Hitman (DC Comics)

Background

Characters

The series

I miss Hitman a lot. Preacher finished when it was supposed to, so there are no regrets with it—but Hitman could have gone on a lot longer. John McCrea and I are actually doing four issues of JLA Classified, featuring what is effectively the "lost" Hitman story, the one that we never had space for in the monthly. Writing Tommy and the boys again was sheer joy."

Trades

• In "Hitman", a hitman named Tommy Monaghan is bitten by Glonth, an alien, and gets superhuman powers. He teams up with Etrigan the Demon to fight Glonth and kills Joe Dubelz, a mob boss whose Siamese twin brother Moe puts a price on Tommy's head. The issue also introduces Pat, Sean, and Noonan's Sleazy Bar.
• In "Hitman", Tommy takes a hit on a walking biological agent named Thrax who escaped into Gotham, and a "tenth-rate assassin" named Martin Eckstein attempts to earn the Dubelz reward. Eckstein, captured by Batman, reveals that Tommy is going to kill the Joker in Arkham Asylum.
• In "A Rage in Arkham", Tommy begins a relationship with a woman named Wendy. He tells her that he is a killer, but she believes it is all an elaborate joke. Tommy enters Arkham by use of stun grenades on several police. Tommy, Batman, Detective Tiegel and the real Joker have multiple encounters; it is all because of the demonic Arkanonne, the Lords of Gunfire, and their agent, the Mawzir, who want Tommy to work for them.

• "10,000 Bullets" begins with Moe Dubelz hiring Johnny Navarone to kill Tommy. Navarone hires Tommy for a hit and then injures them in an ambush. Tommy makes Natt take him to Wendy's and calls Sean to perform medical services. As soon as Tommy is healthy, she throws them out and dumps him. They go home to find Pat dying, tortured by Navarone for information. Tommy and Nat kill Dubelz, his men and Navarone.
• In "The Night the Lights Went Out", a crossover with The Final Night, Tommy, Natt, Sean, Hacken and Ringo sit in Noonan's and recount stories of the closest each has come to death. Ringo specifically tells about the time he met Death.
• In 2010, this trade was reprinted with an additional story: In "Coffin Full of Dollars", Tommy and Natt become involved in a power struggle in a small Texan town. The art for the annual was provided by Carlos Ezquerra and Steve Pugh. Kevin Smith provided the intro.

• "Local Heroes" opens with Pat Noonan's funeral. Tiegel is kicked off the police force because she is an honest cop, unlike the corrupt Captain Burns, her former boss. He makes an enemy with CIA agent Truman, who wants him for a metahuman killing group. Detective Tiegel works with Tommy; they expose Burns.
• In "Zombie Night at the Gotham Aquarium", Tommy, Natt, Ringo and Hacken take a contract from Injun Peak to stop a scientist from re-animating dead sea creatures. As the title indicates, they fail.
• The initial 1999 paperback included the above-referenced story from the Hitman Annual.

• In "Ace of Killers", the Mawzir tricks Catwoman into stealing the Ace of Winchesters, a Winchester rifle forged in the old West to kill demons. Tommy and Natt form an impromptu alliance with Catwoman, a surprised Tiegel and Jason Blood, the occultist expert and keeper of Etrigan the Demon. Would-be superhero Sixpack even reforms his old team Section 8 to help out. A battle in Hell and in church ends with Etrigan the de facto ruler of Hell, the Mawzir dead again and the gun in new hands.
• In "Kiss Me" A misunderstanding after a romantic night with Tiegel leads to Tommy killing a valued mob officer in self-defense; this incident would have long-term consequences. This issue is the only issue of the series proper not illustrated by John McCrea; the art was done by Steve Pugh.
• In "The Santa Contract", the Christmas story, a power plant worker mutates into a radioactive Santa. Tommy is hired to kill him.

• "Who Dares Wins" involves a squad of British SAS soldiers assigned to kill Tommy and Natt over a Gulf Storm "friendly fire" incident. This correlates with 'Men's Room Louie', a Mafia boss mad over Tommy's self-defense killing. The SAS, who do not survive the confrontation, manage to kill off Louie; Tommy and Nat are believed to be the killers.
• The issues in this trade were included in the larger "Tommy's Heroes" collection released in 2011.

