What I Bought 2/1/2025 - Part 2

Every week feels 10 days long now. I get to Tuesday and think it should be Thursday already. I don't know if that's the weather, the current situation at work, the current situation in the world, or just my brain chemistry. But it's Friday now. Wednesday we looked at second and third issues. Today we've got fourth and fifth issues.

Red Before Black #4, by Stephanie Phillips (writer), Goran Sudzuka (artist), Ive Svorcina (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - Val seems less bothered by the veins (vines?) than she did on the last cover. Or maybe she's tired from all the screaming she was doing on that cover.

Leo brings Val to a gator ranch run by a guy who is related to her in, some manner. Whoever he is, he knows enough about the people Leo worked with to recognize the name of the idiot Val killed last issue. Which means he has no moral compunctions about helping them dispose of a car, but also means he has no compunctions about letting Miles know where to find the drug dealer he wanted killed, and the old friend that was supposed to kill her.

We get another flashback to Leo's past, this time to her being confined to a mental hospital because she attempted suicide. Given her family apparently insists there's nothing to Leo's claims of her father molesting her, I'm not sure we can take any of that at face value. But maybe we're supposed to take from this that Leo's grasp on things in loose. Not really sure.

The most significant thing in the issue is a brief - 3 pages - conversation between Leo and Val. As Leo talks in general terms about parts of her past, that she tried to leave Florida a couple of times, but always returned home, those same of veins or vines sprout from Val's chest and begin to entwine Leo. Until Val suggests they split up and the vines withdraw. So it's something to do with Val's emotions. The fact that sometimes it's an entire jungle (and that Leo can see it, though she doesn't comment here) is the confusing part to me, unless it's the representation of Val feeling lost while also seeking a connection.

Babs #5, by Garth Ennis (writer), Jacen Burrows (artist), Andy Troy (colorist), Rob Steen (letterer) - I'm trying to imagine the music, and my brain keeps refusing. Where did that sense of self-preservation come from?

Mork's buddies have finally figured out they're never going to actually benefit from helping Tiberius. Plus that possibly all the people he shipped off to his diamond mine were useful members of their society who helped things run smoothly. Right about the time Tiberius has taken the locals for all he can get and is packing up to leave. Boy, it'd be nice if assholes like this actually moved on. Now they you're never rid of them, like some infected boil.

Meanwhile, Babs and her friends stage an escape from Tiberius' diamond mine, although poor Culpepper's virtue may never be the same. Unfortunately, the other escapees aren't up for helping Babs stomp a mudhole in Tiberius, and her attempt to call in the skeleton army from a few issues ago doesn't quite work out. The army shows up, but they're less skeletons and more ghosts. Ghosts who don't know how to interact with physical objects, so no stabbing.

Ennis and Burrows play that scene pretty well. Babs with a profane and insulting speech when it seems to be just her and two others. Then the skeleton ghosts rise from the earth around them, Tiberius about shits himself, Mork and his dorks think Babs is super-cool. The first skeleton lunges and stabs Tiberius. Then you turn the page and find out it didn't do anything. It's a real *sad trombone* moment, but excellently laid out and paced.

Oh well, hopefully Babs will get to have the fun of murdering all of them herself in the final issue. She won't get rich that way, but it'll be good for a laugh.

What I Bought 12/3/2024

Well, due various holiday and shipping issues, these two comics from last month only arrived yesterday evening. I was hoping to have Red Before Black #3, but the shop didn't have it, possibly due to other shipping issues, so maybe I'll be able to find it somewhere else.

Babs #4, by Garth Ennis (writer), Jacen Burrows (artist), Andy Troy (colorist), Rob Steen (letterer) - At least let the cyclops finish digging for nose gold before decapitating him.

So, Babs is on a ship full of very pointy-eared elves (whose cheekbones give them a slightly wasting look) that can't stop singing songs, with a sword that gets seasick. She's not getting much of anywhere finding out what happened to her friend Izzy. She thinks she's onto something when the captain invites her to a private function in his quarters, but nope, it's just an elf orgy. Did Ennis read my posts about that one D&D campaign I was in?

