Columns 

Friday Recommendation: Hitman

By | September 18th, 2009
Posted in Columns | % Comments

Garth Ennis is one of the most prolific writers out there, as his gritty work on Vertigo titles like Preacher and Hellblazer and his MAX run on the Punisher have proven to be some of the most critically acclaimed work from the past twenty years. However, in my opinion his second best work (besides my favorite comic ever Preacher) is the lesser known and sadly not even reprinted in trades title Hitman. Hitman is one of the most hilarious, touching and altogether brilliant comics I’ve ever read, and I hope that you all are convinced to check it out (however you can) after you read this.

Hitman follows Tommy Monaghan, a hitman (natch) based out of Gotham City who specializes in all of the jobs that other hitmen shy away from —the superpowered and supernatural varieties. Why is that? Because during DC’s horrifically terrible “event” from 1993 Bloodlines, he was attacked and bitten by an alien parasite and then developed powers that included X-ray vision and a low level form of telepathy. It gives him advantages over other hitmen, but he doesn’t really use it as it makes him ill and have headaches every time he uses his power. Yet he takes the jobs anyways, because they get him a ton of money and he is VERY good at his job.

While a lot of the series is about he and his best friend Natt going on hits or getting mixed up with local mafia or any number of other things, a lot of the series is based around expanding on the cast of characters at Noonan’s Bar (their primary hangout). Characters such as the aforementioned Natt, Sean Noonan (the owner of the bar), Ringo Chen (fellow hitman and sometimes competitor and sometimes friend), Tiegel (Tommy’s girlfriend), or other bizarre characters like Sixpack (drunken superhero/Noonan’s regular) and Baytor (former Lord of Insanity in Hell, current bartender in Noonan’s — he only screams “BAYTOR!” to communicate) really give the series much of its depth, as they give Tommy a support group and family throughout. Other writers could easily just make this about a metahuman hitman killing seemingly randomly, but this series is grounded in its characters and relationships, with Ennis handling them as well as any aspect of the book.

Ennis occasionally expands the cast by bringing in special guest stars to the series that add a lot of weight to it. In one particularly good issue, Tommy is hanging out on a roof in Gotham when he meets Superman. Superman is down in the dumps because he saved multiple astronauts in a space mission gone awry, but did not save the last one. He says that he looked in the last astronauts eyes as he flew away and saw him thinking “how could you not save me?” and the weight of what that means to means so much to the American people. Of course, given that Tommy is the man, he shares with Superman why Supes is so special and why he is the perfect American (as you can see if you click on the image). Superman, now totally cured of any ills, thanks Tommy, takes a picture with Tommy and then flies off. And then Tommy laughs, contemplates the evening, and then kills his mark that is in the building across the way.

Writing an issue like that takes a very unique and special writer, as there is a lot of power and emotion in the issue, and to end it in such a depraved and frankly hilarious way is a special thing. It really shows the masterful storytelling power Ennis has in his grasp.

Series artist John McCrea (not the lead singer of Cake) is a perfect foil for Ennis in many ways, as he is good at representing all of these often bizarre and depraved events in as realistic a fashion as humanly possible, and just as able at handling the more careful moments of humanity that we often see. Of course, perhaps McCrea’s greatest contribution was this: one night Ennis and McCrea were drinking together when Ennis challenged McCrea to come up with a character name that was worse than Green Lantern. That name?

Continued below

Dogwelder.

Dogwelder ended up being part of Hitman‘s incredibly lame (and awesome!) version of the JLA, a group called Sector 8 that was led by Sixpack and featured such characters as Bueno Excellente (“defeats evil by the powers of perversion!”), the Defenestrator (essentially the Terminator, if he carried a window around all the time in which he would break overcriminals heads), and the aforementioned Dogwelder. Dogwelder would take dead dogs and weld them to criminals, naturally, and he was maybe the single most bizarre and funny character ever.

Ultimately though, this story isn’t about Dogwelder or the supporting cast or anything else of that sort. It is about Tommy Monaghan, a character who in my mind is every bit as awesome as Jesse Custer, the better known and equally badass protagonist from Ennis’ Preacher. Monaghan has the unique ability to alternately be hilarious, emotionally true, badass, and the best drinking buddy you can ever imagine. In many ways, he’s the perfect protagonist as he is a real human being with real human problems, if it weren’t for the fact he was a hitman of demons and supervillains (and occasionally Santa Claus). He’s the man Superman goes to for advice, he’s the man Batman hates but tolerates, and he’s the best hitman in all of Gotham (a place well known for its criminals.

Really, he’s just the man. He gives the entire story its core and is one of the greatest protagonists in comic history in my opinion. This is a woefully under read series that will one day get the recognition it deserves. I just hope it’s soon, because I’m tired of dusting off my old issues when I could be reading trades.


//TAGS | Friday Recommendation

David Harper

EMAIL | ARTICLES


  • Columns
    Friday Recommendation: 5/9/2009 – 5/3/2013

    By | May 3, 2013 | Columns

    Image via DeviantArtYesterday was our 4 year anniversary, and we couldn’t be happier! So happy, in fact, that we are retiring the first recurring column this website has ever had.Wait. What?Let’s back up a bit. Pardon me while I get overly self-indulgent for a minute or two.When the site first started as a simple blog […]

    MORE »
    Columns
    Friday Recommendation: Not My Bag

    By | Apr 19, 2013 | Columns

    Earlier this week we got the sad news that “Li’l Depressed Boy” will be going on hiatus for a little while. To tide you over in the interim, what could be better than another Image Comic, a highly unusual one-shot from the series’ illustrator, Sina Grace? Centering on a stint working in high-end retail, “Not […]

    MORE »

    -->