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| The illustrious leader of The ABC Warriors has been through some of the most dramatic changes in his lengthy career... | ||||
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| Art by Kevin O'Neill | ||||
| His early days with Ro-Busters were fairly unremarkable, and things didn't deviate too much from Kevin O'Neill's original design. Older 2000AD readers might notice a vague similarity between this particular phase of Hammerstein's life and a number of characters from Transformers. As Ro-Busters came first by a long way, you have to wonder who was stealing ideas from whom... | ||||
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| Art by Mike Dorey | Art by Dave Gibbons | Art by Mike McMahon | Art by Bryan Talbot | Art by Steve Dillon |
| With Hammer-Stein's War Memories, we got our first look at his 'original' body... | |
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Hammerstein seesm to have been originally designed as a blatant Eisenhower rip-off, an embodiment of blood-and-guts patriotic obedience, ostensibly fighting the Volgans but really stuck in the Korean War for eternity. Mike McMahon thankfully futurised this, which is really the beginning of the Hammerstein we all know and love. |
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| With the beginning of ABC Warriors in 1979, however, Hammerstein was sporting a brand new body, or, if you want, a variation on his 'original' one. He's also given the world-weary, sinister glare that would become his trademark from here on in... | |||
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| Art by Mike McMahon | |||
| And, as has become tradition, Hammer-Stein kept this look for the entire series... | |||
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| Art by Dave Gibbons | Art by Carlos Ezquerra | Art by Kevin O'Neill | Art by Brett Ewins |
| ...as well as his appearance in Red Planet Blues... | |||
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| Art by Steve Dillon (colours by John Higgins) | |||
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| With Nemsis Book 4: The Gothic Empire (by Pat Mills, Kevin O'Neill and Bryan Talbot), Hammerstein was back with a new rusted and shattered body, which just seemed wholly fitting for the ageing Warrior... | |
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| But it wasn't until Black Hole and Simon Bisley that this look came into it's own... | |
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Bisley turned the Talbot Hammerstein's rust and corrosion into a badge of cool, hard man scars - giving Hammerstein a veteran feel that nicely contrasted with Talbot's more geriatic design. Whereas Talbot made Hammerstein like a shabby, shuffling pensioner, Bisley gave him a commandeering, steroided presence. You get the feeling that this robot may be old, but he could still kill his way through a crowd in seconds - and what's more, he'd do it in the incomparable Bisley style. |
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With Black Hole we got what might be termed a "Bisley Revolution" in all of the ABCs' looks: streamlining, muscularising, throwing the 1970's fashion out of the window and going riot with cool; Hammerstein's US Marine haircut, for example (below) - a far more characteristic allusion to his military past... |
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