There is one, very old, famous elf that's willing to help, but she gets killed by some lackey of Tiberius', via a frog that can spit green bubbles that disintegrate people, assuming you jab your finger up its, well cloaca, I assume. Burrows draws the frog as looking particularly determined in one panel, not that that saves the guy using it. I'm not sure what joke Ennis is going for, that sharks are called "Sea Bears," but bears, per issue 1, are called "Land Sharks." People in this world unnecessarily complicate everything?

Babs did get a small lead, but decides to scarf down on some snacks the elves gave her, which knock her out and she wakes up in the same mines as her friends. I half-expected her to realize she was shackled and simply use them to kill the guy lashing her, given how quickly she reacted to the surprise attack on the ship. But she actually seemed quite flummoxed by this turn of events. Maybe she's one of those folks who needs a while to wake up.

Also, Mork's buddies seem to be slowly realizing working for Tiberius is not getting them the things Mork promised. So we'll see if they try a last-minute face-turn, or just end up dead once someone decides they aren't needed. Could see Mork turning on them himself, since he doesn't seem to have accepted the perks he imagined aren't coming.

The Pedestrian #4, by Joey Esposito (writer), Sean von Gorman (artist), Josh Jensen (colorist), Shawn Lee (letterer) - He's taking "barefoot running" to a new, and unnecessary, level.

Pedestrian shows up to fight all the hand-faced lackeys of the weird red guy. The other people try to help with street signs, which do repel or maybe even burn the lackeys, so the weird red guy goes after one of the kids and Pedestrian. . .I'm not sure. Pushes the red guy's influence away from Syd with the power of stoplights?

Either way, that seems to have given Syd access to the weird floating green light Pedestrian saw in issue 3, which sends the lackeys into retreat. Floaty Red Guy (Klutch?) tries chasing Pedestrian across a crosswalk and is. . .disintegrated? But promises more is coming. Also, it looks as though the Pedestrian is more of a force that possess - or maybe displaces - a person, at least for a time.

The last few pages check in on some of the characters. The former valedictorian checks in on the would-be mugger, recovering from his time as a lackey, and tries to encourage him to not play into peoples' worst impressions of him. Except the charity hospital he's at is a front for whatever messed up stuff is going on here, and Jeremy and Syd's dad is involved. Meanwhile, Jeremy and Syd are trying to get Kira to help them make sense of the Pedestrian's deal.

So, I don't really know what's going on in this book, beyond there are forces that want everyone to just accept things are awful and give up on doing anything better, and those that are trying to resist that. Why those forces are symbolized by crosswalk symbols, and why road signs help Pedestrian, I'm not sure. His symbol is one of movement, steady progress in a direction. I can sort of see signs indicating which way to turn being helpful, but why does the "Stop" sign work against Klutch's guys? Their symbol is a don't walk sign. No progress, no movement, just stopping dead, but that's what a stop sign makes you do.

Supposedly there's going to be more, so maybe it'll make more sense to me then.

What I Bought 10/28/2024 - Part 2

You may have noticed last Friday's post vanished for about a day. It was, for some reason, flagged as spam. Odd, considering it's a type of post I've done literally hundreds of times previously. I did go ahead and send them some feedback that it would help if they could provide a little more detail into why a particular post was violating community guidelines, because otherwise it's hard for me to know what I messed up, so I can avoid going through this whole mess again in the future.

Anyway, with that spectacular start to the week out of the way, and the latest chance to see whether the ramshackle, bastardized form of democracy in this country will survive still to come, let's talk about comics.

Babs #3, by Garth Ennis (writer), Jacen Burrows (artist), Andy Troy and Lee Loughridge (colorists), Rob Steen (letterer) - Everybody's just waiting for the show to begin.

Babs kills a few stragglers of Tiberius' guys, who have taken all the dwarves prisoner (along with their silver), thanks to Mork the Orc's info (I keep expecting Ennis to spell "Mork" with a "c", to match "orc".) Burrows draws it violent, if cartoonish, considering one guy gets his face neatly sliced off, but there's not entrails flying around or anything. Which Mork and his buddies are busy showing to Tiberius, because Mork's still convinced that a group of orcs, goblins and trolls working with a bunch of guys who want to drive non-human races out can't possibly go wrong. Shades of that Our Dumb Century headline, "Japan Forms Alliance with White Supremacists in Well-Thought-Out Scheme."

