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Hit Back: A Hitman Retrospective
Writer: Garth Ennis For those of us who weren't brought up with American comics, the hazy, ill-defined period of discovery can show a lot about a person. Eventually, we find enough discourse on the subject to decide which titles we will like and which we won't. But before you have met with the regular prejudices and history of the medium, there's a moment when you just pick up anything that looks interesting. For me to state which comic was the first I ever read would be impossible - I'd read toy tie-ins as a child and had graphic novels sent to me during my teen years. But the first time I really started collecting a single series started with the random selection of a trade from the shelf in a Virgin Megastore. It was the first HITMAN collection, and the copy on the back read, "No fancy costume. No magic tricks. Just plenty of ammo, a pack of cigs, and a pitcher of beer." I smiled, nodded in agreement and laid down my tenner. As a footnote in the history of an otherwise poorly regarded crossover, HITMAN is under-appreciated. "Blood-Lines" stretched across the DC universe for a month, aiming to create the next generation of heroes. That Tommy Monaghan is the only survivor of the crossover's "spinal fluid-sucking demons from outer space" is partly testament to the quality of his creators, but it's also likely that its survival can be attributed to the popularity of writer Garth Ennis' other work. PREACHER effectively kept HITMAN afloat when it's sales dipped below the cancellation line. Its initial sales burst shortly petered out as the fans lost interest, failing to recognise one of the greatest comics of the nineties. A title that would eventually end with a whimper, not a bang. Tommy Monaghan is a hitman. Not a particularly great hitman, he's just good enough to keep himself in beer and pizza money. Thus his life would have remained if he hadn't ended up on the wrong-end of a Vampire Demon From Outer Space. Failing to kill him, this beast instead gave Tommy super-powers - telepathy and X-ray vision (DEMON ANNUAL #2). Resisting the urge to strap on the spandex and right wrongs, Tommy continued to kill for money, only now he specialises in killing super-people (HITMAN #1). The super-powers are incidental to a man who spends most of his time in a bar playing pool, rather than discussing solving world hunger in a moon base. Tommy's normality is the core of the character and anchors him whenever things start getting a little weird. Throughout the series, things have definitely become a little weird, with visitations from hell on three occasions (HITMAN #1-3, #15-20, #51-52), a dinosaur infestation (HITMAN #44-47), a vampire infestation (HITMAN #37-38) and a whole lot of zombies (HITMAN #13-14). But while Tommy's local pub may employ a demon as a barman, everything else remains nailed to the ground. The characters complain about lack of money, about arguing with their girlfriends, but mostly, about mortality. When a super-hero dies, it's sign-posted months in advance and you're always sure it won't be for long. Death for super-heroes is like the common cold, a minor inconvenience. We come to accept this unreality, like we accept men in spandex shooting fire from their eyes. It knits with the internal logic of the super-hero world. But when ninety percent of a series is set in a pub with a group of people who are as real as any person you know, that approach doesn't work. Instead, in HITMAN the life-changing effects of super-powers are shown to devastating effect, and the lack of hype surrounding the title actually allowed it to pull off some genuine surprises. This lead to some genuinely emotional scenes, both for the characters and for the readers, such as when Tommy's best buddy, Pat Noonan, is tortured to the point of near death and it's left to Tommy to finish him off (HITMAN #6). In another scene, Tommy finds a friend dead and complains, "I wish I could cry, but these damn [superhuman] eyes won't let me" (HITMAN #49). By the end of the series, Tommy's apathy towards life and his own survival begins to show through. He will not ride off into the sunset, he will be going down with a 9mm round in his back. Whilst Tommy claims to make some kind of moral judgement on everybody he kills, it's nothing more than inward justification of his life spent clasping that Beretta. Maybe Tommy could have been a hero, had he not had the upbringing he did. He certainly shows the potential - he cares a great deal. He looks after a woman he barely knows, for no other reason than he once failed her (HITMAN #53). He worries about his best buddy getting mixed up in his criminal life (HITMAN #4). The best example of how much Tommy cares is during one of his frequent fights with on-again/off-again love interest Deborah Tiegel. During the fight, Deborah accuses Tommy of almost calling her a bitch (HITMAN #28). Tommy goes to great pains to prove to Deborah that he'd never dream of calling any woman a bitch. It's a point that really gets to him, but one that Deborah ultimately brushes off as insignificant. Because he's only human. In point of fact, I've often believed that this made Tommy more heroic a figure than the Batmans and Supermans of the world. Tommy is constantly forced to cope with the worst the world can throw at him: The constant paranoia of the next generation coming up to finish you off, that bad job coming back to haunt you, living in the poorest area in town. Tommy's firm grasp on the life raft of morality in the storm of seeping horrors that surrounds him is a testament to his convictions. But Tommy is not alone in this world. A small group of