Sunday Splash Page #278

 

"Tourist," in JLA/Hitman #1, by Garth Ennis (writer), John McCrea (artist), David Baron (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer)

Released in late 2007, over 6 years after Hitman concluded, this was a two-issue mini-series about a heretofore untold adventure Tommy Monaghan had with the Morrison-era JLA. Clark Kent, claiming to tell a story Superman can't, reveals a time where Monaghan saved the Justice League. By killing a bunch of people.

While this conversation is taking place some undetermined time after the end of Tommy's book, the incident had to take place after Hitman #34, as Peter Kirby was prompted to go digging after heading to Noonan's for research on a story and seeing the autographed magazine cover Superman gave Tommy at the conclusion of that issue. Beyond that, it has to take place before issue #42 because of the presence of Ringo Chen. My guess is it happens shortly after issue 34, because the story after that was when Tommy learns about his parents and goes to Ireland, which put him in a real funk for awhile, not in evidence here. Plus, the space shuttle disaster that troubled Superman to the point he and Tommy talked is still fresh in his mind, so it's probably close to that.

Anyway. The League encounter a problem related to the same aliens from Bloodlines, and need the assistance (or blood) of one of the survivors. Batman fetches Tommy, intending to haul him off to jail after all this. Plus, as Flash and Green Lantern opine, all the other actual Bloodlines heroes are lame. Like, really lame.

The aliens have figured out how to grant superpowers without losing control of the people, and one switches off the JLA's powers until they can take them as hosts. Which, as mentioned above, leads to Tommy killing a bunch of possessed astronauts to save the JLA from being nuked by terrified world governments. Because it's Ennis writing superheroes, so they're not going to be too competent.

Green Lantern's there mostly to be the butt of jokes, after his less-than-dignified team-up with Tommy, and Ennis completely misses the mark on Wonder Woman, which does not surprise me in the slightest. The idea she would be so reductive as to dismiss Tommy as an assassin, nothing more, or tell Superman his empathy with Tommy doesn't reflect well on him, just seems bizarre to me. Unless Ennis was working off the Frank Miller model, which seems entirely likely.

I did laugh when, after Batman's chewed out GL for working with Tommy - and stated he's disgracing that ring, like Hal Jordan didn't try to erase the entire universe at one point, or John Stewart didn't get a fucking planet blown up - Superman shows up and shakes Tommy's hand, and we get a tiny panel of Kyle smirking at Batman. Plus the bit where, having learned Tommy's a hired killer, Superman asks what he was doing on that rooftop. Cue panel of Tommy standing there looking stupid while Batman holds up his guns in the background.

McCrea's very good at that sort of quiet humor, or offbeat stuff. The remaining Leaguers preparing for an assault, while Tommy's behind them, casually whistling as he picks up his guns. Tommy's repulsed look when he overhears Natt the Hat's dirty talk with his girlfriend, who suffered an unfortunate accident at the Injun Peak Research facility. McCrea's work is rougher than it was on Hitman. The shadows aren't as smooth or as solid, his linework is busier and thinner. It looks like he did this on a tighter deadline, but it might just be the direction his style was moving.

Superman and Tommy do have a chat late in the proceedings, because that's really what this story is about, Superman trying to understand Tommy. He seems lost at the notion Tommy could say all the things he did on that rooftop, believe in what Superman tries to stand for, yet still be a killer. Why is Superman, who believes Lex Luthor has the capacity for good, confused at something like that?

So maybe the point is that's not the kind of story superheroes are built for. Ennis tap dances around it in the first issue, when GL gets queasy about Tommy shooting pieces off the aliens - aka, torture - to get information. Then goes head-on in the conclusion, when Clark and Peter Kirby discuss Tommy's decision to kill a bunch of possessed astronauts to save the JLA in comparison to Truman dropping A-bombs on Japan, and how that's not a decision Superman is equipped to make.

Of course, it's all filtered through Ennis, so when GL discusses torture, he describes how soldiers will use it just to learn the time of day and everyone's OK with that, but the heroes get squeamish if they even hurt someone too much. I'm not sure everyone is as hunky-dory with torture as all that, but this was published in 2007, when 24 was still big on TV. People sure loved watching Jack Bauer do illegal crap to save the President, so maybe I'm not assessing it fairly.

Sunday Splash Page #248

 

"Out of the Cauldron, Into the Gunfire," in Hitman Annual #1, by Garth Ennis (writer), Carlos Ezquerra and Steve Pugh (artists), Carla Feeny and Heroic Age (colorists), Willie Schubert (letterer)

I guess in 1997, the theme for DC's Annuals was "Pulp Heroes". Which I'm sure could be taken in a lot of different ways. For Tommy Monaghan and Natt the Hat, Garth Ennis went with a spaghetti Western motif. From the title page to the first three pages of the story, where Tommy and Natt sit in Noonan's Bar and discuss their favorite parts of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Ennis makes no bones about what you're getting here.

For me, this entire issue is like that gif of Captain America saying, 'I understood that reference.' Tommy's hired for a job in a Texas border town, dominated by an uneasy peace between a corrupt white sheriff and a Mexican drug lord. Both sides are prepared to break the truce over a coffin full of dollars somewhere in a cemetery that's being bulldozed up to build a mall, and the drug lord got himself a special hired gun (named Manko, who looks like the guy who played the hunchback in For a Few Dollars More.)

Tommy makes one friend in town, who gets in trouble later for being Tommy's friend. There's the obligatory Leone-style ass-kicking, the inevitable showdown, and the last-second save by a buddy. Of course, all of this is threaded through Hitman's typical style, so Tommy's chucking around grenades to get an edge, and he doesn't really play by the rules for Western showdowns.

