History ComicBook / Hitman1993

With these, a lot of guns, and a loyal band of friends, Tommy's contracts will always set him off on insane adventures one can expect in a colourful world like Franchise/TheDCU, but this being a Garth Ennis book, there's always a darkly humourous and satirical bent. What other comic can you read about hitmen fighting zombie baby seals, two-headed mafiosos, Ricean vampire pansies, gun-demons, dinosaurs, {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, the Justice League, Franchise/{{Batman}} and SelfDemonstrating/{{Lobo}}?

** More obscurely, Scarback, the ''T. rex'' in the dinosaurs arc seems to be one for Satanus, a similar ''T. rex'' that appeared in a spinoff series in ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' after turning up in a ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'' storyline. The arc where Scarback appears involves a hunter traveling back in time to kill dinosaurs, which was also the premise of ''ComicBook/{{Flesh}}'', which featured Satanus's mother Old One-Eye .

* SympathyForTheHero: Though Tommy's not villainous, he hates all superheroes... except Superman. Superman's OK by him.

* AuthorTract: It's a Garth Ennis work. Superheroes are dicks who can't empathize with regular Joes, corporations suck, immigration themes, there's more to people than you think, you shouldn't look down on the lower class, etc. But Ennis shows that Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad.

* NinetiesAntiHero: Parodied with Nightfist. A touch hypocritical, since Tommy himself can be seen as a less pretentious and more self-aware example of the breed. Still, Nightfist steals drugs from pushers and Tommy murders people for a living, is the point.

* ShoutOut: Many. To Creator/SergioLeone's Film/DollarsTrilogy, Blade Runner, many.

** More obscurely, Scarback, the ''T. rex'' in the dinosaurs arc seems to be one for Satanus, a similar ''T. rex'' that appeared in a spinoff series in ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' after turning up in a ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'' storyline. The arc where Scarback appears involves a hunter traveling back in time to kill dinosaurs, which was also the premise of ''ComicBook/Flesh'', another 2000 AD title.

** More obscurely, Scarback, the ''T. rex'' in the dinosaurs arc seems to be one for Satanus, a similar ''T. rex'' that appeared in a spinoff series in ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' after turning up in a ''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'' storyline.

* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: A ''Stegosaurus'' coexisting with a ''TyrannosaurusRex''.

->''"I’m interested in Hitman as a character in the larger DCU, and 'the area of Gotham so bad that Franchise/{{Batman}} doesn’t go there,' because Batman is a dude that has paid multiple visits to a planet literally called [[{{ComicBook/Darkseid}} Apokolips.]]"''

* WorthlessTreasureTwist: An annual focuses on a good-old-fashioned treasure hunt; a million dollars stolen in the closing days of the OldWest and buried in a coffin marked with a dollar sign - in a [[Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly graveyard]] with over [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles a thousand others]]. [[spoiler:The local sheriff finds out where it's buried, leaves his own men to be killed by a crime boss while he digs it up... only to discover that it was a million ''paper'' dollars, which the robbers had planned to dig up within a month or two. After a century? The sheriff staged a NewOldWest-style massacre in order to claim a box full of dry, rotten paper. Which Tommy and Natt bury him in]].

* MeaningfulName: Tommy's mother was the town whore, with her clients discreetly visiting her but showing nothing but contempt during the day. She got back at them by naming each child after the father, calling the kid by name every time the father (and his wife) were nearby. [[spoiler:This gets her killed after a local psycho warns her not to do the same with him.]]

** Kathryn [=McAllister=] from the final arc, "Closing Time," is the same woman as Kathryn O'Brien from Ennis's run on ''Punisher''. (In her final appearance, she talks about her past relationships, including "that stupid bastard Tommy.") In ''ThePunisher: Up is Down, Black is White" it's mentioned that one of O'brien's aliases is [=McAllister=].

* BadassGrandpa:
** Sean Noonan. How else can you describe a man who casually mows down a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' with a BFG and remarks to his chef-cum-co-bartender; "I think we just solved our sandwich shortage."
** Benito Gallo is a villainous example.
* BadassNormal: Almost everyone in the main cast. Tommy himself can even count since he rarely uses his two powers in combat, and he can barely hold his own in a fist fight against any remotely competent combatant. And yet, Tommy rakes a higher body count than most Horror Movie Villains.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Notably averted.
** [[spoiler: Inverted. Natt is the last of the protagonists who dies.]]
* BlackAndGreyMorality: Depends on your point of view.

* EvilAlbino: The evil albino African FlyingBrick known as Skull.

* AuthorTract: It's a Garth Ennis work. Superheroes are dicks who can't empathize with regular Joes, corporations suck, immigration themes, there's more to people than you think, you shouldn't look down on the lower class, etc. But Ennis shows that TropesAreNotBad.

* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: In one issue, a group time displaced Tyrannosaurs are going around causing general havoc and destruction, and one of them eats Baytor...only to spit him back out a few moments later.

** He eventually warms up to GreenLantern, but still thinks he's naive and fun to screw with.

* TakeThat: One newspaper has articles titled "A cretin kicked a ball today and was paid too much money - why?" and "Some idiot with a stick and stupid trousers got cash for pushing a ball into a hole - eh?"

Aaannd then you'd find out the Real Answer is: ''Hitman''.

''Hitman'' is a CultClassic comic book series written by popular and controversial writer Creator/GarthEnnis of ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'' and ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'' fame and drawn by frequent Ennis collaborator John [=McCrea=], starring Tommy Monaghan. It had its origins in the [[TheNineties 1990s]] [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks Dark Age]]-tastic Bloodlines CrisisCrossover, where aliens invaded Earth to murder human beings and drain their spinal fluids. Which somehow gave the few survivors superpowers in the process. It was easily forgettable, and the cast of NinetiesAntiHero equally so. Bloodlines was meant to profit off the Dark Age phenomenon by creating a new batch of "heroes" for the era, because, after all, DarkerAndEdgier sells, doesn't it?

With these, a lot of guns, and a loyal band of friends, Tommy's contracts will always set him off on insane adventures one can expect in a colourful world like Franchise/TheDCU, but this being a Garth Ennis book, there's always a darkly humourous and satirical bent. What other comic can you read about hitmen fighting zombie baby seals, two headed mafiosos, Ricean vampire pansies, gun-demons, dinosaurs, {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, the Justice League, Franchise/{{Batman}} and Lobo?

** He meets the League proper in Creator/GrantMorrison's ''JLA'', and they're treated... well, they're not ''bad'' people in his eyes, but [[spoiler:it's revealed that he let Bueno Excellente rape GL while unconscious, so he probably still thinks GL's a sissy]]. Flash is shown as humorless([[spoiler:and useless without his powers]]) but still brave and professional. He's polite and respectful to WonderWoman(though that might have something to do with Tommy's [[PowerPerversionPotential X-Ray vision]]) and they treat each other as fellow warriors.

** He eventually warms up to GreenLantern, and seems to be a pretty big fan of WonderWoman when he meets her.
** If his brief crossover appearance in Creator/GrantMorrison's ''JLA'' is to be believed, this has a lot to do with Tommy's [[PowerPerversionPotential X-Ray vision]].