hitmen flesh out this world where moral issues and murder-for-money collide. Although each of his friends has a differing view on the issue, each of them is as good a man as Tommy. In fact, it's Natt The Hat who is often the Devil's Advocate to Tommy's ill-formed Catholic morality. They may be the best of friends, but Natt never hesitates to point out when Tommy is being stupid. Whilst the series seems to revolve around Tommy being destined for something better, it's Natt that keeps things grounded when they threaten to take off. The other killers, Ringo Chen, Hacken, Sean Noonan, all hold a world-weary respect for each other. They waste their lives playing poker and drinking beer. They all dream of something better, even the retired-killer, Sean. It's this bond, this willingness to wade ankle-deep through dead bodies to back up a buddy, that spells out these individuals' short lives. They all know a horrible truth that none of us can ever be party to, and it's this truth that is their bond. While Alan Moore has displayed his distaste for super-heroes through disappointment and Warren Ellis has done so through cynicism, Garth has always resorted to humiliation. He gives us caricatures instead of characters. The worst to suffer under his pen was GREEN LANTERN, a goofy costume with even goofier powers, but still a character under it all. In HITMAN, Kyle Rayner becomes nothing more than a cliché and acts horribly out of character merely to be the punch line to all Tommy's jokes (HITMAN #9-12). At least BATMAN acts in character, even if he will have to wash vomit out of his costume (HITMAN #1-3, BATMAN CHRONICLES #4). The only super-heroes to get off lightly in their dalliances with Tommy were CATWOMAN, whose overt sexuality was used to great abandon (HITMAN #15-20) and SUPERMAN, who won the title an Eisner Award (HITMAN #34). SUPERMAN's guest appearance is a wonderful piece of writing, striking to the core of the modern super-hero icon. Tommy even managed to grab a laugh in one of his rare sojourns to another title, his two-page cameo in the Grant Morrison scripted JLA. The fact that Tommy auditioning for the Justice League is a complete warping of DCU reality doesn't come up in his blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance (JLA #5). It's just more evidence of how Tommy doesn't fit into the DCU. HITMAN is effectively the love child of two men and a host of tertiary creatives. This is Garth Ennis and John McCrea's baby. While Garth gives the characters things to say and do, it's John's work that made me fall in love. He is one of the most talented and under appreciated artists working in comics today. When he wants to, he can do anything from ultra-realism to cartooning. Each character has a definitive look, even unimportant background figures. Story telling is as natural as breathing to John. He is one of the most amazingly organic and emotive pencillers. When the title began, Garth covered the pages in caption boxes, but they slowly disappeared over time as he realised that John is more than capable of handling the job of telling the story. When Garth throws in some expository dialogue that has Natt console Tommy over his loss of a father figure (HITMAN #60), it merely told us what John had already shown in a beautiful panel in an earlier issue (HITMAN #49). John is ably assisted by Gary Leach. Gary adds the realism, the dark swarming shadows and the clear line-work. He is already working on a good thing, but adds immeasurably to the final product. The first time I noticed how well the two men worked together was during "For Tomorrow", a story that focused on the gritty realism and Hong-Kong action flicks that inspired HITMAN in the first place (HITMAN #39-42). All of this ably assisted by Carla Feeny on colours, layering in the subdued tones that are the only option as far as this title is concerned. Although there were regular mistakes in the colouring, Carla's overall design sense is impeccable. When she really wants to show off, when she takes her time, as in the naval battle at the beginning of the "Old Dog" arc, she can produce stunning work. In fact, that sequence is almost the perfect illustration of what this dynamic art team can achieve when working at the top of their game (HITMAN #47). However, most of the covers appear to have been thrown together at the last minute and tend to mar the overall experience. Some of them are unforgivably ugly. But when they're good, they're very, very good. The best example is the first part of the "For Tomorrow" story (HITMAN #39). It's the kind of cover that wouldn't look out of place on the front of a Hong Kong action flick box. It so effortlessly demonstrates the contents of the issue in a visually interesting way that it's often hard to tell why the other covers are so rushed. When I found HITMAN on that shelf, it was almost like an epiphany. I didn't know there was material out there like this. I thought comics were filled with bland heroics and men in capes. I wanted to know more, so I started visiting my local retailer more. I scanned the shelves. I tried a title here or there. The sad truth, I discovered, was that HITMAN is a one-of-a-kind title. I soon discovered other titles of a similar quality, but nothing that spoke so directly to me as HITMAN. Obtain this series however you can, because I suspect neither Garth nor John will ever do anything equal to it again. John Fellows works in the television industry providing assistive services to the deaf community. Ninth Art endorses the principle of Ideological Freeware. The author permits distribution of this article by private individuals, on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice. Back. |