Ezquerra, Pugh, and Fenny keep the visual feel of the issue similar to McCrea. There's less shadows and heavy blacks in this story, but they're also in a desert town, mostly during the the daytime, rather than a crappy slum in Gotham. The art doesn't do comedic exaggeration as well as McCrea's, but it's not a story with a lot of comedy in it, so that's fine.

Sunday Splash Page #247

 

"Wedding Bell Black", in Hitman #50, by Garth Ennis (writer), John McCrea (penciler), Garry Leach (inker), Carla Feeny and Heroic Age (colorists), Patricia Prentice (letterer)

We looked at Tommy Monaghan's origin in Ennis and McCrea's run on The Demon, but today we're looking at his own ongoing series. I'm pretty sure Hitman ran for more issues than every other book starring Bloodlines characters combined, even if it wasn't much of a superhero book. Monaghan supposedly tried to develop a market as a hired killer of super-powered folks, but he spent as much time killing dumbass mob guys in suits as he did fighting demons from Hell or anything like that. 

John McCrea makes it all work. His regular people look like regular people. Saggy chins, big noses, ill-fitting clothes, stupid expressions. People glowering in menace or sneering in contempt. But he can also exaggerate when need be, whether he's drawing a multi-limbed demon from Hell, or a radioactive Santa, or Sixpack dropping a noticeable load in his drawers at the sight of said demon. He can draw dinosaurs and pretentious vampires, conjoined twins where one is a rotting corpse, morbidly obese people being used a bullet shields. Whatever Ennis needs, McCrea's got it covered.

I've not read Preacher, or really much Ennis outside this and his Punisher stuff, but I feel like this is his best, in terms of being able to mix tone. There's the large amounts of violence, which is sometimes played for laughs, and sometimes for horror. McCrea's versatility shines here, as he can do the slapstick aspects of the violence, like "Nightfist" leaping in through a window and being shot to literal pieces by an army of goons. But he can also handle the moments where the violence is meant to be sickening or sad, usually by only hinting at it. When Tommy and Natt find Pat in his bathtub, McCrea never shows us what exactly Johnny Navarone did to Pat. But we see a bathtub full of blood, we see Pat's pale skin and bloodshot eyes, and how quick Natt is to leave when Tommy drains the tub. The fact Tommy considers shooting Pat a mercy.

Ennis and McCrea work in a lot about how guys interact, not only busting each other's chops (especially everyone giving Hacken shit), or how they're constantly finding something to compete over, but also in how their own ideas of what being a man is means they aren't any good at telling each other how they feel, and the things that leaves unsaid. Again, McCrea's very good at making Tommy and the others seem human in the expressions and reactions, whether they're cracking up, swooning over Catwoman, or trying to process grief and anger.

I think one of my favorites, besides the double-page splash above, which is Tommy dealing with loss, comes in issue #36, when Tommy's learned the truth about his parentage, and confronts the man responsible for wiping out his family. Tommy's anger just bubbles off the page in how he's gritting his teeth and jabbing towards the guy (and us) with his finger. Then he shoots the guy, and there's a panel of us looking up and Tommy's distant, just watching. After he shoots him once more, McCrea draws Tommy as a dark outline, the only color the smoke from the gun barrel, as Tommy remarks, 'This is gonna piss me off forever.' That quiet acknowledgement that he hasn't ultimately been able to help or solve anything.

Monaghan's an interesting character. A killer-for-hire, but one with lines he refuses to cross. A guy more than willing to use his X-ray vision to check out a lady, or his telepathy to figure out her favorite food to improve his odds on a date, but also with enough decency to apologize when he fucks up, and to not make fun of his on-again, off-again girlfriend Tiegel when she admits she's virgin. To ultimately tell Tiegel she ought to get away from him, because he's only going to fuck up her life. It's something that gets commented on by a lot of other characters, how confusing they find it that Tommy can be perfectly willing to casually murder people, but even if a lion is threatening his life, he won't kill it, or how carefully he looks after the people he considers "his." Containing multitudes, and all that.

The whole series is Tommy steadily getting himself into bigger and bigger messes, surviving by the skin of his teeth or dumb luck. All the time, the people around him are getting whittled down. They die, or they get the hell out because they see the writing on the wall. Tommy talks about making a big payday and moving to New York, leaving professional killing behind, but it always has the manner of a dream to it. Something he talks about while sitting on the couch staring at the ceiling. Maybe someday, but, with apologies to Creedance, someday never comes. Maybe if Tommy didn't have his rules, he could get away, but he does. So he stays, and every attempt to dig himself out of a hole that started with his first appearance in The Demon Annual, just gets him in deeper. It's a little like GrimJack in that regard, the messes just building on each other and building on each other. Tommy killed his way into this, but he can kill his way out.

It's a book that can have a two-part story titled "Zombie Night at the Gotham Aquarium," and a one-off issue where a hired killer helps out Superman when he's feeling low, and neither issue feels out of place. It's one of my favorite series, period.

Sunday Splash Page #151

 

"No, No, It's Hitman, Not Human," in The Demon Annual #2, by Garth Ennis (writer), John McCrea (artist), Gene D'Angelo (colorist), Steve Haynie (letterer)

Tommy Monaghan's first appearance, and the first comic in the Hitman: A Rage in Arkham trade my lone issue of Batman Chronicles came from.

