HAMMER

DOOM-studded battles continue in this all-action, manga-style sequel.

DO-OM! Compiling seven more segments originally published as webcomics, the ongoing adventures of Stud, a light-skinned, black-haired human lad, or Swirl, who comes with the ability to turn his extremities into enormous hammers, reach the end of an underwater story arc in which he helps dark-skinned merfolk allies bring a terrifying lawbreaker to bay. Though each chapter opens with a color tableau, the art then switches to small panels crammed with dizzying monochrome scribbles of lines around mighty blasts, grimacing faces, and thunderous noises crowding, or often drawn as bursting beyond, the page borders. The bad guy, Steele—a sort of monstrous shark-squid—in particular, seems too big to be visible all at once. But after his menacing minions are reduced to sushi and despite sporting giant, writhing tentacles and seemingly invulnerable ink armor, even he falls at last with a mighty DONG to his diminutive nemesis’s ultimate weapon, the awesome HAMMER HEADBUTT! Of course, hints of an even more powerful foe in Stud’s future drop (cue a final, melodramatic DOOM) in the last panel. The work is cluttered and confusing at times, but this volume may appeal to fans of the series.

Not the easiest to follow but a properly percussive climax.