One of the group manages to track at least part of Babs' history through various vague sources, so we get a quick recap of her life. Essentially, she's kicked a lot of ass, usually without intending to draw attention to herself, but she has a real knack for picking losers. Makes money, blows it on gambling or land speculation. Works for a doomed side in a war, and not, apparently, out of some desire to help the underdog.

Meanwhile, Babs is arguing with her sword while rescuing the dwarves (and killing more of Tiberius' guys.) Barry objecting to being stuck in the ground as a placeholder made me laugh a little. In addition to the dwarves having nothing to pay Babs with - but they're good for it, they swear - Tiberius' guys seem to have taken Babs' friend Izzy prisoner as well. So she's going to have to give chase, on a boat full of elves. Which is apparently a horrible fate.

The whole thread with Tiberius and Mork, I'm just waiting for their inevitable and humiliating deaths. But watching Babs kind of blindly hack her way through life, careening from one situation - I almost called them adventures, but feel like that's not really what they are - to another, is entertaining. She seems to simply act on her first impulse at gaining any new piece of information, and that's a lot of fun.

The Pedestrian #3, by Joey Esposito (writer), Sean von Gorman (artist), Josh Jensen (colorist), Shawn Lee (letterer) - Stop, in the name of not getting harassed by creepy weirdos in masks.

The, whatever the thing with all the hands is, drops Jimmy at the same place where those two young boys' dad works. Meanwhile, the boys are talking their babysitter, Kira (the girl who Jimmy tried to mug in #1) into investigating a place they think The Pedestrian will show up next. Instead, they run into a bunch of the guy on the cover, in a nifty sequence by von Gorman where the Don't Walk signal flashes, and it appears on their faces each time (and more appear each time), but then vanishes when the signal goes dark.

The cop lady shows up to help, though I feel like von Gorman has the most trouble drawing her face. Like he's trying to add a few more lines to show she's a bit older than Kira, but mostly makes her face seem kind of indistinct, or like her lips are pressed on, Mr. Potato Head-style. Whatever, she's going to drop everyone where the boys' dad works, but it's closed. That's ominous.

Randy, having been fired after nearly getting killed by Jimmy, is helping the crossing guard lady get Pedestrian up and running again. By gathering a bunch of road signs. Relax, they're from a salvage yard, she's not committing vandalism. Just in time, because the cop and the kids get attacked by a whole mess of the mask guys, who the kids' dad has been recruiting for, some reason.

I don't think he is the entity, which said it needed to find a real dirtbag, but he's clearly working in concert with it. Jimmy seems to have accepted it because he's tired of feeling like he's just there to be manipulated by the "important" people, and wants to make over people feel helpless, too. So I'm guessing the doctor gave up the idea he could provide for his sons while doing something good, and accepted doing this crap for a good paycheck.

What I Bought 9/27/2024 - Part 2

I went with Alex to one of his gigs in a town he hadn't played before. The attempt to visit the local comic shop ran aground because it was closed for a family matter, but there was an Asian restaurant next door, so I got the chance to try takoyaki.

Years of seeing anime characters eat it off skewers or toothpicks gave me the impression it would be crispier and crunchier. I guess I was expecting something like popcorn shrimp maybe, which it was not. That wasn't a bad thing, it was quite tasty. I didn't even have trouble with the sauces on top, which have typically been my arch-foe with other Asian cuisine. Just not what I was expecting, but a nice compliment to the fried rice.

The ice cream I had later that night may have been a bad idea, if my stomach's response around the time Alex's gig ended is any indication.

Babs #2, by Garth Ennis (writer), Jacen Burrows (artist), Andy Troy and Lee Loughridge (colorists), Rob Steen (letterer) - I envision Babs and Izzy tricked those guys into beating the crap out of each other to settle who would get to beat up Babs and Izzy. Hence the lack of blood spatter on the ladies. Fight smart not hard.

The Knights of Human Rights are for Humans are still prattling on about making the land safe for "normal" folk, but Mork the Orc (kind of small for an orc) and his dumbshit pals still think they can get in with this bunch, via some scroll Mork has. Leopards, faces being eaten, never thought my face, you can pretty well see the trajectory of that arc, though I can't rule out Ennis pulling a swerve.