Monaghan had the misfortune to be created in the Bloodlines event, which Steve Dillon describes in the introduction to this trade as a crossover designed to create a swarm of heroes and villains to run up the flagpole, and see who got saluted. Most of the characters were lucky if they could get a one-finger salute. 

The conceit, as I understand it, was aliens (like the large fellow up there) showed up wanting to feast on human spinal fluid. And sometimes when they did this, the person got superpowers. Glonth there feasted on a mob boss, Bob Dublez, Tommy was supposed to kill, then took a bite out of Tommy. Tommy got x-ray vision and telepathy out of it, plus a bounty on his head from the mob boss' conjoined twin sons.

I mean, he didn't even kill the guy, and a bullet to the head probably would have been better than a giant alien bending you over a table and jamming a Xenomorph-like extendable inner mouth into your spine.

Jason Blood, as you can imagine, wants no part of this bullshit, but too bad. Glonth showed up at a wine tasting Jason attended, and he and Etrigan are soon sword-fighting in the street, using police cars for swords. Etrigan shows a measure of precognition I didn't know he had, hinting to Blood about Hitman's role before Tommy's even been bitten.

Jason attends the funeral for the boss, knowing there'll be trouble. Etrigan just wants a fight, and some chaos. Glonth shows up, declaring Dublez had the best tasting spinal fluid ever, and he wants to see if the sons, with a super-sized conjoined spine, will taste even better. I am completely serious about that. Tommy shows up planning to kill Moe and Joe Dublez and get the price off his head.

Visually, McCrea pretty much has Tommy's design set from the word go. He does rock a red scarf or neckerchief during all his appearances in The Demon, I assume for a splash of color. That's gone by the time he shows up on Batman Chronicles and his own ongoing, but everything else is there. Sean Noonan is pretty much set, although Pat looks much more like a strung out junkie here. 

In terms of Hitman's personality, there's farther to go. Tommy's smartass tendencies don't really appear until he shows up in Etrigan's ongoing, and his whole code about not killing "good" people isn't apparent. Not that there's anyone in this comic he would feel qualified.

Sunday Splash Page #77

"The One Where Matter-Eater Lad Covers for Batman", in Batman Chronicles #4, by Garth Ennis (writer), John McCrea (artist), Glen Murakami (colorist), Ken Lopez (letterer)

I own one issue of Batman Chronicles and that's because - 

Audience: It's drawn by Norm Breyfogle.

Ha! Wrong, it's from the first Hitman trade, A Rage in Arkham!

Chronologically, I guess this is Tommy Monaghan's second appearance (Edit: I'm wrong, this would be after both of the times he appeared in Etrigan's ongoing series. Probably his first time appearing outside that book, though)., the first after his introduction in The Demon's Bloodlines tie-in, and his first run in with everybody's favorite grumpy, flying rodent themed vigilante. No, this isn't the time where Tommy's pukes on Batman's boots. That's their next encounter. Also that's not actually Monaghan holding the gun there. He's not that stupid.

This takes place during Contagion, which I have no idea where that is in the annual disasters that befell Gotham during the '90s. I know it's before No Man's Land, but that's only because No Man's Land was when Tommy and Natt fought a bunch of stupid vampires. Gotham's struck by a plague, Batsy's trying to find a cure, and in the middle of that stumbles on Tommy and another hired gun. The hired gun is after Tommy, Tommy's after a victim of military experimentation turned into a walking dirty bomb, code-named Thrax. 

(I don't think this is from the Injun Peak Research facility that created so many other problems for Tommy in his series, at least, it isn't named that yet and they say it's near Long Island, not Gotham.)

Tommy's looking to kill Thrax before the detonator inside him makes him spread even more diseases over Gotham, but you know how Batman is about killing, especially for money. And especially when Thrax' immunity to the diseases inside him means he might be the key to a cure to the current plague. Unfortunately for Batsy, it might be his book, but it's Ennis' story, so the Dark Knight isn't going to have it his way this time.

McCrea demonstrates two skills he put to good use in Hitman: Drawing regular guys who just look kind of dumb as hell, and freaky-looking monsters. Eckstein (the other killer) is a horse-toothed grinning imbecile, and Thrax is the misshapen creature with a big lower jaw and lots of narrow teeth jammed together, weirdly long neck, covered in more and more of these little boils or pox. Near the end his face has swollen so much, you can't even tell he has eyes. Tommy chucking that grenade at him was probably a blessing.

What I Bought 6/12/2015 - Part 1

I found everything I wanted that’s come out in the last 4 weeks. It’s pretty depressing that 4 weeks adds up to only 10 comics. We’ll get to Secret Wars tie-in stuff in due course, but for now, let’s do some vaguely Bat-related books. Can the DC You win me over?

Batman Beyond #1, by Dan Jurgens (writer), Bernard Chang (artist), Marcelo Maiolo (colors), Dave Sharpe (letters) – On the left side of the cover, who is the guy below Batsy’s fist? With the spit curl? I’m not up on my “DC Apocalyptic Future” characters.

Something I didn’t realize going into this, it’s following up on stuff from Future’s End. It’s Tim Drake in the suit, not Terry McGinnis, and Brother Eye is still a big problem. I wish they’d let Brother Eye drop for awhile.

Drake’s in the Terry’s time, more or less, trying to be Batman. We learn that Gotham has some sort of program that shield it from Brother Eye, so it’s still a relatively OK place to live, by Gotham standards. The rest of the world is presumed to be an apocalyptic hellhole, and Tim goes out to see, only to be attacked by a Superman who’s been turned into one of Eye’s dupes. He fends off the less-than-Superman, but shorts out the suit, leaving his as just Tim. Then he finds some sort of camp where people are being herded in, including Barbara Gordon and Terry’s old friend, Max.

