If you’re even slightly aware of comics, you probably know that the Batman is the Batman because his parents were murdered in front of him, setting him on a lifelong quest for revenge in the form of beating up bad guys. Not the greatest form of therapy out there, but probably not the worst. Skulldigger and Skeleton Boy takes a clever look at that brutal beginning and flips it on it’s head by having an orphaned boy become not the hero, but the sidekick, partnered with the man who killed his parents’ killer. Set in the Black Hammer Universe, written by the enigmatic Jeff Lemire, colored and illustrated by the superb Tonci Zonjic, with letters by Steve Wands, this intriguing take on what makes a superhero is bound to be a grim journey, if the first issue is a taste of what’s to come.
You can’t be a hero without blaming yourself
The issue starts out with narration from Skeleton Boy, explaining why it’s his fault his parents died, as we are shown the evening they die. He wanted dessert, and if they hadn’t stayed to get it, they wouldn’t have encountered the junkie who shot his parents. On the one hand, sure, it’s his fault, but on the other, one might say it’s destiny. Unlike the Batman, who becomes a masked vigilante only to later find out that the man who killed his parents was himself murdered, Skeleton Boy witnesses the death of his parents’ killer directly after they die; Skulldigger shows up and actually saves the unnamed child from being shot to death as well, by smashing the bad guy’s head in with a skull-flail. The child doesn’t look away when it happens, which factors into the story later.
Cops do cop stuff, bad guys do bad guy stuff
The boy gets taken to the local police station, where a lesbian detective tries to get the kid to squeal on Skulldigger, but he refuses to say anything at all. The police chief tells the detective that the mayor just revealed that he used to be the Crimson Chin, a sixties superhero who used to roll with Abraham Slam, an important Black Hammer character. That news makes it to the local paper, which is seen by Grimjim, a maniacal skull-faced villain locked up in Spiral Asylum. His reaction to the news is to declare that he is breaking out, presumably to settle some unfinished business with the mayor. While our detective is poring over files at work, Skeleton Boy gives us some more narration, explaining how his life is divided into the time when his family was alive and when he was partnered with Skulldigger. During the narration we also see Grimjim actually break out of the asylum and our detective gets romantic.
A startling reveal sets up a gnarly series
Skulldigger sees on the news where the orphan boy is being held and goes to break him out. The kid is confused, but the Skull explains that he has come for the boy because he chose to not look away when Skulldigger killed the man responsible for his lack of parents. The kid goes with him, and we get a final piece of narration that tells us that Skeleton Boy will eventually murder Skulldigger; the first murder he would ever commit, in fact. Harshing my mellow, geez. This comic looks great, and it tells a great story, something that is familiar yet new. Everything Black Hammer is excellent, and there is no reason to think Skulldigger and Skeleton Boy will be any different.