In this review of Hammerfist #1, deadbeat dad and local hitman Mike Denton’s life is changed forever during a bank robbery gone supernaturally wrong.
HAMMERFIST #1
Written by: Rick Remender
Art and Main Cover: Steve Epting
Variant Covers: JEROME OPEÑA, NIC KLEIN, DAN PANOSIAN, ANDREW ROBINSON, DANIEL ACUÑA
Page Count: 48 pages
Release Date: 8/26/2026
This review contains spoilers
Hammerfist #1 begins with Mike Denton, a killer for hire, arriving at a trailer park to take out a man whose wife accused him of domestic violence. After finishing the job, he takes the woman’s incomplete payment of $60 and buys drugs, while someone observes him from a car.
His ex-wife, and the mother of his daughter Kaylee, berates him from skipping out on buying Kaylee’s homecoming dress. Mike self-loathes and regrets leaving Kaylee and her mother, before getting high. In the morning, he’s woken up by a husband-wife duo named William and Cindy. They offer him a spot on a bank-robbing crew.
He reluctantly accepts after being offered $400,000. He sees the same girl that hired him for domestic abuse, Delilah, with the rest of the crew. It was a test, and he’s hired muscle like most of the crew except William, Cindy, and Delilah who all know each other beforehand.
Mike is suspicious of the whole situation, and his nerves rise when the bank’s occupants are detached and nonchalant during the robbery. After the vault is broken, it turns out the loot is not money, but a powerful gauntlet. William vows to save mankind with it, as the enemies call him an apostate.
In the ensuing fight, Delilah disappears while William and Cindy get shot. A dying William reveals to Mike he was chosen by the gauntlet for the mission, before telling him he needs to find something worth fighting for. William dies and Mike grabs the gauntlet, accepting the mission to protect it and beginning his adventure.
Analysis
Hammerfist #1 is definitely a slow buildup, but the art is worth it. It’s gritty with a dark color scale that suits the themes. Impressively, Remender manages to build a gruesome and hard-hitting narrative without an abundance of drawn violence.
Mike’s beginning monologue was the genesis of the build-up. He makes a bigger deal out of his work than it really is, just to end the day by doing drugs while living in his car. It starts to sink in the feeling that he has nothing to live for. He has no purpose, which makes his silent search for one, and William entrusting him with the gauntlet all the more impactful.
The way Mike believed in William’s mission stood out to me. Despite being in pain and dying, William died with a peaceful look. In contrast, Mike went to sleep, healthy and in the safety of his car, but depressed. The contrast gives weight to why Denton would want to listen to William, he wants that peaceful feeling.
The book is morally gray throughout. Despite William’s insistence on doing this mission to prevent evil, he and Cindy treat the other crew members besides Delilah as expendables, as they take the heat from the cops.
However, I don’t think the issue does enough to make us care for William and Cindy, even with the morally gray characteristics and the emotional death. Their emotional impact is understood, but not felt because the issue lacks an in-depth look at them as characters, their relation to the mission, and as parents. Especially since William’s death felt early. This is the only real gripe I have with the story so far.
The situation has me captivated. Turning a shady bank robbery premise into one involving magic–with William speaking literal incantations–and otherworldly weapons, was a good twist. I’m interested in seeing how magic is used within this gritty world, but even more intrigued in watching how it shapes Mike’s personality and journey in the following issues.
Final Thoughts
Rick Remender’s latest book is an entertaining dive into the mind of a nihilistic killer, who finally discovers the genesis of a life purpose.