The book isn’t, based on the first issue, quite what I was hoping for. It might turn out to be, but not as this point. I could have done without any connection to Future’s End, and with no Brother Eye, at least not the current version. Kind of sick of that guy. I don’t have a feel for this Tim Drake, either. A lot older, I guess he’d been jaded and given up until recently. Curious if Jurgens will play up the man out of time aspect. Tim mentioned he promised Terry he’d stop Brother Eye, and he feels like he failed, so maybe he’s going to be fixated on that, taking foolish risks.

Bernard Chang’s work is solid, his Batman has an angularity that reminds me of the cartoon, which is never a bad thing. He – or Marcelo Maiolo –does this one thing where, in certain panels, the background vanishes, replaced with a solid color. Something very bright, orange or red. Any figures are uncolored, white, but outlined in red. Except for Tim, when he’s in the suit, and he becomes solid black. They use it three times during the opening scuffle with the Jokerz, then a couple more times after that. Once when Tim talks to Nora and Matt, the other when Techno-Superman first attacks him. It’s a real attention-getter, but I’m not sure what it signifies, other than Tim being exposed to something new. He learned about the Jokerz, about the Veil program, about New York being annihilated, Superman being an enemy, and Nora told him he’s their only hope (something Tim isn’t comfortable with). Be curious to see if the art team keeps that up in subsequent issues.

All-Star Section Eight #1, by Garth Ennis (writer), John McCrea (artist), John Kalisz (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letterer) – I can only assume Six-Pack thinks he’s having a team up with Comet, the Super-Horse. At least, that’s what I hope he thinks is happening.

DC has come calling, and in truest tradition of serialized fiction, the hero’s happy ending must be undone so he can resume publication. So it is that Sixpack, having become a renowned art critic after saving the earth from other-dimensional horrors, accidentally drinks a rye and coke, and reverts back to his alcoholic alter ego, convinced he must put his team back together to save the world from some huge threat (or something to that effect, the whole art critic thing may have been a hallucination). Except the whole team died against the aforementioned other-worldly horrors. After dismissing every other hero that came out of Bloodlines (the same event that gave us Tommy Monaghan, and as a result, Six-Pack), he manages to pull together some other schlubs, plus Baytor. Which gives him seven guys, and look there’s Batman. But he’s too busy arguing with a cop over a parking ticket he got while he was trying to hit up an ATM. I get what he’s saying about those fees for using a different bank’s machine, though. Whatever is threatening the world is clearly already affecting Batman, because he keeps looking like he’s being drawn in other styles, like Neal Adams or Kelley Jones. Gasp, what can it mean? Then Batman drives off, pissed about the ticket, and with no time for Six-Pack.

Not quite what I was expecting, which is both good and bad. I was worried this would be one of Ennis’ more ugly, mean-spirited jaunts into the cape comic stuff, but it doesn’t seem like it. It also doesn’t appear he’s going to be sweating too much on this one, if the “You people” joke is any indication. So OK, this probably won’t be a classic like Hitman, or his Punisher run. Assuming we actually get to see Section Eight try to do something in subsequent issues, it should still be funny, at least (simply making a new Dogwelder, seemingly just like the old one, but African-American, was a cute joke, if also a little depressing). That would be just fine. I’m actually really excited to see Baytor fight crime, given he’s the lord of criminal insanity, that should be an impressive disaster.

McCrea’s work has more of a sketchy, rough look to it than it did in the original Hitman stuff. Which is fine, because it makes Sixpack look like a real train wreck, with the stubble, the snot, the persist piss on his trousers, the red-rimmed eyes. I had food poisoning once, and looked in the bathroom mirror right after I pulled my head out of the toilet at 5 a.m. I still didn’t look half as bad as Sixpack does. And Bueno Excellente looks even more creepy and disturbing, which I didn’t really need, but what the hell. I’m in for at least another month. Place your bets now as to whether Baytor is going to accidentally dissolve Hal Jordan’s hand next month, so Hal can have lots of angst and turn back into Parallax (only until the end of the issue, naturally)!

Attack The Block

A nurse walks home one night, only to be surrounded by 5 teenagers on bikes, who then take her purse and ring at knifepoint. Then an alien plummets to earth, hitting the car next to them. Curious, or perhaps bored, the leader of the teens, Moses (John Boyega), tries to investigate, only to be clawed across the face. The teens set off in pursuit and beat the alien to death. At which point more aliens crash in their South London neighborhood, and it turns into a struggle for survival, not just against the aliens, but also against Hi-Hatz, a local drug honcho Moses and his friends have kind of pissed off.

The first half of the movie is mostly out in the neighborhood, though director Joe Cornish does take a few minutes to show us the housing block all the kids live in (by having them run home to grab whatever weapons they own for alien hunting), as that's where the second half of the movie is set. Upon realizing the new arrivals are much larger than the first one, and after some difficulties with both the cops and Hi-Hatz, they concluded the safest place to be was in the block, which they know so well. It doesn't work out that way, as they don't understand how the aliens perceive things, or what they're after, so all hiding in the block really accomplishes in put them in a confined space and put neighbors at risk.

