JLA/Hitman #1 of 2
Writer: Garth Ennis
Artist: John McCrea
Company: DC Comics
When Garth Ennis writes superheroes, his instinct is to take the piss out of ‘em - sometimes by taking a piss on them. That was literally the case in an issue of Hellblazer he wrote where a drunken John Constantine accidentally took a leak on the Phantom Stranger’s boots. Then there was the time Ennis had the Punisher blow Wolverine’s ‘nads off. And back in the 90s when Hitman was being published, he even had his titular character spew chunks on Batman.
Bit of a schoolboy, that Garth.
Funny thing is, that same Hitman series produced a curiously reverent Superman story - to which this two-part JLA/Hitman miniseries is a direct sequel. It featured the series’ likeable killer, Tommy Monaghan, geeking out over a chance meeting with Superman on a rooftop. Superman was despondent over a particularly harrowing failure and Monaghan provided the surprising shoulder to lean on along with a striking articulation of why Superman is important. Not that I missed the fact that that same Superman story still subverted the big guy a touch. Ennis couldn’t resist playing up Superman’s naiveté as part of his overall heroic package, to such an extent that he’s never aware Monaghan was planning a hit right under his nose. Subversive or no, however, it’s a stunningly crafted story and as close as you’ll get to seeing cynical Irishman Ennis giving sincere props to superheroes.
So I’m happy to say Ennis brings that same spirit its sequel. Sure, Shoolboy Ennis is there too, but he’s mostly just making faces at the back of the classroom, and it wouldn’t quite be the same without him, would it?
The story kicks off with a struggling journalist looking for the story behind an autographed Superman poster (from that first Superman/Hitman crossover) made out to the patrons of a bar that fronts contract killers The journalist ends up interviewing Clark Kent, and Kent opts to use the interview as a sort of confessional for how Superman learned the truth about Tommy Monaghan’s trade. It should be noted that Ennis writes a terrific, smart Clark Kent, and Hitman artist John McCrea plays it all straight, reigning in his more anarchic artistic impulses for true-blue depictions of Supes and the other heroes.
Okay - I did have to wonder if the “DP” pattern on Clark’s tie might’ve been meant to suggest anything other than “Daily Planet”, but surely Ennis and McCrea wouldn’t…? Nah!
The second meeting of Superman and Tommy Monaghan spins out of JLA-level threat. A manned NASA probe is on its way back to Earth and the JLA’s scanners are indicating the presence of alien parasites dating back to the obscure DC crossover, “Bloodlines.” No one remembers “Bloodlines” for anything but ushering in the debut of Tommy Monaghan (he got his low-level psychic and X-ray vision powers from an alien attack), and Ennis isn’t shy about a few shots at the other heroes DC tried to launch out of the event. “Those guys are lame,” Kyle Rayner explains. “I mean they are really lame.”
But the aliens serve their purpose once again: getting Monaghan on the scene. The JLA needs a survivor of their attacks to gather info on the new threat, and since Batman knows the score with Monaghan, he whisks him off to the JLA Watchtower right after a few pages of Monaghan doing his thing: offing some bad guys who’re too dumb to live and hanging out with his motley pals at the bar. A hit list of favorite running gags play out for the Hitman faithful during these scenes, while noobs might just scratch their heads at ‘em. Still, everyone should be able to enjoy the dating troubles of Monaghan’s best friend, Natt the Hat, and his elephant-headed girlfriend.
(No BS)
Of course, the real story is watching Monaghan play off the JLA once he gets to the Watchtower. Like when Flash asks Monaghan if he’s ever thought about practicing more with his powers to develop them, and receives as response, “Yeah! But there’s always somethin’ good on T.V.”
It’s supremely easy to like Ennis’s good-natured smartass of a thug, but Monaghan doesn’t win many points with the JLA. He tries to explain how he only kills “bad people,” but the League barely tolerates him and his one defender is Superman (not a bad guy to have at your back). But will that hold true as Superman comes to terms with what he does for a living? Can there be any common ground between a hitman and the Man of Steel? In a story heavy on the laughs, that’s the dramatic core I’m really interested to see play out. Backwards as it seems from the guy who wrote The Pro and currently writes The Boys…Ennis gets Superman. And McCrea can sure draw the hell out of him.
Now word on the street is that JLA/Hitman amounts to DC testing the waters on reader interest in a trade series of the entirety of Hitman’s 60-issue run. I’m tempted to recommend buying it for that reason alone. I discovered Hitman after the series had wrapped, came to dig it through the handful of trades that made it out, and desperately want more trades just so I can read the rest of the series and see how it ends…but I’m not that selfish.
