gadgets, and a hoverbike Jami can use for the task of apprehending her uncle.

We conclude the issue with a high-speed pursuit, a meeting of malicious minds, and powers put to the test.

Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.

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