Babs, meanwhile, spends half the issue wandering. First encountering a horde of undead warriors trying to figure out which way is the next place they're supposed to manifest. Which Ennis gets some humor from by having the horde bust each other's chops, because they've been together so long. Surprised he and Burrows didn't do more with the decomposing nature of their bodies. Later she shares a road with some poor knight trying to play at being a grand hero who won't shut up. Interacting with people locked in pitiful cycles prompts brief (one page worth) concern in Babs she'll end up like that, so she decides to steal some silver from the dwarf mines. Aim high! Except all the dwarves are missing.

Well, Tiberius Toledo - I think that name's supposed to mean something, possibly related to Roman history, but fuck if I know - did claim he already drove out the dwarves. Which I assume means he slaughtered them to the last child, but I guess I'll see next issue. It feels like Ennis is working towards Babs having to do more than simply wander and pull crimes that might grant her "middle class comfort" as the sword puts it, by dealing with Toledo and actually trying to rule like she's apparently supposed to. Except the tone feels too cynical for that, so either she turns it down and inter-species (class? race?) war erupts across the realm, or she tries and fucks it royally because she never finished princess school.

Body Trade #1, by Zac Thompson (writer), Jok (artist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - The way he's seated in front of that grand tree, with the thick clothes and beard, makes me think a bit of, like, Odin, seated in front of the World Tree or something.

Kim's son just passed away. The obituary says of prolonged illness, but based on the shouted accusations of Kim's ex-wife, it had something do to with Kim's bad driving. So that's an uncomfortable funeral, made worse for Kim by the fact there's no body. Because the hospital bills were enormous, so they had to sell the body to Bio-Mem to cover the costs. Kim doesn't give a shit, he just wants his son's body, to the extent he threatens a company rep (who is, admittedly preying on the desperation of an aged new-widow when he finds her.)

Kim gets his ass kicked by some meathead in a tank top who looks rougher than Kim and drives the H3 on steroids they transport bodies in. Up to that point, Jok's drawn Kim as a rough edges, heavily lined face, narrowed eyes and slanted brows. In the moment this new asshole shows up, he eases off all that, raises the brows, opens the eyes. Most of the lines on the face vanish. It doesn't make Kim look nice or anything, just lost and scared.

And he's not the only one, as even the "lead broker" for Bio-Mem is getting heat from her bosses, or maybe they're stockholders. Shitheads who have unreasonable expectations about profit and public image for what is essentially them being vultures. She also scratched her arm until she tore her coat, and Kim was scratching his cast (and his beard) earlier. I don't know if it's a nervous tic, or there's some contagion going around that results from whatever Bio-Mem is doing with these bodies, which aren't being transported humanly or with much concern to hygiene. Ah, the old cutting "costs to raise profits" gambit.

Thompson's playing cagey with what Bio-Mem does with the bodies, and also what's up with Kim. He keeps calling someone named "Cal", who seems to be a therapist or anger coach of some sorts. The cast on his arm is also too recent to be involved in whatever wreck his wife brought up (and I notice no one signed it, which could mean something or nothing. Cal's the only person who has anything nice to say to Kim.) I'm not nearly as invested in these mysteries as I was the incident on the mountain in Blow Away, or whatever was going on in Nature's Labyrinth. Which isn't great, since I didn't feel all that satisfied with the resolutions in either of those. Figure this book is on thin ice.

What I Bought 8/14/2024 - Part 1

I expected I'd find 3 of the 5 books out this week I was interested in, and one would be a first issue. This isn't the first issue I was expecting to find. Maybe the universe is really trying to impress upon me that Werewolf by Night is better off ignored.

Babs #1, by Garth Ennis (writer), Jacen Burrows (artist), Andy Troy (colorist), Rob Steen (letterer) - Who would expect a dragon to be guarding this massive hoard of gold, hidden within a mountain?

