Zenith: Phase 1 (2000AD #535–550)

"See?  What did I tell you?  Never trust a hippy." - Zenith

I've been waiting a long time for this collection.  Around this time last year (2013) I was browsing Amazon for gifts I'd like for Christmas and discovered that Phase's 1 to 3 had all been given release dates finally after a long time in rights hell.  "Joy" I think to myself, "those will make perfect gifts for moi" then I noticed the dates attached were 2014 for Phases 1 and 2 and 2015 for Phase 3 *sad trombone*.  But a year passed, and Phase One finally found it's way into my eager hands as a birthday gift pretty much a week after it's release.  And it was well worth the wait.  Actually I could have read it anytime, I own all the 2000AD progs with Zenith Phases 1, 2 and 3 in them but I am a lazy fuck and actually accessing them would require totally rearranging half my bedroom.  Anyway, it's nice to have it in a swish hardcover that keeps the pages the same size as the original which as I pointed out in my look at DR and Quinch really makes the art pop in a way the reduced sized reprints seem to lack somehow.

So what exactly is Zenith?  Well it's a 1987, "post Marvelman" superhero story played relatively straight which found itself a home in 2000AD, a UK anthology comic not noted for playing host to superheroes.  When you discover that the author was Grant Morrison (it was his first on-going series for a major publication) it becomes more understandable.  Of all the famous and prolific British comicbook writers, he's the only one who really embraces the concept of the superhero without the layers of irony, parody, spite and anger that motivate other UK writers who dabble in the superheroic genre. 

The boy himself, Robert "Zenith" McDowell

Zenith is the name of the superhero, and he is very much the product of aspects of late 80's Britain that mark him as quite different from other superheroes of the time.  He's a young man, a yuppie, a plastic pop star who sings disposable pop tunes and uses his powers to impress girls rather than fight crime.  Where the superheroes of Watchmen were screwed up and those found in Marshall Law, perverse, murderous and hypocritical, Zenith is quite happy with his life thank you very much and when something more inconvinient than recovering from a hangover intrudes on his life, he doesn't so much jump at the call than get reluctantly dragged along in the wake of events.

Page 1: Introducing Maximan

Of course, the writing is only half of a comic.  The art, in this case by Steve Yeowell is brilliant.  Clean, crisp, sparse in a good way, full of energy yet also effective in quieter moments as well.  One of the things I have always loved about the UK anthology comic format is how different artists were from each other.  You could never mistake say John Ridgeway material for Carlos Ezquerra's for instance. Steve Yeowell's Zenith work is like western comics done Japanese manga style and really stood out even at the time, which was towards the tail end of 2000AD's most fertile period for breaking new artists and writers.  What's also noticable I find when reading collections of 2000AD material is just how pacy and full of incident they are, they are like the anti-Brian Michael Bendis comic.  This is of course because they are compilations of six to eight page chapters meaning you get three times as many cliffhanger moments than US comics and Zenith has some pretty cracking ones.

The first chapter is set during World War 2, the introductory page is a chirpy newsreel showing a British superhero who is superstrong and impervious to bullets.  He is called Maximan and has been designed to take out the German equivalent, Masterman. The next page shows Maximan badly beaten after a fight with Masterman in the middle of Berlin.  As Masterman prepares to finish him off, saying it's the time of the "Many-Angled Ones" the AMericans drop and atomic bomb on them.

Masterman about to get an atom bomb to the face.

The action then moves to Berlin in 1987 where a man and a woman go into a secret building where Masterman is being held in suspended animation and say they plan to wake him up.  At the same time in London, an ex-superhero Ruby Fox is being interviewed on breakfast TV about a new book covering the superteam "Cloud 9" she was part of in the sixties and does she think it's unfair towards them. She says it is and goes on to say:

Ruby: "We were young.  The victims of an experimental drug which had given us extraordinary abilities.  None of us new just how we were supposed to behave.  Really it shouldn't have come as any surprise that we were on a collision course with disaster."

The next day Zenith comes crashing through the skylight of his agents office, who is watching Ruby and Zenith's appearance on video.  Zenith has been at a party the previous night and is somewhat hungover. His agent asks if he can do a promotional appearance on a certain day by Zenith says it falls at the lowest point of his "biogram" and won't be able to fly, so no. On the video when the interviewer asks him how he feels about the books portrayal of his parents "Dr.Beat" and "White Light" he brushes it off saying he got bored by the books contents page.  His agent fusses that he worries about what all the partying is doing to Zenith.

