JLA/Hitman #1 (of 2) Review

I love Garth Ennis' work. I enjoyed Preacher, Unknown Soldier, his Avatar works such as 303, Chronicles of Wormwood and his Marvel MAX Punisher is one of the best books in the market. So, it should come as no surprise that I rushed to pick up his latest tale involving everyone's favorite Hitman, Tommy Monaghan.

To those not in the know, Garth Ennis scripted an on-going series which took place in the DCU proper titled "Hitman". The main setting of the story was in Gotham City and involved a wacky cast of characters, ranging from a drunk who thought he was a superhero to a demon from hell. The earlier issues featured memorable appearances by the Big-guns of DCU such as Batman, Green Lantern and even had a stand alone story featuring Superman. It was dark humor as Ennis does best. Of course by the end of his run, Ennis killed off all of the cast.

JLA/Hitman is a two part story that features what else but JLA and Hitman in an unlikely alliance. The parasites from one of the many cross-overs in the 90's entitled Bloodlines are planning or returning to Earth. In order to combat this old threat, the JLA looks for a survivor of the original Bloodlines invasion, who happens to be Tommy Monaghan. The JLA reluctantly brings Monaghan abroad the Satelite and hilarity and mayhem ensues.

There are a lot of hilarious moments in this story, ranging from Nat the Hat dating a woman with the head of an elephant to indications of Green Lantern have been assaulted by resident pervert, Bueno Excellente. There are too many to go into. The story is both old and new reader-friendly. Old readers can go "oh I remember that" and the new readers won't be lost either. There are also shameless plugs all over the issue which if they do their jobs, should encourage new readers to pick up back issues or TPBs of the old Hitman series. I hope these plugs succeed and get enough readers interested so that DC collects the remainder of this criminally overlooked series. As for the art, McCrea does his usual solid job. It's nice to see him back on Hitman.

In the midst of crossovers (Countdown, World War Hulk, Final Crisis, Secret Invasion etc.) that require you to buy 10+ titles to figure out what the heck is going on, Hitman is a welcomed breath of fresh air. I highly recommend old and new comic fans to pick it up.

Final Grade: 5/5