This issue mostly establishes the tone Ennis and Burrows are going with, while offering a bit of characterization and backstory for Babs, which may or may not be anything like her true name. A motley collection of what I think are supposed to be medieval equivalent to annoying comic fans online accuse her of being Grizzlock the Barbarian, aka Grizzlock the Patricidal, who killed her father (obviously), the male and therefore much better, King Grizzlock. Babs denies it, and they're clearly morons mistaking her for a different sword-wielding woman warrior. But her talking sword mentions (amid copious profanity) she both dropped out of princess academy and that there's a kingdom somewhere she could return to as queen.

Beyond that, Babs drinks to excess with a friend, kills a couple of squirrels (which are called "tree-runts") because her chainmail bra needs a new lining, and ends up hiding in a tree from an angry bear that got shot in the butt with one of her crossbow bolts.

Also, a bunch of knights calling themselves "Ivory Knights of Unblemished Virtue" are on the march, and the group of morons (who might also be meant to mock incels) think they want to join. Will Ennis eventually have Babs make a lengthy and profane speech about what a bunch of {insert the filthiest terminology you can imagine} all of them are? Almost certainly! Will it be funny? We can hope so.

I feel like Burrows is trying to walk the line of having the characters look more or less normal for the setting, but still be able to do the sillier stuff the story requires. Like Babs swinging a goblin by his ankles at his buddies, or having the talking sword flip Babs off. When Babs' friend Izzy relates how all the loot she got from a dragon hoard had to go to reparations for a leprechaun parade she and her chariot plowed through, the contrast between the oblivious leprechauns still playing harps or mandolins or whatever, and their comrade being bloodily dismembered has a certain dark glee to it.

For the less macabre bits, a looser or more comically exaggerated approach might work. Guess that depends on if they really want it to play this, but it certainly doesn't feel like it's one of Ennis' "serious" works.

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 #150

 

"The Logical End Point for Televangelists" in The Demon (vol. 3) #42, by Garth Ennis (writer), John McCrea (artist), Stu Chaifetz (colorist), Todd Klein (letterer)

Etrigan's third go at an ongoing lasted almost 60 issues, the first 40 of which were done by Alan Grant and, for the first couple years, Val Semekis as artist. I don't own any of those, and from what I've seen there's far more Lobo in those issues than anyone should be exposed to. What I do have is 8 issues of Garth Ennis and John McCrea's run. All of which, not coincidentally, are part of storylines that involve Tommy Monagahan, aka Hitman. 

We'll look at his first appearance next week, but focusing on this stretch, it feels like Ennis really ramped up the animosity between Etrigan and Jason Blood. Not that either of them was ever happy with their arrangement, but here it's really played up that Etrigan has amused himself by torturing Jason Blood at every opportunity. That he has more than once, over the centuries they've been bonded, done things so awful it broke Blood's mind for decades. Meaning Etrigan had free reign to do whatever he wanted, because Jason couldn't summon the will to tell him no.

That continues here, as Blood's hopes of having some semblance of a happy life with his lady friend Glenda are dashed by Etrigan accepting an offer to be "Hell's hitman", which will send him all over the world killing demons. When it turns out Glenda's pregnant, that too is part of Etrigan's plan to destroy Blood once and for all. It backfires on him spectacularly, and gives Jason the upper hand. 

That leads to Blood, who is enjoying the hell out of his moment, letting Etrigan out with the oath, 'Gone o little man so tame, arise the demon whathisname.'

(Blood will eventually lose that upper hand due to Tommy's desperation, but in Tommy's defense, Blood also stiffed him on his $2 million for shooting Merlin in the head first.)

Ennis' Etrigan is gleefully cruel and violent, but it's overlaid over a lot of anger and hurt that comes out if anyone crosses him. He's like a particularly moody teenager, yelling about how no one knows hate and pain like him.

McCrea goes an entirely different direction with Etrigan from basically any other artist I've seen. Most of them default to Jack Kirby's bulky, muscular Demon. Sort of the conventional superhero build. McCrea makes him this jagged, almost emaciated looking creature. He has muscles, but his wrists and joints are all thin and bony, his ribs are visible, his shoulder blades jut out, his neck can be unsettlingly long. His clothes fit on him in a way that reminds me of a Dr. Seuss character somehow. It's a very unique look to be sure.

If I remember right, the run ends with some particularly angry archangel taking control of Heaven and deciding to try and destroy Hell once and for all, and Etrigan pulling himself out of a funk to lead a defense of Hell. I assume it succeeded, but I don't remember for sure.

