CSBG Archive
Almost Hidden – Hitman in the Future
Even with this large amount of comic books that have been collected in trade paperbacks, there are still a number of great comic books that have never been reprinted (I’d say roughly 60% of them are DC Comics from the 1980s through the mid-1990s). So every day this month I will spotlight a different cool comic book that is only available as a back issue. Here is an archive of the comic books featured so far.
I want you folks to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com with your suggestions for comics that I should feature this month. I’d like to see what you all would like to see get more attention.
Today, commenter Jason suggested Hitman #1,000,000, which has not yet made its way into any of the Hitman trades that have come out so far. The issue was written by Garth Ennis and drawn by John McCrea. It was an offbeat tie-in to the DC One Million crossover of 1998.
DC One Million was a really neat crossover organized by Grant Morrison that involved DC’s heroes from the future coming to the present while the heroes of the present go to the future. Besides a crossover mini-series, the event had each DC comic book have its 1,000,000th issue (with 12 issues a year, you can imagine how far into the future we’re talking here).
For most books, this made a basic amount of sense (especially with Grant Morrison coordinating the plots), but there were a decent chunk of books where basically the writers just came up with some tangential stories and/or did their own thing.
One of those books was Hitman, where Garth Ennis and John McCrea essentially just mocked the concept of Hitman even being PART of a crossover like this.
The issue deals with a group of teens in the future who bring their hero, The Hit-Man, to the future, but get more (or perhaps less?) than they expected…
And he proceeds to tell him (but not before Tommy kicks an unkillable cat out of the window)…
Enter the most famous scene of the comic (and perhaps one of the most famous Hitman scenes, period!)…
Tommy is right, of course, and there’s a big superhero battle to come. When the dust settles, Tommy teaches the boys a lesson…
To see if the boys learn their lesson, well, you have to go dig up this issue!
This was a delightfully offbeat take on the modern superhero crossover. McCrea’s art was strong, as usual. Just a nice, hilarious one-off issue.
This issue WILL be reprinted, though, in the next Hitman collection, due out in April of next year.
18 Comments
Luke J.
August 4, 2011 at 5:29 am
Didn’t they put this in the new version of the 10,000 Bullets TPB?
Brian Cronin
August 4, 2011 at 5:39 am
No, that was Hitman Annual #1.
seamus
August 4, 2011 at 5:48 am
hahahahah I love the way the Judges from Judge Dedd are there too.
Glitchy
August 4, 2011 at 6:55 am
Loved that series so much (though I think “Zombie Night at the Gotham Aquarium” gives it a run for its money for most famous scene.) Great ending on this issue too – I’m glad to hear it will get a reprint.
mdk
August 4, 2011 at 7:31 am
Loved that DC: One Million crossover. Grant Morrison at his loopy, late-90′s best.
chad
August 4, 2011 at 8:34 am
loved how gunfire wound up learning the hard way about his powers in the issue and glad dc is finaly going to reprint this issue long over due.
Jeff R.
August 4, 2011 at 9:45 am
Was the original Gunfire also stupid enough to put _targets_ on his _kneecaps_?
Jeremy
August 4, 2011 at 4:13 pm
Maybe my favorite on-going of all-time. Over 60 issues, and not a single bad one in the bunch. DC is taking their sweet ass time getting them in trades though. Whole run probably won’t be completed until…what, end of 2013? Blargh
Brian Cronin
August 4, 2011 at 5:10 pm
I think it is going to take a good deal longer than that, sadly.
Doc
August 4, 2011 at 6:05 pm
I don’t have much to add to a solid write-up, but I’ve read that Gunfire scene probably half a dozen times and it still makes me laugh.
Rob
August 4, 2011 at 7:24 pm
This is the one appearance of Hitman I don’t have. Thank you for reminding me.
randypan the goatboy
August 4, 2011 at 7:27 pm
I cant believe garth ennis would write such a violent book. wasnt his other DC book about a christian superhero who fought a villain named gawd or something…we need more christian comics like preacher….buncha sinners
sean
August 4, 2011 at 9:49 pm
“Didn’t they put this in the new version of the 10,000 Bullets TPB?”
It was originally announced that it would in the reprint of the first trade (retitled ‘Rage In Arkham’), but they didn’t go through with it.
Also, Brian, small correction — the next trade being published is actually a reprinting of volume 5, ‘Who Dares Wins’, isn’t it? The confusing listings on Amazon don’t help.
Nicol Hay
August 5, 2011 at 1:04 am
A wee comics Easter Egg that US readers may not be aware of, but the future characters in this story are based on characters from the Viz comics strip Student Grant.
Beware Of Geek
August 7, 2011 at 6:22 am
The story goes that Morrison gave most of the writers detailed instructions on what they had to cover to fit into the crossover.
But for Hitman, all he said was “Garth? Take the piss.”
Brian Cronin
August 7, 2011 at 6:47 am
Yeah, it seems that Morrison gave a few of the “minor” comics freedom to do whatever they wanted.
Sean
September 3, 2011 at 2:28 pm
God, I miss HITMAN. Where else could you get mainstream, code approved books with fisting jokes in them?
worstblogever
September 4, 2011 at 12:55 am
At least those poor kids didn’t summon the legendary Gotham City hero, Bueno Excellente, to try to take his iconic power.