Which is something I don't think they wanted to do. Moses and his friends end up protecting Sam, the nurse they robbed earlier (after forcing their way into her apartment to hide), and one of them tells her they wouldn't have robbed her if they knew she lived in the block like them. People they share circumstances with are not to be hasseled apparently. It's outsiders that aren't to be trusted and are fair game. No one in the block other than Sam appears to have much respect or hope for the cops or the soldiers, who aren't seen doing much during the film. They seal off the block, but there's no sign that they're trying to stop the aliens, or trying to help the people in the block. From inside the housing complex, it might look like the authorities were content to just keep everyone, human or alien in one location and see how it plays out.

I wonder about the distrust of police. It could be as simple as the fact Moses and Co. rob people, which makes them crooks, which would almost necessitate a less than friendly relationship with the cops. But I get the feeling that crook or no, people on the Block don't have a great relationship with cops. There are two kids who've dubbed themselves "Probs" and "Mayhem", trying to get Moses to let them tag along throughout the film. After they kill one of the aliens with a Super Soaker, they run down an alley and meet a bunch of cops in riot gear. The cops first reaction is to start screaming for them to get on the ground, now! Which, guys, it's a freaking Super Soaker, and not even one that looks like a real gun, and they're freaking kids. The boys' response is to run back the way they came and hide in a trash bin. That says a lot about how the cops behave around there*.

There's a lot of use of fireworks in the movie, mostly to distract or frighten the aliens. The downside is they also make a lot of smoke, which makes it hard to see, and obscures their vision. But it's a readily available weapon, the guys don't understand entirely what they're facing, and I don't think they have a concrete plan. Especially once they started getting picked off, I think Moses and his friends want to, well survive, certainly, but strike back. And fireworks startle the aliens, so they use them.

I like Boyega's performance as Moses. He doesn't talk a whole lot, except when he really has something to say. He mostly remains calm, not showing much emotion one way or the other except in extreme circumstances. I'm left wondering what prompts that attitude. We see a little of his life, and it's interesting that as the one member of his group who seems to have no consistent parental influence, he's the parent figure of the his band. He tries to keep them from doing stupid things, tries to keep Probs and Mayhem out of it for their own safety, and leads from the front, whether where he leads them is good or bad.

It's why Sam so completely changing her opinion of him by the end of the movie doesn't seem too horribly cliched. He did scare her badly, and he brought this mess into her apartment, but having done so, he also protected her, and she saw how much he tried to look after his friends as well. I'm biased, though, because characters who show strong loyalty to friends above most anything else, are a favorite of mine.

I have been trying to figure out the title, because "Attack the Block" doesn't seem quite right. "Attack on the Block", or "Protect the Block" seem more accurate. Maybe "Don't Attack the Block". Unless we consider the whole mess Moses' fault, in which case he's set off the attack.

* It's similar to the Local Hero arc in Hitman, when Tommy took the Tac Squad leader hostage. He rides away clean from about 50 cops, while residents of the Cauldron look on and cheer. Tac guy can't believe it, but Tommy points out the cops only come down there to collect protection money or beat people up, so they really can't be surprised even a hitman can be a hero to the locals if he sticks it to the right people.

There's More Meaning Than One Might Think

That's a panel from the second issue of the current volume of Birds of Prey. It's fortunate it was posted as part of the 4thletter's This Week in Panels a while back, or I'd have never seen it. Thanks to Gavok for posting it.

Swierczynski used a similar line when he was writing Immortal Iron Fist, during the "Escape from the Eighth City" arc. While imprisoned, Danny starts up a conversation with the prisoner in the next cell, who asks him what his name means. Danny pauses for a moment, and thinks of a line he attributes to Tarantino (I think): 'We're Americans, our names don't mean anything.'

Danny ends up telling the man he was 'named for his father'.

I guess I'm partly amused Swierczynski went with a similar line, albeit changed enough so it fit the situation, but I do like the line in general. It feels accurate, the idea that Americans appropriate things from other cultures, but frequently don't know or care about the history behind it. When I was in junior high, one of my social studies textbooks had this bit at the end of a chapter. It was a story about a family that gets together on the 4th of July, and some of the relatives (in-laws, I guess) are British. The way it plays out, the father/husband tries to boast about all these great things that are American, and the British in-law calmly points out all those things (like hot dogs) originated somewhere else. I don't remember whether the point was to emphasize the "melting pot" idea, or to try and temper potential jingoism by reminding students a lot of the things we love weren't actually devised by Americans. But we forget that. Or ignore it.

I don't necessarily mean it as a negative, since it could relate to the sort of thing Garth Ennis had Tommy Monaghan tell Superman. That it doesn't matter where one came from originally, they're here now, they're Americans. There's the risk that comes with ignoring history, and thus repeating it, but the idea of setting aside the past and everyone simply sharing what they bring to the table is kind of nice, if ridiculously naive.

Maybe none of that has anything to do with why I or Danny Rand don't worry about where our names came from, or why Starling has the tattoos she does (though it may turn out she has a reason for those particular designs). For me, my name is something that was given to me, and its origins are purely academic. Whatever it meant before, it's my name now. Does that make it a shorthand method of describing me? You say my name to someone who knows me, and certain descriptors or images come to mind**. There's a self-centeredness to that, obviously, but my feeling is there are a lot things involved in my being the person I am, but the origin of my name isn't one of them.

Alex has a lot of tattoos. A person who didn't know him might look at all of them and come to the same conclusion Katana did, they don't mean anything. True, some of them weren't chosen for any reason other than they looked cool. Some were picked by Alex with a specific reason in mind. Whether the meaning he derives from them is the same as that which the originator intended I don't know, but for Alex they do mean something, even if the rest of us can't recognize it.

