Line #7 YMMV/MikeHammer


1	!! Books
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3	* {{Anvilicious}}: ''One Lonely Night'' is one long screed against communism and how its an existential threat to America. Also, stupid and dirty.
4	* CriticalDissonance: Critics hated the books back in the day, and to a large extent they still do, but there's no denying their popularity. Spillane himself joked about this.
5	-->"Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar … If the public likes you, you’re good."
6	* HarsherInHindsight: Mike Hammer's disgusted reaction to [[spoiler: Juno's gender]] in ''Vengeance is Mine'' reminds many readers of gay panic or justification for hate crimes against trans people. It's also completely irrelevant to the plot.
7	* MisaimedHatedom: One of the interesting things about the critical backlash for Mike Hammer's adventures is the disdain for Mike being a brutal killer who disdains the law, engages in ColdBloodedTorture, and is a VigilanteMan. The thing is that even in the first book and made as a plot poiny by ''One Lonely Night'', the books make it clear that Mike Hammer is ''meant'' to be a {{Antihero}} and SociopathicHero that suffers severely from a dark side he can't control.
8	* MoralEventHorizon: Common as often villains are only revealed in the final chapter and FalseFriend types.
9	** ''I, The Jury'''s [[spoiler: Charlotte Bennett loses the audience's sympathy when it's revealed not only did she kill Mike's friend in a painful, humiliating fashion, to cover up her heroin ring but that she also murdered Mike's mentally disabled friend among almost a dozen other victims in CrimeAfterCrime. Mike, who was ready to marry her, kills her before saying it was easy.]]
10	** ''My Gun is Quick'''s [[spoiler: Arthur Berin-Grotin when it's discovered that he kicked out his granddaughter for getting pregnant and forcing her into a life of prostitution to survive, which turns out to be the business he runs in the city. He then had her killed, hiring Mike Hammer just to throw off suspicion. Combined with murdering Mike's girlfriend, Lola, Mike utterly loses his shit and decides dying to TakingYouWithMe is worth it before changing his mind only at the last second.]]
11	* {{Narm}}: The ending of ''Vengeance is Mine'' changes absolutely nothing and has no effect on the plot that [[spoiler: Juno was actually a man.]]
12	* ValuesDissonance:
13	** Hammer hates [[DirtyCommunists commies]], [[DepravedHomosexual queers]] and [[Film/ReeferMadness marijuana dealers]] with equal passion. When the character was watered down for the Creator/StacyKeach series, his old fashioned values were often played for laughs; e.g. Hammer's love for cigarettes at odds with the growing social disdain for smoking.
14	** Mike gets into a serious relationship with Velda in ''One Lonely Night'' and habitually cheats on her every book thereafter with multiple women. This is considered to be a sign of his manliness rather than a major character flaw and something Velda is just meant to ignore.
15	* TheWoobie: Red in ''My Gun is Quick'' turns out to have been kicked out of her family, a bunch of millionaires, for getting pregnant out of wedlock and is forced into prostitution. She then found out that [[spoiler: her grandfather was behind the prostitution ring and attempted to expose him, only to be murdered.]]
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17	!! Films
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19	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Spillane was bitterly amused--at best--about the movie version of ''Kiss Me Deadly'', for the changes it made both to the story (changing it from a Mafia-oriented yarn to one about a nuclear powder keg) and to Hammer himself (making him into a "divorce dick" who routinely pulls scams on both sides of the case).
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21	!! Series
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23	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "Harlem Nocturne" by Earle Hagen, the theme song of the 1980's TV series, which Hagen wrote.

Context YMMV / MikeHammer