Zenith: "I'm 19, I can fly, I can flatten ball bearings between my fingers and I'm practically invulnerable. I mean let's face it, what can possibly go wrong?"

Iok Sotot is summoned.

Back with the two Germans, they initiate a ritual to summon one of the Many-Angled Ones and a creature with many mouths and eyes appears. The woman pushes the reluctant man out of the safety of the summoning circle and the pressure from the eldritch being causes him to explode.  This sacrifice completes the ritual and the Many-Angled One takes control of Masterman.  He tells her his name is Iok Sotot - The Eater of Souls - and he is to prepare the way for the coming of the others.  First thing he plans to do is visit London.

The action cuts to Ruby Fox, suddenly suffering a terrible migraine.  She thinks on how the BBC asked her to present a programme on Cloud 9 and how she felt about losing her powers, which she lied about.  Later Masterman comes crashing through the door into he flat.

Masterman: "Your name is Ruby Fox.  Twenty years ago you called yourself Voltage and you could manipulate electrical fields.  Now you're a magazine editor.  Now you can't do anything. But perhaps you could still be used as breeding stock, eh?"

Ruby gives Masterman a shock.

She says that she can't have children, that being sterile was a side effect of their powers (setting up a mystery in regards to Zenith's parentage).  Masterman says he'll just have to hurt her then.  But she reaches into the power supply and manages to electrocute Masterman hard enough to allow her to leap out of the window and fly away.  She goes to Zenith to ask him to help her, but he is more interested in shooting a video.  When she shorts out the electrics in the equipment nearby he decides to listen to her.

She tells him that in 1923, Adolf Hitler was initiated into The Order Of The Black Sun.  When he gained power her was put in touch with certain entities - The Many-Angled Ones - who could only manifest in superhuman bodies like Masterman (with Maximan being created by defecting German scientists). Although the first Masterman was killed in the Berlin atom bomb strike, a second Masterman was also created and it's this one that is running amok now. Zenith still refuses to help, so Ruby plays her trump card saying she will tell him what really happened to his parents.  They then go and seek out the one of the final two superpowered people from Cloud 9 who is still about, a Peter "Mandala" St.John.

Ruby: "More than any of us he represented a whole generation of people who peace and love could change the world.  And now... now he's Mrs. Thatcher's golden boy."

According to GMozz, Peter was the breakout character of the strip.

Peter introduces himself to them, but when the situation with Masterman is explained to him he dismisses it as "preposterous".  He accuses Ruby of trying to set up some kind of "pathetic" Cloud 9 reunion and walks out on her and Zenith saying he has an election to fight.  Ruby and Zenith decide to find the final surviving member of Cloud 9 Siadwel "Red Dragon" Rhys, who has fire based powers. As she and Zenith fly off to see him, Iok Sotot leaves Masterman's body and contemplates the whole of Earth "ripe with souls" and begins to drool.  Ruby and Zenith arrive at a Welsh pub and inside find the out of shape and drunk Siadwel.

Zenith: "This is the guy who used to be able to turn solid rock into lava just by thinking hard at it! The sixties most powerful superhuman! And all he's fit for now is soaking up whiskey like blotting paper and burning the toast!"

A gone to seed Siadwel.

Siadwel says his powers are long gone, but a frustrated Zenith won't take him at his word and grabs him and flies him high in the air before dropping him.  Siadwel plummets for a short distance then suddenly flies to safety.  Next Zenith smashes his whiskey bottles, and in a rage Siadwel yells he lost his powers while simultaneously lighting up on fire.  When he realises they have come back, Zenith says there is work to do.

Zenith and Ruby spend the next week retraining Siadwel to be able to use his powers effectively.  When they are ready to leave he pours the last of his whiskey down the toilet and puts on his old costume.   Meanwhile Peter St.John goes into his office and finds his secretary dead and Masterman waiting for him.  Masterman tells him to play along with the Cult Of The Black Sun and great things will come his way.

Masterman: "Not that your planet has any future, but there might be a place for you in the new world we plan to create. That's why I'm letting you live.  Say 'Thank you Masterman'"

Peter: "Thank you.. Masterman."