* The St. Louis Cardinals acquired a pitcher this year named Mark Rzepczynski. His nickname, appropriately, is Scrabble. I propose we assign that nickname to Swierczynski as well, because Scrabble is much easier to spell.

** To use a different example, I don't know what "Benito" or "Mussolini" mean, but if I read them together in a sentence, certain things are going to come to mind. Mostly him standing on a balcony, arms crossed, nodding his head vigorously, or trying futilely to get the rest of Europe to agree to limits on the size of their militaries so his could avoid falling behind.

Are They Stuck In One Of Those Cycles?

I picked up some back issues yesterday. Nothing that finished out a run, but I did move considerably closer to wrapping up Hitman. I was reading #53, I think, when Tommy attends the funeral for Tiegel's grandfather, and pauses to pay his respects at Sean Noonan's grave. He talks with Sister Concepta, and she brings up what Tommy did to the people who killed Sean. Namely, he attended the wedding of the daughter of the Gallo family, and killed her and every wiseguy there (he did spare the priest). Tommy argues he did it because Sean meant a lot to him, and it was the only way he knew to make things right.

The sister is not impressed. She argues there were children there who lost their parents because of Tommy, and who will think this is how the world works. I don't quite know what she means, because I'm not sure how much the kids would understand. Do they know Tommy did it for revenge, and so the kids will learn that the way to deal with loss is anger, and if they're angry, they should kill the people they blame for the loss. Or is it the idea that the world is a chaotic place, where people can be killed at any moment, for no reason a child can discern or understand?

It makes me wonder what those kids grow up to be, in Ennis stories in general. In his Punisher works, there were definitely children left behind after Frank Castle got done with their fathers or mothers. At one point he attacked a funeral, and a small boy was the only one who saw him drive up, and drive away. That kind almost certainly lost someone close to them that day, assuming they weren't there to mourn the deaths of everyone close to them already. Do they become like their absent parents, or the men who killed those parents, or something else entirely? Maybe they're better off without mob types as parents. I suppose there's no reason they can't be wonderful, loving parents, and inhuman monsters to everyone else on the planet.

We did see Marc Navaronne near the end of Hitman, whose father was killed by Tommy, and who subsequently was set to kill Tommy. But Marc was already being trained to kill before his father crossed paths with Monaghan, so I don't know how much credit or blame could be placed on Tommy for how Marc turned out.

I think in the Punisher's world, those kids probably grow up to be crooks, because part of what Ennis worked with there was that Frank was fighting an endless war, that there would always be more criminals, and Frank knew that, and to a certain extent, accepted it. Not accepted in the sense he stopped killing, but he knew crime would continue on beyond his end, and so he'd do all he could until then.

In Tommy's world, I'm not so sure. You could argue those kids Monaghan orphaned will wind up in the same business as their parents. After all, despite Sean's best efforts, Tommy wound up a killer, and even if Pat wasn't a killer, he was still an arms dealer. But Tommy worked to protect Maggie Lorenzo and her unborn kid because he thought they deserved a chance for a good life. As a result of his (and Natt's, and McCallister's) actions, Maggie and her boy won't grow up in the Cauldron, and I think the kid will turn out OK. That's just conjecture, but it feels like the point is Tommy tried to do that good thing he was looking for, and it worked out. So maybe people aren't doomed. Though there's obviously a difference between a child and mother saved by Tommy, and a kid orphaned by Tommy, but Hitman isn't nearly as bleak as Punisher.

DC May Be Reading My Mind

Saturday I was talking about how I picked up the Local Hero issues of Hitman because I got tired of waiting for DC to solicit a 2nd printing of the trade. Yesterday I take a gander at DC's solicits for November (or later in case of the trades), and there it is. Hitman Volume 3: Local Hero, 2nd Printing. That was unexpected, but kind of funny considering the circumstances.

Even stranger, as Matthew mentioned in the comments of Saturday's post, DC also solicited a collection of J.H. Williams' work with DC, and it includes a couple of the issues of Chase I couldn't get (7 and 8). It also includes a couple of issues I did find, but that's fine. Works well for me.

Caleb of Every Day is Like Wednesday wondered why DC didn't release a couple of trades instead. I'm curious about that too. Is this DC testing the waters, seeing if there's enough interest to support trades? Chase was only 10 issues, throw in her appearances in other titles and that could probably be three trades. Doesn't seem like a huge expenditure, but I'm not privvy to DC's inner workings. Maybe the fact it wouldn't be several volumes is a strike against it somehow. I can't figure how, except that perhaps people who buy trades like multi-volume works because it makes them feel they're reading something epic.

At any rate, DC does seem to be observing what I'm buying, though they're a bit behind. Still, it can't hurt to try and turn this to my advantage. Ahem. In the near future, I plan on buying back issues of Suicide Squad because I've grown weary of waiting for DC to actually release that Showcase Edition. Full color trades would also have been acceptable solicitations.

Now we wait and see.

Rambling About Government Agencies And Super-Heroes

I picked up some back issues yesterday, different series I'd heard good things about, or the creative team had people whose part work I'd enjoyed. One of the series was Chase, which DC published in the late 90s. Wasn't able to get all of it, as they didn't have all the issues and I completely missed it had a #1,000,000.

The idea this DEO not only keeps tabs on superhumans, but actively plans to take them down if necessary struck me as out of place in the DC Universe. It shouldn't surprise me there are people other than Batman or Lex Luthor who don't trust costumed vigilantes and would establish contingencies to deal with them, but it seems more a Marvel Universe thing, the authority figures not trusting super-heroes.