• "Who Dares Wins"
• "Tommy's Heroes" Looking to get away from the Men's Room Louie heat, Tommy and Natt take a job offer in Africa. They are to train an army filled with forcibly enlisted unskilled men to fight the rebels, who are selling heroin to fund their insurgency. Tommy befriends a British Airborne soldier named Bob Mitchell who was friends with Eddie Baker. They soon realize that President Kijaro and his superhuman bodyguards, Scarlett Rose and the Skull, are evil. They meet the rebels, and Tommy is convinced to help install their leader, Christian Ributu, in Kijaro's place as long as he stops dealing heroin. Ributu is warned not to be like the other rulers, or Tommy will return.
• Hitman #1,000,000 was published as part of DC's One Million crossover. Tommy is transported to the 853rd Century by some punks who believe that he was a hero and he corrects their mistaken belief quite violently. Tommy also meets the successor to fellow Bloodlines hero Gunfire.
• In "Of Thee I Sing", a starstruck Tommy meets Superman on a Gotham rooftop. Superman has just rescued a group of astronauts, but was unable to save the final man. Everyone believes Superman will save them if need be, and he struggles under the burden of representing the power of the United States of America. Tommy tells him that the America that he represents is about the opportunity for people from all over the world to cast aside old baggage and join in the melting pot. Cheered up by the pep talk, Superman thanks Tommy and signs an autograph before flying back to Metropolis. He remains oblivious to the fact that Tommy is actually on the roof to assassinate a local criminal.
• "Katie / Father's Day" Tommy's half-sister Frances comes to Gotham and explains his family history. His mother was a local prostitute who named her children after their fathers. Tom Dawson was a violent man who did not want his secrets exposed and killed her. Dawson later tracks down Frances and tortures her to death; Tommy kills Dawson in revenge.

• "Dead Man's Land" Tommy and his friends destroy a nearby vampire nest; he befriends a local woman named Maggie.
• "For Tomorrow" Tommy tells Tiegel he loves her, and she asks if he loves her enough to quit being a hitman, theoretically. Ringo has been seeing Wendy, but she realizes he is a hitman and dumps him. Ringo is targeted by the father of a man he had killed. Tommy becomes swept up in the events; Ringo does not survive the battle. Tommy later kills the father. The arc was dedicated to John Woo and Chow Yun-fat.
• "Fresh Meat" While at the Injun Peak scientific facility, a mistake literally leads Tommy and Natt to the time of the dinosaurs. Unfortunately a pack of T-rexes, led by the clever Scarback, come to Gotham in the modern day. Many are killed, but the rest decide to go home because the pollution made the city and its people literally distasteful.
• "The Old Dog" Men's Room Louie's granddaughter Isabella celebrates her wedding, and her uncle Benito Gallo offers to kill Tommy. Benito's attempt only wounds Tommy. While recuperating, Tommy finally realizes Sean is his 'true' father; having raised him all these years. A battle breaks out, with Tommy and his friends holed up in Noonan's bar. Eventually, Benito is taken hostage. This ends badly, as Benito slips his bonds while alone with Sean and both men end up killing each other. The epilogue happens fifty years later; four friends are sightseeing through Noonan's, because of a book based on Tommy's exploits. They meet an aged Hacken, who tells them that Tommy killed dozens at Isabella's wedding; a brief scene shows her dead body draped over the altar. The title is the inscription that Sean has requested on his tombstone. In the end, Tommy instead puts "Beloved Father".

• Hitman/Lobo: That Stupid Bastich In this one-shot crossover, Lobo comes to Noonan's one night. Tommy gets in a fight with him and is pursued across town. He uses perverted blackmail to get the alien to leave him alone.
• "How To Be A Super-Hero!" Around the time of #34, Ennis wrote this short story in Superman 80-Page Giant #1. Sixpack dreams that he is patrolling Metropolis, and Superman asks to tag along. Superman lectures him about the need for proof, the downside to burning prisons, and not stabbing muggers with broken bottles.
• "Super-Guy" An Injun Peak scientist and colleague of Doctor Jackson possesses his assistant with a group of demons known as the "Multi-Angled Ones". The assistant, who now has the power to literally pull any object from his rectum, goes on a rampage and Tommy and Natt are sent to deal with him. They successfully kill the assistant, only to free the Multi-Angled Ones in the process. Meanwhile, Sixpack sees the commotion and convinces a disillusioned and directionless Section 8 to rally and defeat the menace. Unfortunately, the demons promptly slaughter most of Section 8, while gloating that nothing will stop them from turning Earth into Hell. Sixpack's deluded bravery still impresses them, so he is challenged to a fight for his soul, with Earth's existence on the line. Sixpack agrees, and he and the demons disappear forever afterwards; and a statue is erected in his memory. Bueno Excelente is the only presumed survivor of Section 8 from the attack ; however, a man resembling Sixpack in his civilian identity is seen at an AA meeting, seemingly at peace.
• "Closing Time" In the final story, the Mafia put a $2,000,000 contract on Tommy's head after the wedding massacre and many would-be assassins try to collect. Tiegel's grandfather dies, and Tommy tells her they cannot see each other any more, because he is bad for her. He gives her all the money he has saved, and she goes to New York. CIA agents in the employ of Truman want to kill Maggie Lorenzo because she saw an escaped subject of his experiment duplicate the effects of the Bloodlines incident. Maggie seeks out Tommy, and finds him at the bar. Kathryn McAllister arrives, saying that she has left Truman's employ over his growing paranoia regarding superhumans. She contacts her friends at the FBI who want to take Truman down, but they offer only a helicopter with very little support.

  ''JLA/Hitman'' miniseries

Other appearances

In other media

Awards