Masterman: "...now if you'll excuse me, I have to destroy the world."

Siadwel gets serious

Back in Wales, Zenith tells Ruby he could lose his powers anyday now as the are linked to his biorythmns, but that "today is my good day".  Vexed, Ruby decides to take the train to London while Zenith and Siadwel fly.  On the way Siadwel mentions a mysterious plan all the members of Cloud 9 had apart from him and Peter, but doesn't elaborate what it was.

Masterman begins to destroy London, but Ruby takes him on.  Then Siadwel and Zenith arrive and Siadwel hits Masterman very hard when it looks like he is about to kill Ruby.  Before he can hit him a second time, Masterman fries Siadwel down to a skeleton with his eye-beams.  Zenith steps up and they trade blows, Masterman hits Zenith hard enough to bounce him off Big Ben.  He beats Zenith down but before he can kill him, Peter arrives.

Siadwel dies rather anti-climactically.

Peter's powers are telepathic and he messes with Masterman's perception, while Masterman is confused, Zenith hits him hard enough that his fist goes right through him.  This only kills the container though, now they have to deal with Iok Sotot who sucks them into it's dimension. Peter mentally scans the being, setting up plot points for future arcs as he does so:

Masterman is killed but worse is to come.

Peter: "I hadn't realised the scale of their plans...millions of worlds moving towards alignment...the war that never ends... the omnihedron..."

Then Iok Sotot finds them.

Inside Iok Sotot

It tells them that it will spend a thousand years feasting on their souls.  Peter says that when Masterman confronted him in his office he took the opportunity to plant a powerful post-hypnotic suggestion in his brain which will result in seizures and death when he activates it using the words "Tyger! Tyger!" 

He might be a Tory, but he's a bit of a badass too.

This causes Iok Sotot to go into a death spasm and it spits out Zenith and Peter.

Iok Sotot dies.

The story concludes with Ruby, Peter and Zenith at Siadwel's funeral.  Peter says he only fought Masterman to gain votes, while Ruby says to Zenith that she'll tell him about his parents when she gets back from holiday.  Once back in London, Peter is offered and accepts the post of Secretary of State for Defence, Zenith attends a party celebrating the latest hits chart performance which was boosted by his heroism against Masterman, while the final loose end of the woman who summoned Iok Sotot is dealt with by the Cult of the Black Sun who blow her up for mishandling the Masterman affair.

Zenith celebrates with his agent, Eddie.

That finishes the first Zenith arc, although this collection includes a short flashback to Maximan before he was killed, a story describing the creation and history of Cloud 9  (narrated by their creator who omniously finishes by saying he needs to start again, with Zenith) and a collection of covers in full colour from the original 2000AD run and the Quality comics reprints, which are a nice bonus.

Zenith Phase One is an excellent story.  It's almost swaggeringly confident in it's execution, hard to believe it was Morrison's first major, widely read work.  It was deliberately grounded in the Britain of 1987, making reading it for me, tremendously nostalgic, although younger readers shouldn't be too lost by the pop cultural references of the time.  The mixture of superhero and H.P. Lovecraft inspired horror is pulled off very well and future plotlines are skillfully set in place without you ever feeling you're missing something.  Morrison has been quite frank about it being a step towards getting his hands on American superhero properties, but he doesn't half-arse it, and continued to write Zenith even when he had landed those prestigious DC writing gigs.  It should go without saying that Morrison was given the perfect artist for the job although it's noticable that Yeowell's work is much more effective and striking in black and white than in the coloured pages of the storyline.  It was a collection that was a long time coming out, but is well worth getting your hands on if you enjoy Grant Morrison's work.

D.R. And Quinch's Totally Awesome Guide To Life (2000AD #317, #352-359, #363-367, 2000AD Sci-Fi Special 1985)

"Y'know a kiss on the hand might be quite continental, man.  But tactical thermonuclear weaponry is a guys best friend" - D.R.

I'm starting a loose theme month of UK originated comicbooks, with a look at what is probably Alan Moore's most popular work for venerable UK sci-fi comic 2000AD.  Although The Ballad Of Halo Jones is unquestionably his best work for 2000AD that strip was somewhat unpopular with the readership at the time, whereas D.R and Quinch were very much appreciated by the then audience of mainly teenage boys. Alan Moore is sometimes unfairly pigeonholed as a "serious" writer, and his out-and-out funny stuff is rather relegated in importance in relation to his "serious" works (although even his most "dark" work Watchmen contains loads of jokes, wit and wonderful ironies that make the grimness much easier to bear.  There is much humour to be found in every Moore work, if you happen to be receptive to it).  D.R and Quinch is his best known comedic work, although the recent reprints of things like The Bojeffries Saga have finally put some of his finest comedic writing back into the comics mainstream.