Yet I don't find the Suicide Squad out of place in the DCU. Maybe because the heroes are there by choice, to keep an eye on the criminal operatives (keep an eye on Waller). If Waller treated the heroes like the villains, slapped exploding bracelets on them too, I'd find it more out of place.

One of the other things I picked up was Hitman 9-14 (as well as Hitman 1 Million). I had been waiting for DC to issue a second printing of the trade so I could throw an order for it to my comic store, but I got tired of waiting. The first four issues are the Local Hero story (the latter half of which is Tommy playing Kyle Rayner for a dope), which involves a government agency wanting to recruit Tommy to kill superheroes for them at their discretion. Once Tommy refuses, they opt to remove him, which goes as well as you'd expect.

The idea of government's plotting to kill super-heroes works better for me in Hitman's world than Chase's, even though they're probably the same universe. Cameron Chase seems to operate a step closer to the heroes than Tommy does (or a step closer to competent heroes), so it's harder for me to see people in her circles working on weapons to disrupt the concentration of people with power rings, just in case. They'd see the good the JLA and such do, and would be disinclined to design something to kill Superman or Aquaman. For Tommy, all the costumed types he runs into are idiots (Kyle), corrupt (Nightfist), or - from Tommy's perspective - operating on an outdated or strange morality (Batman). In Monaghan's world, it's harder to relate to, and certainly to trust, the costumes, so agencies devoted to eliminating them feel less out of place. The problems in his world are messier, and ones capes don't seem to fix.

Another factor was I felt the agency that approached Tommy, or at least the particular man that did, were not motivated by a desire to protect people, but to protect what they've hoarded for themselves. I figured people in the DCU that are good trust super-heroes to control themselves as necessary. It would be people jealous of super-heroes or fearful the heroes would reveal them as corrupt that would plot their downfall. That's obviously flawed, since there would be people who are good because they prepare for all eventualities, and that would include things like Superman declaring himself ruler of the world, or a Green Lantern trying to erase the universe and remake it how he wants. Then again, those plans never seem to work anyway, so they're as well of relying on trust as their contingencies.

With Marvel, the evil person trying to protect or elevate themselves is still a possibility, but I'd be more likely to assume the person was either an idiot (idiocy being so prevalent in the Marvel Universe) or some Robert Kelly type bigot. I guess this says that when it comes to superhero comics, I take the approach that the heroes are trying their best to do the right thing and not get out of hand, and if an authority figure is making plans on how to stop them, it's an evil plot, because there's no need for it, the heroes will take care of any problems that crop up in their little community. Stories of the past decade or so would suggest that's not how it works anymore, but it's the attitude I hold to, I suppose.

I Feel Like This Was Set-Up Backwards

More Hitman discussion!

While I've generally enjoyed the trades, I was a bit disappointed in Who Dares Wins. The majority of the trade is the story of 4 SAS members, tasked with seeking out and killing Tommy and Natt. Turns out that during Desert Storm, those two accidentally killed some British soldiers, then tried to cover it up. One of the dead soldiers is the son of a Brigadier General, and thus these Brits are ordered to go kill our heroes. Make an example of them, I suppose. Fine, no problems with what gets the story moving, high-ranking officers abusing their authority is a well-worn tool, but I like it well enough.

The problem is Tommy. Once the four blokes (the "Regiment") first attack, and Tommy and Natt realize what this is about, Tommy's about one second away from pissing himself the remainder of the story. I kept waiting for him to get himself together, but he never did. One of the SAS guys fired over his head, at one point, and rather than, you know, kill the guy, Tommy actually dropped his guns and started pleading, for fuck's sake.

OK, well these are SAS guys, super-tough, super-trained, maybe the best soldiers in the world. Could very well be. They're well-organized, singularly determined* and seem impervious to pain. So I can certainly see how Tommy and Natt could struggle against them, especially since they seem to realize that while shooting allies accidentally is bad, trying to cover it up was an even worse thing to do. So maybe they're struggling with doubts, wondering if maybe they ought to be killed.

But it's not so much that they're being outflanked, or that Tommy doesn't seem on his game. He really seems terrified of trying to deal with these guys. The problem is, Ennis had just finished a story where Tommy faced off with two demons from Hell, neither one of which likes him. Even though he managed to kill Mawzir, with an assist from Catwoman and Baytor, Etrigan's still kicking at the end. Not only that, he visits Monaghan and promises that someday, he's going to come for Tommy, and what he'll do won't be pleasant. Tommy's response is to stand there grinning, and respond 'I'll be waitin'.

But Calvin, you say, Tommy has the Ace of Winchesters, a gun designed to kill demons. Yes, yes very true, and Etrigan knows that too. He is the one who provided the gun to the orphaned son, after all. I'm gonna stop trying to rhyme now. All he need do is keep his distance and wait until Tommy doesn't have it on him. Nothing else in Monaghan's arsenal is likely to even slow Etrigan down, so the odds are poor he could stay alive long enough to retrieve. Surely Tommy has to realize that, but if so, he didn't show any sign of it. The Regiment is comprised of humans, who can be killed by ordinary bullets, which Tommy and Natt have in abundance. The won't make it easy to kill them, obviously, since that probably runs counter to training, but it's not as though hitting a clever, immensely powerful demon with a lever action rifle (whose capabilities the demon is well aware of) is a walk in the park, either.

