The Comics Gnome POOTS a Hit from the Archive!!!
Way Back in the Summer of "Aught-Four"...the Comics Gnome Pooted Forth a Nugget of Goodness for you to enjoy.
A new reprinting got me in the mood to republish this column about the subject...
DC COMICS HITMAN by Garth Ennis and John McCrea
HITMAN VOL. 1: A RAGE IN ARKHAM - NEW PRINTING
Written by Garth Ennis; Art by John McCrea
The cult hit from writer Garth Ennis (PREACHER) returns! Rediscover the story of Tommy Monaghan, an ex-military operative who has set himself up as a hired gun on the back streets of Gotham City. Collects THE DEMON ANNUAL #2, THE BATMAN CHRONICLES #4 and HITMAN #1-3!
* DC Universe
* 142pg.
* Color
* Softcover
* $14.99 US
* ISBN 9781563893148
On Sale June 17, 2009
So with this month's re-release of HITMAN, I thought it would be a good time to hear from the Comics Gnome...sometimes I miss his gruff but kind voice...his corncob pipe, his Bag O'Funnies fresh from Canada every Wednesday for the Coffeetable.
So from 8/8/2004...The Comics Gnome Pooted!
Hitman by Garth Ennis and John McCrea
DC Comics/DCU
A Complete Series in Sixty Issues
Hitman TBP Vol. 1
Since I was incessantly jabbering on about Alan Moore’s brilliant and much ballyhooed “Saga of the Swamp Thing” run, I thought I’d lend the Mind’s Eye another gander at what happens when a character is placed into the hands of a seemingly evil and mad, mad person. Allow me to introduce to you Tommy Monnahan. The Hitman. “Hero” for Hire. Has X-Ray vision and telepathy from an incident with an Alien. The “Bloodlines” cross-over event. Oh and he kills superpeople. For money. Only “bad guys” though. Ennis & McCrea have done their worst to us as readers here and its only warning is lack of the Comics Code. These partners in crime are responsible for this mess. Perhaps it is the water supply across the Pond. Not enough citrus conceivably. Just in case I’m going back and re-reading the Marvel Knights and MAX Punisher by Ennis. McCrea does have a spot here and there. Garth’s paired with Steve Dillon, his erstwhile partner on PREACHER and John Constantine: Hellblazer, on most of the MK Punisher. John McCrea has a similar bond in being the best person to convey this Ennis scripted cacophony of bones, bullets and Capes.
Hitman is convention breaking. Taking a seeming “regular” story and then making into a distortion of what is expected…besides the “good” guys walking away from impossible situations. A snide-talking, tough guy who hangs out in an Irish bar. It’s rock solid adventure and a wild shoot-em-up. Grievous head wounds. First appearance in the Demon as Jason Blood welches on Monnahan’s 2 million dollar bounty & payday. Something that’ll come back to haunt Blood later on.
100,00 Bullets
Tommy received an interview for JLA membership in one drive for warm bodies to protect the Earth (JLA #5, 1997 also in TPB #2 “American Dreams” by Grant Morrison). He was dismissed but stated that he can die happy because he only came up to check out Wonder Woman with his x-ray vision (he also “warned” Aztek on the way out of the open JLA audition “don’t mention money…that don’t like that”). Tommy had previously had a special “team-ups” with our GL and Batman...
Batman team up
...making him suited for the League. The kind of team-ups that reminded me of Daredevil and the Punisher. Also a late night rooftop conversation with Superman was a treat musing on power, responsibility and general themes found in the JLA run “Pain of the Gods” wherein the personal lives of each leaguer is examined when it comes to on-the-job causalities, an unfortunate commonality in their line of peace-keeping. The Superman issue ends in the classic Hitman fashion after Superman signs a magazine for Tommy. A thanks for listening. It’s in the background, framed in the bar.
Local Heroes, teaming up with Green Lantern.
His girlfriend? The almost obligatory love/hate with the police detective out to get him. Deborah Tiegal serves as “reality relief” seeing the whole thing is pretty much comic relief. His sidekick. Call him that and he’ll pass you your spleen. Tommy’s best friend makes his reluctant “sidekick” for lack of better taxonomy, Natt the Hat. An over-weight African-American, ex-Marine friend of Monaghan’s who’s got the Hitman’s back and who on his mother’s death bed promised never to use cuss words again. Natt’s mouth is fitting to this title. Baytor. I can’t say enough about him except…Baytor. Ringo, friend and competitor hitman. Sixpack, a failed superhero or delusional drunk in pajamas? Tommy is thrown in with Catwoman and Etrigan. He is in based in Gotham City. He’s perhaps a madcap DCU interpretation of the Punisher. Batman has equal difficulty with him as Daredevil does with the Punisher in the House of Ideas. Reading as much Ennis as I have I feel he’s truly at “home” penning the Demon Etrigan.
