This is a review of Hitman: A Rage in Arkham. Garth Ennis, the writer of Hitman, is notorious. In this volume, you get PG-13 Garth because this is a superhuman comic. Superhuman, not superhero. Tommy Monaghan has X-ray vision and he can read minds. He is also a hitman who does hits on superhumans. Deep down, Tommy is portrayed as a decent guy with a sense of honor, even though he’s not. You can take this as sly meta-commentary, or just treat it like good stupid fun. Since many 90’s comics can be described as just stupid, this was and continues to be a standout title.
Tommy is hired to kill the Joker in Arkham Asylum. This leads to an encounter with Batman and a ten-armed hellfiend called The Mawzer. The best part of this volume is when Monaghan does a bunch of side-jobs in Arkham for beer and pizza money. Tommy also goes on a date, and reads her mind to discover what kind of food she likes. Hey, it beats cyber-stalking. Oh, and he throws up on Batman’s shoes.
This title works best when it is the equivalent of an action movie. From my recollection, the earlier part of this series is a lot of fun but goes downhill in later volumes, but we will see. Monaghan’s sense of honor amounts to only killing what he considers to be the bad guys. He’s written as a decent guy with a tough, blue-collar job. Like most of us, he worries about money, but he wouldn’t dream of using his newly found mind-reading powers to sell Batman’s secret identity to the highest bidder.
The trick to writing Hitman – and any other title featuring The Punisher, The Vigilante, or any other character whose main occupation is murder – is to portray the character as street smart rather than a homicidal maniac/serial killer, and have the villains be so scummy they always deserve what they get. This is also the formula for the billion or so buddy cop movies I watched in the 80’s.
Recommended!
Abandoned Places 
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