Random Back Issues #49 - The Punisher (MAX) #44

Well if they did that, then there wouldn't be any more Punisher comics, and you wouldn't like that would you? Oh, you would? Well, take your complaints to Marvel, I'm just a blogger.

Get with the good times, it's Garth Ennis' Punisher run! So consider that your obligatory violence and profanity warning. Today we're looking at the second chapter of the Widowmaker arc, where five mob widows decide that if all the men are too incompetent to kill the Punisher, they'll do it. The only progress on that front here is that they figure out one of them is dyslexic, so she's no help going through the police reports. But, she can fuck the guy that's going to give them weapons, so hey! Teamwork! Also, they conclude Frank has a bit of a white knight complex when it comes to abused women (having read up on his actions in "The Slavers" arc three storylines ago), and that's how they'll trap him.

But the story starts with Frank visiting a suburban home where the parents film porn, using their children. Frank is understandably not happy about this, and well, you see how it turned out for those two. He at least insisted they show him the set-up in the basement, while the kids stay in the living room, used a silencer, and called the police to come collect the children after. Ever the optimist, Frank thinks the daughter might be young enough to have a chance. As for her two older brothers, Frank has 'a sinking feeling. . . I'd be seeing them again in twenty years.'

I'm most surprised Frank thinks he'll still be alive in twenty years.

Part of what Ennis does in this arc is compare and contrast Frank with some other would-be vigilantes. One is a cop, Paul Budiansky, who Lan Medina clearly based on Samuel L. Jackson. It's not quite Mike Deodato using Tommy Lee Jones as the model for Norman Osborn, but it's real close. Paul ignored orders and went into a school where a student was killing other kids with machine pistols, and shot the kid. Now he has to meet with a psychiatrist, who Paul feels is just trying to use him as material for his next book, and that he's only here because his Captain is mad he bucked orders and can't find another way to fuck with him.

He also says telling people they're traumatized might keep them from dealing with their problems, one panel after insisting he will deal with this by having nightmares and drinking whiskey. That's about what I'd expect from a Garth Ennis character, and I can't tell whether we're supposed to think that's macho bullshit, or cheer Budiansky on. Probably the second, after he concludes by telling the doc she's 'just another racist bitch.'  

At least he has his wife for support and to assure him he's nothing like the Punisher. Sure hope nothing traumatic happens to her! He might not have enough whiskey to go with the nightmares.

The other vigilante is after the five widows themselves, for reasons that aren't made entirely clear for another couple of issues. The only progress on that front, is a guy tries to pick her up outside a cafe and she blows him off, telling him he seems like a nice guy, and that's why she doesn't want him anywhere near her. Also, she's listening in on the widows plan from the next table over.

As arcs in this series go, it's one of the weaker ones. It's 7 issues instead of his usual six, and there really isn't enough there to justify it. Wedged in between the "Man of Stone" arc that preceded it, and the rematch with Barracuda that comes next, it isn't nearly as strong.

[8th longbox, 230th comic. The Punisher (MAX) #44, by Garth Ennis (writer), Lan Medina (penciler), Bill Reinhold (inker), Raul Trevino (colorist), Randy Gentile (letterer)]

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.

If He Didn't Exist, Someone's Subconscious Would Create Him

No idea why this came to mind, but in the movie Forbidden Planet, the monster turns out to be Dr. Morbius' id, unleashed because he increased his brainpower with alien technology.

Theory: Mark Millar is Garth Ennis' id monster. It's all of the profanity, violence, sexual content, without any of the emotional content or themes that Ennis has in his better work. So it comes off as half-thought out ideas designed to look "cool" or "adult", but are really more juvenile. Not that Ennis doesn't himself produce that kind of crap, but Dr. Morbius didn't keep all his anger and resentment completely under wraps either.

I know what you're saying, Mark Millar has written good stuff, too. I'm just letting my negative feelings about Civil War bias my perspective. And maybe you're right. But first off, I'm not convinced Mark Millar actually exists. I've never met him. He could be a bunch of squirrels in a track suit for all I know. Second, there's nothing wrong with being the monster, necessarily. It gives everyone else something to struggle against, so without it, there wouldn't be a show. How many fewer posts would this blog have if Mark Millar hadn't written a really bad mini-series called Civil War? A lot less? He carried that burden when no one else could, when I was only weary of Bendis, and long before Jonathan Hickman had gifted me with the chance to make snide remarks about Reed Richards being bad at building a universe.