The comparison with Moore’s Swamp Thing is only skin deep but the interaction with DCU Superheroes and UberVolk is hilarious and good-natured…ahh heck with it, Tommy is a mean sumbitch and it can be mean-spirited in places but really fun. Ennis is almost pathological creating vile and deranged villains to throw at his “heroes” from Ma Gnucci in the Punisher to Herr Starr in PREACHER. The Siamese Twins well, consistent Ellis. Five trade paperbacks collection up to issue #28. The Comics Gnome mercilessly hustled down the rest. The Annuals. The Specials. The One Million. As the result of DC’s “Bloodlines” crossover event making new heroes and villains and seeing what is left, it’s no wonder why the Hitman was left standing. With a smoking gun in his hand. Starting in the Demon Annual #2 (introduction) and Batman Chronicles #4, the Bloodlines and Contagion even crossovers respectively, TPB #1 collects these two issues and the first three of the Hitman funnybook. Well Tommy Monaghan and Swampy do have another thing in common; they both get one over on the Batman just doing their thing. It also is Garth Ennis’ America. One part he had was PREACHER but Hitman really seems to have hit a nerve when it comes to my “Ugly American”-O-Meter. The burger joint itself screams out to me. I haven’t seen great and honest send up of Americans by a funnybook writer & artist since Akira Toriyama’s “Mitsua Sataan” from his Dragonball manga. And per the course is Garth’s usual distain for the French.
Hitman’s snide sense of humor and bold illustration remind me of the late 1980’s DC Mature “The Shadow” scribed by Andy Hefler and illustrated first by legend Bill Sienkeiwisz and later by the brilliant Kyle Baker. Hitman, as that Shadow run, seems a bit over looked. The Comics Gnome gave it brand recognition with the Ennis Trademarked Evil and dubbed it a Fun Lunatic Ride. Akin to an old movie, Ennis has to watch his tongue playing so deep in Disney Land here. The Patented grievous head wounds do seem to smuggle their way in here as much as possible. At least 5 in the Demon Annual #2. Phrases like “I think I’ve prolapsed”, “chainsaw suppository” or “Satan’s Ringpiece” colorfully and without blatant offensive vulgarity make the reader grin with delight now armed with idioms to repeat in public without much ado. I’ve always been a big fan of creative use of vulgarity and to slip it superfluously too. Nothing more base than the mouth of a common miscreant. Ennis has the mouth of an extraordinary vulgarian.
Six-Pack, the super-hero patron saint of the pieces of toilet paper that get caught to one’s heel, actually has his own team, Section Eight. This in itself needed its own title as a bizarre counter to the JLA. A team of losers, never-coulds and rejects. Not to mention Bueno Excellente and how he vanquishes evil with his powers of perversion. Bueno. Friendly Fire, Dog Welder, Jean de Baton-Baton (the fore mentioned French frying). Ringo, his non-meta counterpoint in profession and their deep respect bordering on the Bushido. Horrific themes repeat in the Ennis Body; loss of eyes, savage torture and butchery with precision, castration, two in the head.
Over in sixty issues. Reminiscent of “PREACHER” and the Punisher in many ways. Same Garth Ennis and his very imaginative uses of the DCU. The Marvel Knights Punisher was Marvel Universe Terra Firma as well bringing in fair usage of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Daredevil the Hulk. Here, Ennis has the same free range with the Green Lantern, Batman, Catwoman and Superman. Silly, bloody but well-told stories. Ennis puts the “fun” back in “funnies” with pulpy and graphic tales of violence for the sake of entertainment. Friendship, respect, sticking by your friends through thick & thin. And kicking as much ass and not taking any shit along the way. It’s like a Western in the Big City. Tommy Monnahan is about an Urban Cowboy as one can get. Outlaw, rogue, knavish. And it is sad story to boot. Is it Butch & Sundance or riding off into the sunset, it is an Urban Western still.
Something to read on your way to where you’re going. And make sure no elderly ladies can read over your shoulder. Just a shame that no further TPBs were made chronicling the 60 issues to under its halfway point.
‘Namaste.
