History Creator / GarthEnnis

* GodIsEvil: Ennis is an atheist, and is very forthcoming about that fact. In his work that deals explicitly with the Judeo-Christian religion, God Himself is either a drooling imbecile (''Hellblazer, Chronicles of Wormwood'') or a complete asshole (''Preacher''). Summarized briefly, the world in Ennis's fiction is so deeply flawed that any God responsible for creating it is either insane or unthinkably cruel. God's ''servants'', on the other hand, run the gamut from good to bad to indifferent.
** One can make the argument his series ''Rover Red and Charlie'' is a case of PlayingAgainstType. The titular three are dogs in a human apocalypse, but are good and loyal servants who like having masters and cross the country searching for them, with only their faith to tell them it is where they should go. [[spoiler: Said faith is ultimately rewarded]]. Whether or not this was Ennis's intention is unknown.

** How morality can't be treated as a black and white concept, the heroes of his comics are only better than the villains because they are in harmony with their inner-demons and can do what's necessary because of it.

* ''Jimmy's Bastards'' - A slightly affectionate James Bond parody. A British super-spy is unknowingly targeted for assassination by his virtual legion of illegitimate children.

*** The Batman/Iron-Man expy (Tek-Knight) ultimately possesses genuinely heroic attributes despite being an asshole (he sacrifices his life to save a mother and her child), and unlike the rest of the heroes his questionable tastes were due to having a genuine problem with his brain (in this case a tumor the size of a fist) rather than being a hedonistic asshole. The Wolverine expy is a psycho with two hammers in the place of his hands whose vocabulary is limited to "Gonna!".
*** On the other hand, ''Hitman'' features a Batman expy (who exists in the DC Universe [[ExpyCoexistence alongside the actual Batman]]) called Nightfist, who is little more than a costumed thug who goes around at night beating up homeless people.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: His works are [[ComicBook/TheBoys very,]] [[ComicBook/{{Crossed}} very,]] [[ComicBook/AWalkThroughHell very]] cynical, oftentimes veering disturbingly close to outright nihilism. The villains are probably among the most depraved in all of fiction, the "heroes" make morally reprehensible decisions, extreme violence is his characters' solutions to problems, and [[HumansAreBastards the human race is not depicted very pleasantly]]. the He could give Creator/AlanMoore, Creator/MarkMillar, and Creator/WarrenEllis a run for their money in cynicism in comic books! Coincidentally, all of them are from the UK.

* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' - Film/InglouriousBasterds meets Super Heroes; A squad of {{Sociopathic Hero}}es cause all sorts of hell for the local VillainWithGoodPublicity {{Smug Super}}s. Adapted into a [[Series/TheBoys2019 television series]] in 2019.

* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' - Film/InglouriousBasterds meets Super Heroes; A squad of {{Sociopathic Hero}}es cause all sorts of hell for the local VillainWithGoodPublicity {{Smug Super}}s.

** ''Sara'', about a Russian sniper on the Eastern Front.

* ''Comicbook/DastardlyAndMuttley'' - a SettingUpdate of the ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'' cartoon series, with the two characters being US Air Force pilots affected by a mysterious substance that causes ToonPhysics and cartoonish insanity.

* WriteWhoYouKnow: A lot of his best-written characters are Irish. Although unusually for this trope, his actual opinion of "Irishness" is... extremely mixed, to say the least, especially in contrast with his high opinion of "Britishness" and "American-ness". Many of his Irish characters are also among his ''worst'' characters, as people. He also emigrated to America as soon as possible, and became a citizen in 2016.

--> But there some things you can always rely on and these were real men, don't forget. Real flesh and blood. Not multicolored shit dreamed up by overgrown kids. Who's going to tell the world about them? Who's going to make sure their stories live on? It's why I'll always be proud to be an American soldier.

* SoldierVersusWarrior: Ennis heavily favors the "soldier" side, and the types of characters he prefers to write reflect that. Many of his favorite characters serve in the military or are otherwise members of professional fighting forces. His dislike of superheroes partly stems from this as well, and he often portrays them-- and other "warrior" characters-- as incompetent glory-seekers. He has a particular distaste for Captain America, who he sees as promoting a sanitized version of history that ignores the work of real soldiers.[[note]]In reality, Captain America was created by Jack Kirby, a World War II veteran, and Joe Simon, who served in the Coast Guard during the same period [[/note]].
--> “To me the reality of World War II was very human people, ordinary flesh-and-blood guys who slogged it out in miserable, flooded foxholes. So adding some fantasy superhero narrative, that has always annoyed me a little bit.”

Garth Ennis (born 16 January 1970) is a ComicBook writer from Holywood, UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland, known for his love of graphic violence and BlackComedy and his intense dislike of organized religion and the superhero genre. As you can imagine, [[BrokenBase he has developed quite the devoted amount of detractors among some people in the comics community]], but at his best, Ennis writes with engaging intensity, fierce humanity and complete fearlessness.

** One he brings up almost as often as religion is PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad, especially when it comes to the UsefulNotes/MeltingPot; in his view, a great percentage of humanity's problems is its refusal to let go of the past, especially when one has crossed oceans supposedly to do so, and a fresh start is freely offered time and time again. On the other hand, he doesn't apply nearly the same amount of vitriol to the kinds of identities he already admires (such as "true Irishmen", as opposed to American-Irishmen), and, in fact, is often quite positive toward them.

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: His three comic books featuring ZombieApocalypse-type scenarios (''ComicBoook/{{Crossed}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Stiched}}'' and ''Red Rover Charlie'') feature TechnicallyLivingZombies that break the traditional zombie mold. In the former two, the infected are extraordinarily sadists with a fondness for inflicting BodyHorror (and in the Crossed's case have a fondness for perversion and [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape]] as well). In ''Red Rover Charlie'', the 'Feeders' all go insane and either try to kill each other and/or themselves. In all three cases, the infected display some level of pre-infection intelligence and are capable of doings things like using weapons against those who aren't infected.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: His works are [[ComicBook/TheBoys very,]] [[ComicBook/{{Crossed}} very,]] [[ComicBook/AWalkThroughHell ''very'']] cynical, oftentimes veering disturbingly close to outright nihilism. The villains are probably among the most depraved in all of fiction, the "heroes" make morally reprehensible decisions, extreme violence is his characters' solutions to problems, and [[HumansAreBastards the human race is not depicted very pleasantly]]. the He could give Creator/AlanMoore, Creator/MarkMillar, and Creator/WarrenEllis a run for their money in cynicism in comic books! Coincidentally, all of them are from the UK.

* FanNickname: Ennis, Creator/WarrenEllis, and Creator/GrantMorrison all became popular in America at about the same time, which led many fans at the time to refer to them as the Trinity.

* StupidJetpackHitler: Downplayed. Ennis doesn't throw actual jetpacks into his stories, but whenever he writes anything about World War II, he shows the Nazis as a terrifying juggernaut; disciplined, merciless, and always with [[OffScreenVillainDarkMatter more and better stuff]] than the Allies. According to Ennis's [[ShownTheirWork research]] (most of it now DatedHistory), the Allied victory was nothing short of the greatest miracle in history, and anyone who says otherwise is either determined to [[WrittenByTheVictors re-write history]], a card-carrying idiot, or a Nazi collaborator who wants to sucker card-carrying idiotic Allies into a trap. Case in point, this conversation from Nick Fury: Peacemaker;

** ''Adventures in the Rifle Brigade'' is an early work and a rather poorly-regarded black comedy set in WW2.