4 out of 5

Hey, did you guys know that Garth Ennis likes WAR HISTORY?  Did you know he’ll take any opportunity to set up pastiches to his favorite warry movies or media?  Well, sure, and so here’s the Hitman version, called Tommy’s Heroes, about our favorite mercs – Tommy, Natt, Hacken and Ringo – recruited by an outfit that claims to tame hostile areas prior to UN involvement.  Do a good deed; make a buck.  But what happens when that outfit is run by a power hungry commandant, and when the person you’re setting up for rule is a despot, with two dunder-headed heroes in tow to enforce his will?

Then, of course, you become mercs with hearts, and team up with the local rebels to set things right.

Thankfully, Ennis is so goddamn good at writing endless variations on these tales of relative morals amd brotherhood, that we don’t really care that Tommy, at this point, has completely abandoned his powers, or that those two superheroes – Rose and Skull – have puzzling roles in the story, neither completely lampooned or developed.  And double thankfully, the art team of McCrea and inker Leach are an insanely good match, Leach giving John’s streamlined (in comparison to his earlier Hitman / Demon work) pencils the perfect dose of realism and grounding, especially for this somewhat grittier story.  Compare to guest inker Andrew Chui in issue 31; Chui still does an excellent job, it’s just a dash flatter and more cartoonish than Leach, slightly changing the tone.

A generic story told exceedingly well.  Preacher proved what Ennis could do with longer form story telling of his own design; Hitman seems to he where he really got his footing for blending the absurdity of comic action with his personal tastes, setting up a template for one of his latter-era masterworks with his Marvel Max Punisher.