Way Back in the Summer of "Aught-Four"...the Comics Gnome Pooted Forth a Nugget of Goodness for you to enjoy.
A new reprinting got me in the mood to republish this column about the subject...
DC COMICS HITMAN by Garth Ennis and John McCrea
HITMAN VOL. 1: A RAGE IN ARKHAM - NEW PRINTING
Written by Garth Ennis; Art by John McCrea
The cult hit from writer Garth Ennis (PREACHER) returns! Rediscover the story of Tommy Monaghan, an ex-military operative who has set himself up as a hired gun on the back streets of Gotham City. Collects THE DEMON ANNUAL #2, THE BATMAN CHRONICLES #4 and HITMAN #1-3!
* DC Universe
* 142pg.
* Color
* Softcover
* $14.99 US
* ISBN 9781563893148
On Sale June 17, 2009
So with this month's re-release of HITMAN, I thought it would be a good time to hear from the Comics Gnome...sometimes I miss his gruff but kind voice...his corncob pipe, his Bag O'Funnies fresh from Canada every Wednesday for the Coffeetable.
So from 8/8/2004...The Comics Gnome Pooted!
Hitman by Garth Ennis and John McCrea
DC Comics/DCU
A Complete Series in Sixty Issues
Hitman TBP Vol. 1
Since I was incessantly jabbering on about Alan Moore’s brilliant and much ballyhooed “Saga of the Swamp Thing” run, I thought I’d lend the Mind’s Eye another gander at what happens when a character is placed into the hands of a seemingly evil and mad, mad person. Allow me to introduce to you Tommy Monnahan. The Hitman. “Hero” for Hire. Has X-Ray vision and telepathy from an incident with an Alien. The “Bloodlines” cross-over event. Oh and he kills superpeople. For money. Only “bad guys” though. Ennis & McCrea have done their worst to us as readers here and its only warning is lack of the Comics Code. These partners in crime are responsible for this mess. Perhaps it is the water supply across the Pond. Not enough citrus conceivably. Just in case I’m going back and re-reading the Marvel Knights and MAX Punisher by Ennis. McCrea does have a spot here and there. Garth’s paired with Steve Dillon, his erstwhile partner on PREACHER and John Constantine: Hellblazer, on most of the MK Punisher. John McCrea has a similar bond in being the best person to convey this Ennis scripted cacophony of bones, bullets and Capes.
Hitman is convention breaking. Taking a seeming “regular” story and then making into a distortion of what is expected…besides the “good” guys walking away from impossible situations. A snide-talking, tough guy who hangs out in an Irish bar. It’s rock solid adventure and a wild shoot-em-up. Grievous head wounds. First appearance in the Demon as Jason Blood welches on Monnahan’s 2 million dollar bounty & payday. Something that’ll come back to haunt Blood later on.
100,00 Bullets
Tommy received an interview for JLA membership in one drive for warm bodies to protect the Earth (JLA #5, 1997 also in TPB #2 “American Dreams” by Grant Morrison). He was dismissed but stated that he can die happy because he only came up to check out Wonder Woman with his x-ray vision (he also “warned” Aztek on the way out of the open JLA audition “don’t mention money…that don’t like that”). Tommy had previously had a special “team-ups” with our GL and Batman...
Batman team up
...making him suited for the League. The kind of team-ups that reminded me of Daredevil and the Punisher. Also a late night rooftop conversation with Superman was a treat musing on power, responsibility and general themes found in the JLA run “Pain of the Gods” wherein the personal lives of each leaguer is examined when it comes to on-the-job causalities, an unfortunate commonality in their line of peace-keeping. The Superman issue ends in the classic Hitman fashion after Superman signs a magazine for Tommy. A thanks for listening. It’s in the background, framed in the bar.
Local Heroes, teaming up with Green Lantern.
His girlfriend? The almost obligatory love/hate with the police detective out to get him. Deborah Tiegal serves as “reality relief” seeing the whole thing is pretty much comic relief. His sidekick. Call him that and he’ll pass you your spleen. Tommy’s best friend makes his reluctant “sidekick” for lack of better taxonomy, Natt the Hat. An over-weight African-American, ex-Marine friend of Monaghan’s who’s got the Hitman’s back and who on his mother’s death bed promised never to use cuss words again. Natt’s mouth is fitting to this title. Baytor. I can’t say enough about him except…Baytor. Ringo, friend and competitor hitman. Sixpack, a failed superhero or delusional drunk in pajamas? Tommy is thrown in with Catwoman and Etrigan. He is in based in Gotham City. He’s perhaps a madcap DCU interpretation of the Punisher. Batman has equal difficulty with him as Daredevil does with the Punisher in the House of Ideas. Reading as much Ennis as I have I feel he’s truly at “home” penning the Demon Etrigan.