I guess the point Ennis was making (and Natt lays it out at the end), besides the pointless nature of revenge, is that Tommy and Natt had been getting by on luck. The only survived the battle with the Mawzir because of a variety of fortunate occurrences. Tiegel showed up, giving them another ally who can be useful in a fight, Six-Pack arrived with Section Eight to occupy Mawzir's human pawns, and Baytor hitched a ride to Earth inside Etrigan's cape. Any of those (especially the last two) don't happen, Tommy dies. They can't always get lucky when they fight people better or more powerful than them. If their opponents plan things well enough, there aren't likely to be those fortuitous happenstances than turn things around, and then where are they? Screwed, that's where.

Still, you could have Tommy being supremely confident that he can handle this (after all, he just faced down a ten-armed, gun-wielding demon from Hell), he tries to do things in his typical manner, and proceeds to get whomped throughly, but he's uncharacteristically (at least based on what I've read of the series) subtle, and well, timid. His strength of will seems to flee every time he comes face to face with them. He's constantly running, trying to sneak attack, or trying to sucker other people in to taking the SAS boys out, all of which seems at odds with his more common response of just shooting people until they stop trying to kill him. It's not a bad idea, just not what I'd come to expect of him.

Maybe it's that I'd be more afraid of the fire-spitting demon of Hell myself.

* Even the one member that doesn't like the mission, Eddie, is determined to complete it as quickly as possible, mostly to protect his buddies.

Monaghan's Views On Redemption

Maybe not redemption, exactly, but good and evil, and things of that sort. Looking through Hitman: A Rage In Arkham, as Tommy reaches the wing of Arkham where they keep the serious nutcases, he starts thinking about how it would have been better if these guys were locked away forever. He even comments that they ought to have been strangled at birth, and that he's thinking about just killing all of them.

I'm trying to decide how to decipher that. The idea that it would be best that they never be allowed out of Arkham suggests Tommy feels there's a point at which you've done things so bad, there's no coming back, no atoning. That's in contrast to Batman, who's at least sometimes portrayed as not killing because he believes everyone deserves the chance to turn their life around*. For the real hardcases at least, Tommy's not so sentimental. Yet at the end of Hitman: Who Dares Wins, he talks to his best friend Natt about perhaps leaving Gotham for awhile, maybe doing 'something good' to make up for all the crap they've done. Tommy does believes he can atone (I'd guess that's from, as Natt points about, being raised Catholic), and further, that he needs to do so. So he doesn't think he's crossed that line like the Joker or Two-Face have. Except there are probably several people who wouldn't make much distinction between Tommy and those guys, except perhaps that Tommy generally kills for money. We know Tommy's body count numbers at least 200, which is not easily brushed aside.

Tommy distinguishes himself from those others because he doesn't kill "good people". Except, as both Natt and the Arkannone point out, that's nuts**. He makes that decision based on outer appearances (for example, never killing cops), or off a split-second's worth of information he can perceive. Saying "Yeah, I killed those guys, but they were all bad, so I can make up for it if I need to", is probably not the most solid ground to be standing on.

I suppose the difference is Tommy actually considers he might need to redeem himself, whereas its unlikely the Joker or Zzsaz spare time for such thoughts. Tommy doesn't know (at least not by the end of Who Dares Wins) how to go about making up for past misdeeds, but he's at least giving it some thought.

I'm not sure what to make of his comment that those guys ought to have been strangled at birth. Is that just hindsight talking, or does Tommy believe that some people are just bad, and if you could figure out who they were, it'd be better to kill them at the start, before they have a chance to start hurting others? If it's the latter, there are probably plenty of people who think the same of him. I wonder if his being an orphan has something to do with that. He very easily could have died, been left in an alley rather than on the doorstep of an orphanage. His life could easily have ended before it even started. So perhaps the guilt gnaws at him to the point he thinks that would have been better. Or, if he's still drawing distinctions, he thinks about how bad he had it, and he isn't a complete nutbar like Dent, so there's no excuse for these guys being as evil as they are. Maybe he kills "bad guys" because he knows how easily people can die, and the "bad guys" take other peoples' lives away too easily?

* And his foes do that sometimes. Catwoman, Harley, Harvey, Riddler. Most of them backslide eventually, but for awhile at least, they justify his faith. Or hope. Whichever.

** I have to think being told that by Natt was more jarring. Sure, Lords of Hell would be experienced in the realm of justification and self-deception, since probably all their servants practiced it at some point, but if your best friend won't back you up, that's a wake-up call.

Why Don't I Have An Eye For Rhyme?

I ordered some Hitman trades* online a couple of weeks ago, they arrived this week, and I've been reading through them. I definitely need to talk more about them later, but for now, the thing I'm taking away from them is that perhaps I need to look into Ennis' Demon series.

And isn't that how it always goes? I pick up one thing I've heard rave reviews of, and think to myself that I'm one step closer to being happy with my comic collection as it is. Then the stuff I just bought introduces me to something else, and I wonder if I ought to be chasing that down as well. It's a vicious cycle.

That's not really what I wanted to discuss, either. The thing I like is how Ennis writes Etrigan, joyfully destructive, almost playful, but always dangerous. I also really enjoy the rhymes he writes. I don't know how he manages them. I have no gift for rhyme myself, certainly not to Ennis' ability. 'Is that an eclipse, I hear you cry? No, but Glonth has just passed by!' A rhyme that's also a fat joke? That's just awesome. I've been sitting here for 10 minutes trying to come up with a clever title that rhymes, nothing. How long does it take him to come up with that stuff?

That's all I have tonight. Traveling tomorrow, no post. Monday, post. In theory.

* Rage in Arkham, Ace of Killers, and Who Dares Wins, for the record. And I ordered the 2nd printing of 10,000 Bullets DC solicited.