Tag: hitman

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Hitman Volume Two: 10,000 Bullets

This is a review of Hitman Volume Two: 10,000 Bullets. You can read my review of the first volume, here. There’s a scene in this volume where Natt the Hat – Tommy Monaghan’s hitman friend from Detroit – stomps on a ninja’s crotch to get information. This isn’t unusual. The hero displaying his manhood by beating the crap out of a guy who can’t fight back is a staple of action movies, especially buddy cop movies. The person getting beaten up is always a bad guy, which in action movie logic makes it okay. The problem is, what if the person doing the beating is also a bad guy?

Because Natt the Hat is a bad guy, just like Tommy Monaghan is a bad guy. This isn’t an insult. They kill people for a living, and they know the score. Garth Ennis (the writer) makes them likable. He gives Monaghan an imaginary code, i.e. don’t kill the good guys. Except Tommy is the person who determines who’s a good guy. None of that changes the fact that normal people view him with revulsion, fear, and hatred.

To wit: after getting shot, Tommy and Natt hole up in his girlfriend Wendy’s apartment. Wendy doesn’t know Tommy’s a hired killer, and is shocked when he shows up on her doorway half-dead. She lets him bleed on her couch until he’s well enough to leave, and then tells him to get out. She isn’t nice about it, either. And just like that Wendy is Tommy’s ex-girlfriend.

Natt the Hat – who serves as a sort of a Hitman Everyman – asks Tommy what he was thinking. Because he knows that a girl like Wendy is way out of Monaghan’s league. Natt knows it, the reader knows it. The only person who doesn’t is Tommy, who has an adolescent streak a mile long when it comes to women. AWWW SHUCKS LOOK AT ME I’M DATING A GURL!!!!!!!!!

Natt might not be able to read minds, but he can read people better than Tommy (who can read minds). When Tommy introduces Natt as his new best friend at Noonan’s (dive bar), his old best friend Pat gets upset. Natt sees this, but Tommy doesn’t. Tommy didn’t even mean anything bad by it – maybe. When Hacken (another hitman) punches Pat and calls him a coward, Monaghan breaks it up but later tells Natt that he thinks Hacken is right. It’s a lack of respect, which pays off big time. When Pat is later tortured for information, Tommy’s words are what keeps him from blabbing. Monaghan’s reaction to all this is to go on a killing spree, but the self-hatred isn’t hard to see.

Anyway, I liked this graphic novel a lot. Be warned: this is a very violent comic (there’s a 20+ page shootout that’s awesome), but it is comic book violence and thus not realistic. Still: if violence upsets you, you might not want to read this. There are also a few slurs that people used in the 1990’s that are (rightfully) taboo today.   

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Hitman: A Rage in Arkham

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!