So it's not all bad, being the id monster.

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)!

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.

What's Frank Castle Get Out Of The Afterlife?

Late in 2008, Marvel released a Punisher: War Zone mini-series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. In it, there's a sequence where Frank asks the fellow who's been after him why he thinks Frank would be haunted by the people he kills. His next two lines are 'I send them to Hell. I sleep just fine.' I saw the page originally in one of Chris Sims' "Ask Chris" columns, and I've been thinking about it periodically since then. Last week, it struck me as strange that the Punisher basically admits he believes in Hell. I've been sorting out my thoughts on that since then.

My thinking was Frank is focused, but also very practical about what he does. He tries to bury the emotional part of himself, because it'll make him stupid and get him killed more quickly. For as many as he kills, he's knows there will always be more criminals, long after he's dead. Even while he's alive, there are numerous ones he'll never catch up to, and the most he can hope for is what he does might give them a moment's pause. He knows he's gone too far down this path - willingly, it's worth noting - to turn back, which is why he can't be part of the life of the daughter he learned he had with O'Brien. It's not so much that Frank couldn't believe in an afterlife, but more I didn't think he would bother to. He's focused on his mission, and doing it efficiently as possible.

Today, it occurred to me that War Zone was under the Marvel Knights imprint, the same as the "Welcome Back, Frank" mini-series Ennis and Dillon did several years earlier (which lead to a Punisher ongoing under the Marvel Knights heading, and eventually the ongoing Ennis wrote in the MAX imprint). At the very start of "Welcome Back, Frank", Ennis addresses Castle's previous status quo: acting as a killer of paranormal stuff under Heaven's direction. Ennis deals with it quickly, basically stating "Yeah, it happened, but Frank's alive again, back to killing mobsters and such. Moving on!" The idea that Frank Castle believes in the afterlife wouldn't come as any surprise, considering he'd seen it, acted in service of it, even.

I'm not clear on what connection there might be between Ennis' Marvel Knights and MAX Punisher work. Costumed superheroes are never mentioned in the MAX stuff. Neither is the Russian, or Frank once making a French military officer drop a nuke on an island. However, Frank's SAS buddy Yorkie Mitchell showed up in both titles, though more often in the MAX book. Still, MAX imprint Frank believes in something, too. In Punisher: The Tyger one-shot, at the end, as Frank begins his war on crime, he thinks to himself that he'll show them something not made by God. it's a reference to a scene earlier in the book, when Frank attends a poetry class as a kid. After hearing Blake's "The Tyger", he asks who made the Tyger, because he doesn't believe it could have been made by the same being that made lambs, meaning God*. It could be a product of his upbringing he hasn't shaken, the same way there are certain things he learned as a kid he honed as he's grown older.

There's always the possibility that Frank believes because he likes the idea that after he's done with the crooks, they wind up someplace worse, where they suffer more than he could ever inflict. By and large, Ennis' Punisher doesn't torture. When he does, he doesn't hold back, but it's rare enough that it even worries him how easy it was. Normally, he's trying to do things as quickly and cleanly as possible, so there wouldn't be time to drag it out. So those he kills could fall under the category of "At least it was quick", if that's a consolation. But he can tell himself there's more waiting for them on the other side.

I don't think that's it, though. He's killing them, and that should be satisfaction enough, in its own way. It's another scene in the MAX run I was thinking of as evidence of his beliefs I think is the reason. At the end of the "Up is Down, Black is White" arc, Frank's captured Nicky Cavella, the mobster who dug up the remains of Frank's family, urinated on them, then sent a recording of it to major news stations. Frank went wild for a bit, not killing civilians wild, but being much more showy and careless (with himself) in how he did things. Now though, he's leading Cavella into the woods, and he thinks to himself (I don't have it in front of me, so paraphrasing) that the clouds had gone and he could think clearly again. He remembers Maria and the kids are someplace people like Cavella can never touch them.

