Hammerfist #1 is the start of the newest series from the creative team of writer Rick Remender and artist Steve Epting. This is a comic book that is being done under Remender’s new publishing label Giant Generator. Remender and Epting have both delivered a lot of great creator-owned comic books throughout their careers. That long history makes Hammerfist a comic book that immediately caught my interest. Image Comics provided us with an early copy to review. Find out how it turned out with our advance review.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Steve Epting
Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Rus Wooton
HAMMERFIST #1 SOLICITATION
“Meet MIKE DENTON: a dirtbag hitman, junkie, and absentee father who’s spent his life chasing the easy fix—drugs, cheap sex, and murder for money—while failing the one person who still believes he can be better: his daughter. Now, on the eve of BLACK NOON—an ancient darkness that erases the light in all things—Mike has to drag himself out of the gutter, awaken a supernatural weapon powered only by love, and fight his way through the living embodiment of evil to save her.
Reservoir Dogs collides with Evil Dead in a filthy crime story that mutates into a savage splatter-horror nightmare from New York Times bestselling author RICK REMENDER (ESCAPE, Captain America) and acclaimed artist STEVE EPTING (VELVET, Captain America) about an unredeemable killer forced to do the one thing he’s avoided his entire life: stand for something other than himself.” – Image Comics
REVIEW
There is a part in the afterward where Rick Remender says, paraphrasing his words a bit, that in a different time, Hammerfist’s lead would be seen as a warrior, but in the present day he is a scumbag. That is the exact vibe Hammerfist #1 gives off right away, as its lead taps into the classic anti-hero tropes of the past. From there, Remender, along with Steve Epting and Matt Hollingsworth, takes his time building out the world. That worldbuilding helps show how the story is starting as a noir grindhouse crime drama before transforming into something much stranger and more sinister than initially thought.
From the start our “hero,” Mike Denton, has a rough edge to him that makes him out to be a true anti-hero. Once we peel back the layers as we learn more about him, we see a man whose life is one he has made himself. The darkness he lives with is one of his own creations because of the choices he has made. All he can do is make the best use of the brute strength to work as a mercenary for hire in the small town of Lovelock, Nevada.
Setting the entire story in a small town like Lovelock works to the advantage of what this story is about. While Mike Denton is other scumbags it does not mean he has a bigger mission. He is at a place where he knows he has made his own personal hell and just figuring out how to live with it. The small-town mentality makes how the story opens up to be treated as a shock to the system of what even Mike believed in.
All this world building in Hammerfist #1 works because of the artwork by Epting and Hollingsworth. Remender can slow play the world building because Epting and Hollingsworth are masters at creating a vibe. Everything from the setting to the character design is done in a way that you focus on how we are inside Mike Denton’s head throughout this first issue. He is our vehicle to understand what is going on.
Remender, Epting, and Hollinsworth utilized the noir vibe to make you as the reader think this is going to be a story that is another strong crime thriller they are known for. As soon as we get used to seeing things through Mike Denton’s eyes there is a moment where he and we are shaken into entering a new world, metaphorically. Things are quickly taken from the small-town vibe into what is sure to be bigger, crazier world to explore in future issues.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Hammerfist #1 presents us with a deeply flawed series lead in a dark and gritty world of his own making. He is not someone who you are necessarily rooting for as the more we learn about him the more you understand his current life is the one he deserves. That said, it all works to create a compelling narrative that goes from another noir crime thriller to one that will transform into something much crazier.
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10
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