The comparison with Moore’s Swamp Thing is only skin deep but the interaction with DCU Superheroes and UberVolk is hilarious and good-natured…ahh heck with it, Tommy is a mean sumbitch and it can be mean-spirited in places but really fun. Ennis is almost pathological creating vile and deranged villains to throw at his “heroes” from Ma Gnucci in the Punisher to Herr Starr in PREACHER. The Siamese Twins well, consistent Ellis. Five trade paperbacks collection up to issue #28. The Comics Gnome mercilessly hustled down the rest. The Annuals. The Specials. The One Million. As the result of DC’s “Bloodlines” crossover event making new heroes and villains and seeing what is left, it’s no wonder why the Hitman was left standing. With a smoking gun in his hand. Starting in the Demon Annual #2 (introduction) and Batman Chronicles #4, the Bloodlines and Contagion even crossovers respectively, TPB #1 collects these two issues and the first three of the Hitman funnybook. Well Tommy Monaghan and Swampy do have another thing in common; they both get one over on the Batman just doing their thing. It also is Garth Ennis’ America. One part he had was PREACHER but Hitman really seems to have hit a nerve when it comes to my “Ugly American”-O-Meter. The burger joint itself screams out to me. I haven’t seen great and honest send up of Americans by a funnybook writer & artist since Akira Toriyama’s “Mitsua Sataan” from his Dragonball manga. And per the course is Garth’s usual distain for the French.
Hitman’s snide sense of humor and bold illustration remind me of the late 1980’s DC Mature “The Shadow” scribed by Andy Hefler and illustrated first by legend Bill Sienkeiwisz and later by the brilliant Kyle Baker. Hitman, as that Shadow run, seems a bit over looked. The Comics Gnome gave it brand recognition with the Ennis Trademarked Evil and dubbed it a Fun Lunatic Ride. Akin to an old movie, Ennis has to watch his tongue playing so deep in Disney Land here. The Patented grievous head wounds do seem to smuggle their way in here as much as possible. At least 5 in the Demon Annual #2. Phrases like “I think I’ve prolapsed”, “chainsaw suppository” or “Satan’s Ringpiece” colorfully and without blatant offensive vulgarity make the reader grin with delight now armed with idioms to repeat in public without much ado. I’ve always been a big fan of creative use of vulgarity and to slip it superfluously too. Nothing more base than the mouth of a common miscreant. Ennis has the mouth of an extraordinary vulgarian.
Six-Pack, the super-hero patron saint of the pieces of toilet paper that get caught to one’s heel, actually has his own team, Section Eight. This in itself needed its own title as a bizarre counter to the JLA. A team of losers, never-coulds and rejects. Not to mention Bueno Excellente and how he vanquishes evil with his powers of perversion. Bueno. Friendly Fire, Dog Welder, Jean de Baton-Baton (the fore mentioned French frying). Ringo, his non-meta counterpoint in profession and their deep respect bordering on the Bushido. Horrific themes repeat in the Ennis Body; loss of eyes, savage torture and butchery with precision, castration, two in the head.
Over in sixty issues. Reminiscent of “PREACHER” and the Punisher in many ways. Same Garth Ennis and his very imaginative uses of the DCU. The Marvel Knights Punisher was Marvel Universe Terra Firma as well bringing in fair usage of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Daredevil the Hulk. Here, Ennis has the same free range with the Green Lantern, Batman, Catwoman and Superman. Silly, bloody but well-told stories. Ennis puts the “fun” back in “funnies” with pulpy and graphic tales of violence for the sake of entertainment. Friendship, respect, sticking by your friends through thick & thin. And kicking as much ass and not taking any shit along the way. It’s like a Western in the Big City. Tommy Monnahan is about an Urban Cowboy as one can get. Outlaw, rogue, knavish. And it is sad story to boot. Is it Butch & Sundance or riding off into the sunset, it is an Urban Western still.
Something to read on your way to where you’re going. And make sure no elderly ladies can read over your shoulder. Just a shame that no further TPBs were made chronicling the 60 issues to under its halfway point.
‘Namaste.
Labels: Comics Gnome
posted by Rev Sully at
4:06 PM
