Trivia / Hitman (1993)

• Dueling Works: According to John McCrea, he saw Gunfire as this. Both spun out of Bloodlines, both focused around a '90s Anti-Hero who was a Superhero Packing Heat, and both had a somewhat over-the-top action-hero style. McCrea found the idea of Gunfire so profoundly stupid that his mindset was more or less "if I can't beat something this dumb, I quit." Fortunately for him, Gunfire got cancelled after just fourteen issues, while Hitman made it to sixty-one. Ironically, the character's most well-known appearance since then would probably be the Take That! to him in Hitman itself, where the DC One Million tie-in issue depicts a Legacy Character to Gunfire who winds up accidentally killing himself due to his inability to control his powers.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Unlike the other DC One Million tie-ins, which got detailed notes from Grant Morrison, they only gave Ennis "Do a pisstake".
• I Am Not Shazam: Tommy is not referred to as "Hitman" in the series, nor does he identify by that as anything but the job he does, but his guest appearances in comics often have people identify him by that name. He calls himself "Hitman" exactly once in his first appearance, then disavows it the next time he shows up in The Demon and is just "Tommy" thereafter.
• Screwed by the Network: DC became notoriously gun-shy (no pun intended) about promoting Hitman after the Columbine High School shootings in 1999, which is one of the factors that ultimately led to its cancellation.
• Throw It In!: Reportedly, Dogwelder was the result of a conversation in a pub where several comics professionals competed to come up with the dumbest possible comic-book character. Steve Dillon won.

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