That's the key to it, because Castle isn't just the Punisher, unstoppable, remorseless, emotionless killer. Frank Castle, husband and father, is still in there, but buried as deeply as possible. Because when that part of him comes to the surface, takes control, he gets careless. He does things less intelligently, puts himself and others at risk. It isn't a strict revenge thing, because that would end with the ones responsible for his pain**. It's a mission that doesn't end with the death of one criminal, but hypothetically ends with the death of all criminals (though it really ends with Frank's death), and so emotion can't enter into it. In that way, the belief that his loved ones are somewhere else, in peace and happiness, safe from the sort of violence that killed them, is a soothing measure for that emotional part of Frank. They aren't simply dead and gone, they're dead, but in a better place, so he doesn't need to be angry over them. It keeps that part of Frank Castle quiet, so the soldier can do what he has to, how he has to do it.

* The teacher, a priest, responds that God made everything, and that's all there is to it, as far as he's concerned.

** As it did for Jenny in the Widowmakers arc. She'd trained herself to be very good at killing, but once she killed the specific people she hated, there was nothing left for her, and she killed herself.

There Is Something That Can Make Me Buy Superman Regularly

I don't own many Superman comics, four to be exact. Three of those belonged to my dad, the other was the issue Kurt Busiek wrote about the Prankster, which I bought because I thought the Prankster was a fun adversary ("villain" doesn't seem right, somehow). He has that flair and showmanship I like in villains.

I don't necessarily dislike Superman. I used to, when all I had to go on was my dad's Silver Age stuff. He was too powerful, the super-powers just seemed to pop-up out of nowhere (super-willpower was my breaking point), and he could be kind of a jerk (as has been attested to by any number of other bloggers). But there are a lot of people out there who have written about what Superman represents to them, or in his fictional world, and how that makes him awesome. That's made me more neutral towards him, if not a fan. It can be interesting to read other characters' comics where he makes guest appearances and we see what he means to them, in small doses. Don't need lots of comics about that, but the occasional issue, that doesn't derail the book's ongoing stories is fine.

Recently, I've become more certain I'd buy a Superman title if DC handed it to Garth Ennis for at least a year. This is strictly hypothetical, just something I'd be interested to see (in case you thought I'd gained some inside source at DC). Superman is the one costumed hero Ennis really seems to like*, and somehow I think he'd surprise people if given the reins. I don't know what he'd do, what it would be about. Maybe how Superman tries to fit in amongst people, rather than hold himself apart. I've seen bits of Hitman #34 where Tommy talks with Superman on a rooftop, and I think that was something Monaghan said he liked about Superman. I don't know if Ennis was expressing his own feelings through Tommy, or just the reason he thought Tommy would have for admiring Superman and Ennis' are completely different. Since he seems to feel Superman represents the best of the U.S.'s ideals, he might confront Superman with problems representing the worst of the realities of the United States? I'm just throwing that out there, it would probably be something completely different.

I'm not sure how it would go over with Superman fans and readers**. Some folks are always going to buy Superman. There are probably at least a few people who like Superman and Ennis that would stick around, and a few like me who would check it out based on Ennis. I imagine there would be folks familiar with Ennis' work, but not fans of it, who would drop the book because they didn't feel he was a good fit for Superman. And some of the things that were common in his Punisher MAX work, the people being set on fire and such, probably wouldn't fly in Action Comics. I have this feeling he could do fine without the graphic violence and such, if he really wanted to write the book, but knew he'd have to tone things down some. OK, probably a lot.

I doubt it will ever happen, and it might turn out horribly if it did, but I'm still intrigued by the idea. Heck, while we're at it, who is someone you'd like to see write an ongoing Superman title, who hasn't so far? Or, if there isn't anyone new, who is someone you'd like to see return to the title?

* I remember an interview in Wizard, when the Thomas Jane Punisher movie was close to release, where Ennis said he doesn't hate superheroes, he hates how they dominate the market. Would that mean when he had Spider-Man or Daredevil appear in his Punisher work, it was his way of saying "You want superheroes? Fine, I'll give you superheroes. See how you like this"? He'll give the fans what they want, but do it his way?

** Now I'm stacking a hypothetical on top of another one.

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.