Hammerfist #1
Written by Rick Remender
Art by Steve Epting
Colors by Matt Hollingsworth
Letters by Rus Wooten
Rick Remender has another hit on his hands with Hammerfist #1 and Steve Epting’s art and Matt Hollingsworth’s colors take this issue from great to incredible. This is a story, in my opinion, that shouldn’t be one that you know details of. Let it take you on a ride like it took me on and you’ll come to understand why when Remender’s name is on a book, I put it on my pull list. Semi-Spoiler Warning Now in Effect for Hammerfist #1!
And Now, Our Feature Presentation
Our story opens with a man sitting on his La-Z-Boy as evening begins to fall in his ramshackle excuse for a home. This man doesn’t seem much like the friendly type and is quickly angered when he hears a knock at his door. Despite screaming to be left alone, the pudgy man eventually gets up and answers the door as rudely as possible. The man, Vernon, his life ended the moment he opened that door; he just didn’t know it yet.
Mike Denton is a low-life piece of shit, and our introduction to him is right out of a late-night action flick you watched when you were a young kid. Make sure you have that remote next to you so you can turn the TV off, or mom and dad might see Mike blow someone’s brains out of the back of their skull. Mike delivers a swift and violent brand of “justice” to Vernon and, after a small struggle, pops him with his pistol, showing absolutely zero remorse. Mike heads back to his truck and drives as the title card starts to materialize on screen.
Why yes, I am treating this issue like a film in some sense because from the second you see the cover you get the kind of vibe that this story is going for and this introduction nails it. I’m reminded of action movies I used to love as a kid and others that have made impressions on me as an adult. I also think the best way to view this story going forward is kind of like how you’d watch The Sopranos or Breaking Bad in the sense that we’re not really meant to root for the main character but just accept that they’re a super interesting yet questionable focal point which the story revolves around. Do I want to root for a guy who’s abandoned his family and thinks cash is a perfectly acceptable trade for someone's life? Not in the slightest but I find myself wanting to see what other brutal acts this man is going to be involved in.
This title-card looks like it could’ve been pulled right off the wall of Quinton Tarantino’s house. It fits right in with that “grindhouse” action style. The cast of characters, featuring Mike Denton in the middle, are all pencilled in black and white with guns, money, cars and bullet casings surrounding them. The only pops of colors are a red background that makes everything else pop and Mike’s tattoos. A huge white slash with a red Hammerfist brings it all together. If I can ever find more space on my wall, this would be a sick piece to hang up. As the kids say, Epting and Hollingsworth COOKED with this title card. The rest of the issue doesn’t look too shabby either.
“You don’t have what I want.”
Mike’s next stop is at your typical run-down roadside motel where nothing good ever happens after the neon signs come on. He parks his truck and gets the money from the damsel-in-distress who hired him. She doesn't quite have enough and offers to let Mike… stay the night. He refuses and says she doesn’t have anything he wants before heading back to his truck and finding the closest source of crack he can. After brushing off his dealer’s problem, he has his bounty and sits in his truck under the buzzing neon-lights of a truck stop.
This scene in Mike’s truck is one of the most powerful in this entire issue and marks one of my favorite points of Mike's story so far. I’ve never seen addiction and the act of getting high presented in the way that Epting and Hollingsworth do here. As Mike gives himself over to his urges and lights up his shoddy-looking crack pipe, the smoke takes the form of multiple beautiful women as Mike closes his eyes and lets the feelings of numbness wash over him.
Drug addiction is a battle too many people in this world unfortunately have to deal with in their lives and in any medium, with it being a sensitive issue, you have to be careful how you portray it. The last thing you want to be is disrespectful to someone who is dealing with or has dealt with those issues. I think Epting and Hollingsworth’s representation of what getting high can feel like for an addict proved their point while not being too over-the-top. It gave readers a good perspective while not overdoing it to the point of gratuity. Another highlight for the duo in an issue that’s full of them.
A Text from Mike’s Ex-Wife
A text from Mike’s ex-wife breaks the spell and he realizes he let his daughter down again. He can’t even bring himself to call her and apologize and he goes right back to smoking. Right back to the numbness. Right back to the nothingness. The light behind Mike slowly gets darker panel by panel until we are left in darkness as Mike drifts off into the deep corners of his mind. Just within these two pages you come to understand how deep this hurt goes with his family. Mike walked out on his family when his daughter was two years old; that’s probably one of the worst things someone can do. We can probably suspect that his wife and his daughter have been through unimaginable hardship and it seems like their connection to Mike is basically nothing at this point in time. He has chosen to let his choice to leave come to define him and he has resigned himself to this tortured existence because he feels that’s exactly what he deserves.
Mike’s inner dialogue and voice is a huge highlight of this first issue. It’s very reminiscent of a noir flick where the characters inner voice is heard as he or she goes through their story arc. The way Remender manages to use Mike’s inner voice to not only help us get to know him but to create key moments in the story. This reminds me a lot of another character that Remender has written over this past year: Milton Shaw from Escape. Between Hammerfist and Escape, Remender is having a hell of a year and you should absolutely check out Escape if you haven’t already.
A knock on the glass breaks sleep’s hold over Mike and he’s greeted by a man and a woman who just want to treat Mike to some breakfast… as long as he’ll hear them out. The man and woman try to make small talk but Mike isn’t having it. He wants to know why they dragged him to this diner. They relent and essentially, it boils down to one fact: They need Mike to help keep them alive while they commit a bank robbery and they’ll give him $400,000 to do it. Mike is shocked to hear that number.
A Brief Intermission…
Now, normally my reviews would include a description of the entire issue leaving out only the largest spoilers while I provide my commentary but this time, this is where our journey through the story ends. I don’t want to spoil a single thing for you all about what happens after Mike is offered that $400,000 dollars. The twists and turns this issue takes, the way things are flipped upside down almost immediately and where the story is going to go from here are things I want you all to see without any precontext. Yes, the cover is a dead giveaway that things go off the rails but HOW that happens and WHY it happens are what you need to experience for yourself. I will say this though: I loved it and I cannot wait for the next issue because everything from the story to the art in the second half of this issue absolutely killed. You will not regret picking up a copy of this issue and checking it out. Remender, Epting and Hollingsworth deliver some incredible moments in the back half of issue #1.
Hammerfist #1 is that 1970’s action movie that you weren’t allowed to watch but did anyway when your parents were out. It starts out as a story of a broken man committing heinous acts for a bit of cash who can’t say no to his darkest urges and morphes into a story about a world that needs saving… and the dirtbag whose shoulders it now rests on. Remender, Epting and Hollingsworth deserve all their flowers and more.
RATING: 10 out of 10
Strong Recommendation