Black Noon is upon us, and Nygrith the Mothergrub is here to extinguish all light.
Let’s talk HAMMERFIST #3 by Rick Remender, Steve Epting, Matt Hollingsworth & Rus Wooten (IMAGE COMICS)!
HAMMERFIST #3 by Rick Remender, Steve Epting, Matt Hollingsworth & Rus Wooten (IMAGE COMICS)
*** POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING ***
Poor Cindy!
The third issue of Hammerfist finds Black Noon in full swing. The skies split open; a hellish energy surges through East Camden, Nevada, powering the infantile, demonic creature hanging above Cindy and the Council of Mothergrub.
Cindy is brutally killed in the process of becoming Mothergrub’s vessel, and now she walks the Earth, looking to snuff out all light.
All of this, witnessed by junkie scumbag Mike Denton. Mike is all of us if we were ever caught up in the arrival of the personification of darkness after a botched bank robbery. Of course, he thinks he’s still high in his car. None of this is real. It can’t be.
But it is…It is very real!
Mike is now the only person in the world who can stop this. If only he can get the damn fist to work.
read last issue’s review!
The tension built across the first three issues is thick and foreboding. We’ve been building towards Mothergrub’s arrival, knowing it signals the end of light. With her arrival this early in the run, Mike’s situation looks hopeless, but this works both ways.
Mothergrub may be here, but so is The Fist of Orrun. When the Hammerfist reawakens, it’s going to be glorious, thanks to Remender’s restraint and patience. It takes balls to use your first three issues as setup, so you have to craft intricate, compelling worldbuilding to make it worth it.
Good thing he does just that and is having a hell of a time doing so.
Steve Epting’s character designs are terrifying as shit. The Council of Mothergrub is one thing, each seemingly representing the worst parts of humanity. But Nygrith is equal parts Cthulhu and Xenomorph, down to how it attached itself to Cindy and did her in like that.
Jesus Christ!
FINAL GRADE: 8.7
Rick Remender and Steve Epting are building tension slowly but surely to make way for a hellish world where a real piece of shit person is our only hope for survival. This will pay off! I can feel it.
Let me know your thoughts on HAMMERFIST #3 in the comments below. Thanks for reading!