Hammerfist #3
Written by Rick Remender
Art by Steve Epting
Colors by Matt Hollingsworth
Cover Art by Steve Epting
Gone is the action film.
Welcome to the horror show.
Hammerfist #3 was incredible.
Let’s get into it. Spoiler Warning Now in Effect for Hammerfist #3!
The World Turned Upside Down
If you couldn’t already tell from the cover, this issue is where this book has completely gone off the rails, and I mean that in the absolute best way possible. If the first two issues were the beginnings of a film that your parents would’ve been appalled to find you watching when you were younger, this third issue is the one the parents would have the warnings ready for before you even got close to a theater. I love that Rick Remender, Steve Epting and Matt Hollingworth have embraced this world and it's the insanity of its story. They understand the kind of story they want to tell, and they aren’t pulling any punches. This issue is where we have transitioned from a grindhouse-style action film to dare I say… cosmic horror with a side of absolute nastiness. God, this book is good.
Cindy, the blonde woman who hired Mike for the bank robbery job (god, that somehow feels ages ago now), is under complete and total control of the heads of the cult that seemingly run the small town of East Camden, Nevada. She’s chained up beneath a demonic-looking altar, ready to be offered up as a sacrifice to something waiting in the dark. The cult leaders and their flock have fully embraced the coming of something… well, something very bad. Something that isn’t going to be good for anyone close to this wretched town. Mike watches the grisly scene from above as the ominous sky above East Camden opens up and the nightmare truly begins.
Cindy’s life is extinguished as the clock strikes noon. A demented amalgamation of a demonic goat’s head and a baby’s corpse, complete with blazing orange-red eyes, falls from the chain dangling above Cindy’s head. Cindy’s bloodcurdling screams fill the chamber, and she fights like hell to get this thing off her, but it breaks her ribs, bends her to its will, and in one final squelching, skull-crushing move, she is nothing more than a meat puppet. Nygrith the Mothergrub has arrived.
The art in this first section, full of dark reds, radiant oranges, and deep shadows, lives up to the amazing standard that has been set by Epting and Hollingsworth in this book so far and perfectly begins to capture the change in the book's feel. The first two issues have their dark and violent moments, that’s for sure, but when you see what’s happening to Cindy on the page, you can’t help but cringe at her pain and wish you could help her. Testament to the art team for Cindy’s horrifying transformation, with all the blood and horrifying imagery you can imagine. When the original God of War was being created, the game director told the artists to go home and draw what anger looked like to help create the main character, Kratos. I wouldn’t be shocked if Remender asked Epting to draw something he’d seen in one of his nightmares, but Nygrith has quite a terrifying design. The piercing orange-red eyes of Nygrith were a great choice to complement the rest of the darkness of her design by Hollingsworth.
I’ll admit, I thought Mike was going to jump down from the rafters and hit that damn thing off her with the massive metal fist he’s carrying. Let’s face it, Mike is a real piece of shit, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. In a total reversal of his character, he actually puts the Hammerfist on his hand for the first time and says, “he can sit by for a lot of shit [but] not this.” Mike is not a nice guy, and he is reminded of that at every turn as this issue goes on, but in that one moment, the little bit of light that’s inside him rears its head. Remender has done a great job thrusting this crappy excuse for a human being into a situation where we don’t exactly want to root for him, but we have to if the world is to have any chance of survival. Love the dichotomy of it all.
Run for Your Life
Darkness envelopes the town, and when the lights come back on, a nightmare has taken complete hold. The Lovecraftian-esque being, Nygrith, has brought everyone's innermost ugliness and worst qualities to the surface. She’s, as she says, eaten the light away and wants to keep eating the light until it’s all gone. All of the cult leaders have been turned into hideous monsters who want nothing more than to please their horrifying master. Nyrgrith couldn’t be happier with the locks finally thrown off and her being free to feast in our world… but wait… the Hammerfist wasn’t destroyed now, was it?
In a moment of terror, Nygrith notices Mike huddled in the rafters of the chamber and wants nothing more than that damned Hammerfist brought to her so it can’t be used to defeat her and stop her plans. Two of the demonic cult leaders are sicked like dogs on Mike, and he runs with every fiber of his being away from the transformed nightmares. The rest of this issue deals with nightmarish cult leaders chasing Mike all throughout the massive building and berating him with as many horrible insults as possible. They somehow know every single detail of his, quite frankly, terrible past and scream his sins and past mistakes at him as he desperately tries to get the Hammerfist, currently trapped in an innate state around his arm, to work. The issue ends as Mike keeps running from the monsters, still praying to find a route of escape.
It’s almost as if all of Mike’s terrible deeds have come back to haunt him in physical form and as hard as he tries, the one item that may help him fight back won’t work for him. Will Mike be able to overcome these monsters that are nipping at his heels? Can he save the town and the wider world from Nygrith and her brood? Can someone who has been a stain on his friends and family over the course of his life and contributed to the deaths of countless others really be redeemed? Remender has me hooked and I’m very excited to see where the plot goes now with this book taking the huge turn that it has.
One more thing I want to touch on with Mike is that his appearance remains unchanged. Now this could be because he didn’t offer anything in the ritual that was occurring just feet away from him, but I also think it could be seen as some interesting commentary on him by Remender and the art team. The rest of the beings in the building have all changed to these horrifying versions of themselves, with all their worst qualities now being brought to the surface. Mike though… It’s almost as if he was so horrible on the outside and inside already that his body felt no need to shift from the spell. Even if Mike was somehow saved by not participating in the ritual, I can see what Remender was going for here. How do you make someone who’s already so rotten worse? You can't.
Finally, the art team balled out in the second half of this issue as well. The monstrous cult leader designs come off really well with each having a unique look about them as well. Fangs, needles, emaciated bodies, bloodiness, chains… each leader looks terrifying, and as Mike is chased throughout the building by them, it’s almost like this scarier version of a Scooby-Doo chase, and I loved every second of it. Epting and Hollingsworth have done such a good job in this series, and with the horror turn this issue has taken and their new designs already looking great, I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the next few issues. The building itself almost seems like Mike is running through hell with all the darkness. A darkness that’s only broken up by the occasional reds and oranges of fire or lava. From the designs to the settings and background, Epting and Hollingsworth killed it.
Hammerfist #3 turns the series on its head as the grindhouse-style action movie is replaced with a Lovecraftian nightmare. Steve Epting and Matt Hollingworth bring Rick Remender’s dark ideas to life with terrifying results. With the Hammerfist still dormant and Mike’s time running out, can he defeat the demonic beings that want nothing more than to rip him to shreds? I can’t wait to find out.
RATING: 10 out of 10
Essential