Okay, I am that selfish, but JLA/Hitman is a genuine hoot; a chance to enjoy Garth Ennis’s macho irreverence and knack for “guy stories” without the capes and cowls ending up looking like schmucks. If it just happens to lead to DC collecting its best 90s series that wasn’t Starman, well, how’s that anything but a win-win situation?
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I liked it all right but could not help hoping the idea that Clark kent has gotten so chatty and that we have not seen the Martian manhunter yet lead to a deeper plot.
27 Sep 2007 at 1:06 pm
QuoteThe thing about that Superman story…he’s got x-ray vision, super hearing and super speed and he still didn’t notice the gun or the gunshot and didn’t prevent it either? That kind of switched me off, even though it was a good punchline.
27 Sep 2007 at 2:02 pm
QuoteWell, in defense of the punchline… Superman was distracted, if not at his lowest point than certainly distraught over what he perceived as a near unforgivable failure. Then he had this pleasant surprise of a decent guy chatting with him and cheering him up, and Superman *never* gets that… he’s the inspiration, not the guy that gets to draw inspiration from somebody else.
So he might not have noticed the gun because he wasn’t looking around the area, he was just sort of soul-searching. He might not have heard the gunshot because who knows how far away he was at that point, and even if he did, it probably wouldn’t occur to him to go back and check that roof, because surely that decent guy didn’t have a gun.
Yeah, it’s not *entirely* solid reasoning, but there’s enough benefit of the doubt to make it work, since the main point of it is a funny punchline to the best issue of Hitman there was.
And Rob, I think you’re reaching. This is a Superman story, and a two-parter, if he turns out to be Martian Manhunter that’s going to take up story space Ennis doesn’t really have and also undercut the whole point of the story.
27 Sep 2007 at 8:02 pm
QuoteYeah, I agree with Randy. I may have some issues with Superman being played slightly as a chump, but I don’t think he’s got his x-ray vision on 24/7, so no reason for him to’ve spotted that Tommy was packin’, and I just assume he was far enough off after he left that he didn’t take particular notice of one more gunshot in a city (Gotham) we know for sure is filled with ‘em.
Something I didn’t bother to bring up in the review, but which also gave me pause over that original Superman/Hitman meeting, is that Ennis’s take on Superman also plays as a metaphor for America. I mean, aside from all the comparison’s Tommy makes between Superman and the American ideal (the immigrant who comes to “do his part”), I seem to recall the last page shows an American flag waving over a farm (the Kents?) and I know it reveals the story’s title: “Of Thee I Sing…” (the metaphor becomes explicit). So this isn’t just Ennis’s tribute to Supes, it’s also his tribute to America. And critique. What are Superman’s qualities? Supreme power, deep empathy, and the best of intentions. And his one weakness in the story? A naivete that has him overlooking a murder right under his nose.
It’s honestly a pretty neat metaphor. It works, and I have less problem it than I do with Superman getting a little punked to make it. Because Superman’s the ideal, not the reality.
Within Tommy Monaghan’s world, however…which is pretty much Garth Ennis’s world…it works.
28 Sep 2007 at 9:30 am
QuoteWas this originally planned as a 4-issue mini? This first issue divides neatly in two (with page 24 leaving plenty of room for a title/credits), and the second half doesn’t have any ads. In any case, it’s more bang-for-buck than most 48-pagers offer.
As for the content, I thought the bit with Nat’s girlfriend was a bit too out-there (even by Hitman standards), but otherwise this was pure gold. Loved seeing the Morrison-era JLA again, loved all the nods to previous Hitman issues, and even loved the Bloodlines-centric plot. It’s a shame Ennis doesn’t write more straight super-hero stuff; I’m a fan of his more typical material, but this was a nice change of pace.
28 Sep 2007 at 2:50 pm
QuoteI wouldn’t put money against it. Certainly DC has shown a tendency to constantly shift publishing plans of late.
I can’t entirely disagree about Nat’s girlfriend (although I did find it funny), but I think it was an easy way to get another Hitman reference in there, mentioning Injun Peak research center. Gave McCrea a visual gag and Ennis a reason to bring up Injun Peak.
Btw, I just finished re-reading Hitman #1-60 in preparation for the biggest Bell Bottom review this site has ever seen (look for it on Monday or Tuesday, with any luck) and it is absolutely as good as folks remember it being.
29 Sep 2007 at 7:05 pm
QuoteOK, I give up: what else would the DP stand for?
30 Sep 2007 at 6:15 pm
QuoteWhen Garth Ennis is involved, the first thing that came to mind was…
(kids, don’t click here)
http://tinyurl.com/22j5jz
30 Sep 2007 at 11:50 pm
QuoteWhen Ennis first mentioned this ages ago, it was as a 4 issue JLA Confidential arc.
03 Oct 2007 at 10:01 pm
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