Hitman

Synopsis: This includes reprints the following comics: Demon Annual #2, The Batman Chronicles #4, and Hitman #1-3.

The first story tells the tale of how Tommy Monaghan, a low level hired killer from Gotham City, got his super powers. After being surprised in the middle of a hit by an alien bloodsucking parasite named Glonth, Tommy wakes up in the hospital with permanently black pupils for eyes as well as telepathy and X-ray vision. He chooses to try to get revenge on Glonth and runs into Jason Blood and his demonic other half, Etrigan. Tommy and Etrigan manage to drive Glonth away, and Tommy decides to specialize in meta-human contracts.

The second story recounts Tommy’s first meeting with Batman, as Tommy has been hired to kill a bio-engineered human plague bomb. Ultimately he manages to kill the weapon, but Batman swears to track him down.

Following are the first three issues of the Hitman regular series. We begin to meet the regular cast of the title, and Tommy meets Wendy, a girl who doesn’t know that he kills people for a living. Tommy gets hired on a million dollar contract to break into Arkham Asylum and kill the Joker—however, it’s a setup as a group of demon lords want to have Tommy act as their agents on Earth. The Arkannone are the lords of the gun, and currently have an agent that can work on Earth named Mawzir, but his ties to Hell keep his activities to a minimum, which is why they want Tommy. After getting assistance from Batman and a certain Detective Tiegel, Tommy manages to drive the Mawzir away, and escape the clutches of both the law and Batman.

Good Stuff: First of all, the first thing you should know about Hitman is that it’s funny—wickedly funny in a very dark way. Much of that humor comes from Tommy Monaghan, who becomes a fully realized character in the course of this story. He’s got a somewhat flexible idea of right and wrong, and tries to scrupulously avoid killing anyone he considers good, yet he won’t hesitate to kill anyone else, either for money or because they happen to be standing in his way.

Additionally, one of the things that makes this series tremendously entertaining are the villains, running from the stupid and obtuse to the outright bizarre (The Dubelz brothers).

The stories also do a very nice job of giving Tommy a sense of family, despite his lack of relatives. Oddly enough, you end up cheering for this guy, despite the fact that he’s killed (literally) hundreds of people for money.

One other word as well; McCrea does a very nice job with the art here, using his somewhat cartoonish style to great effect, particularly in the very bloody battle scenes.

Not so Good Stuff: Unfortunately, McCrea hadn’t quite hit his stride with the art in the first two stories in this collection, nor do they particularly stand out, other than providing a couple of entertaining moments. Also—and it has to be said—it really does stretch credibility very thin to think there’s a guy like Tommy Monaghan running around Gotham City and Batman isn’t doing anything about him (I know he may catch up in latter issues, but at least through issue #28 Tommy had been pretty much unmolested by the superhero community at large.

I give this book 8/10.