Anyway, D.R and Quinch. Now the collection I am looking at today is the Titan Books one from 1986.  This contains all the Alan Moore and Alan Davis 2000AD strips not the later, Jamie Delano penned strip the "Agony Page". There is a more recent collection with every single D.R and Quinch stip in it, but if you're not a completist, the "Totally Awesome Guide To Life" can be picked up for mere pennies and has the added bonus of being the same page size as the originals, avoiding the sometimes cramped appearance the more modern reprints of UK comicbook material can have.

Before we begin it's interesting to note that Alan Moore himself has practically disowned this strip while simultaneously nailing it's enduring appeal.  As quoted in Magic Words: The Extraordinary Life Of Alan Moore, he has this to say about it:

Alan Moore: "D.R & Quinch are probably the comic strip I shall ask to have eradicated and destroyed upon my death bed. What D.R & Quinch are is a continuation of the great British tradition of making heroes out of juvenile delinquents. If you imagine Dennis the Menace with thermonuclear capacity you are probably pretty close to the idea of D.R & Quinch."

He later clarified this saying:

Alan Moore: "It makes violence funny, which I don't think it right. I have to question the point where I'm actually talking about thermonuclear weapons as a source of humour...there are a lot of good things about D.R & Quinch.  I think Alan Davis and I both put a lot of nice work into it and some of it is amusing.  But it has no lasting or redeeming social value as far as I'm concerned".

Introducing D.R.

That's harsh, coming from the man WHO GAVE US THE SHIT SANDWICH THAT WAS FRIGGIN' VOODOO!!! GRAGH!!!  *pant pant* Well, fie Mr. Moore.  It may now be one of you more obscure works, but it's held up over the years and still feels funny and fresh to my jaded eyes.  So without further ado, lets have a look at the strip in question and hopefully you'll be on my side rather than Alan's when we're done.  The artwork alone makes it worth tracking down.  Rereading Alan Moore and Alan Davis's work on Captain Britain it's amazing how quickly both improved, and no wonder Davis went onto a very successful career in US superhero comics.  Here he gives every character a real weight, and isn't phased at all by the number of wacky aliens he has to draw nor the ridiculous situations DR & Quinch find themselves in.  If you're a fan of Davis, this early work of his stands the test of time as much as the writing does for Moore.

D.R & QUINCH: HAVE FUN ON EARTH - Our terrible twosome made their first debut in 1983, in what was called a "Time Twister".  Time Twisters and Future Shocks were short stories often containing a surprising twist that 2000AD used to test-drive new writers and artists before offering them the prize of an on-going series.  Moore was an absolute master of the short story form and ended up with three series in 2000AD as a result. Skizz (his first), The Ballad Of Halo Jones (his best) and DR & Quinch (his funniest), which span out of this one eight page story. 

It's interesting that Moore chose to frame D.R & Quinch within a British tradition of mischevious anti-heroes, as they were actually inspired by two American National Lampoon characters called O.C. and Stiggs.  The pair of them are alien students, Waldo "D.R." (for "Diminished Responsibility") Dobbs, (who looks a bit like a Marvelverse Skrull with a quiff) and Ernest Errol Quinch, his muscular purple skinned companion in crime.  This first tale sees Quinch writing up how he and D.R exacted an elaborate revenge scheme, and amusingly the credits for the story have "E.E Quinch" as writer, rather than Alan Moore.

It begins with Quinch writing that he and D.R had been suspended from college due to Dean Fusk finding stolen good in their locker. So get their elaborate revenge the borrow a time-flyer and go to the pre-history of "this utterly worthless filth-ball planet called Earth"  Using thermonuclear weapons they alter the shape of the continents and then start intervening throughout history to inspire humans to make it out into space.

Intefering in Earth history armed with nukes.

Back in D.R and Quinch's present, humans have arrived in space and met other aliens. Dean Fusk is a member of the "League for Disadvantaged Planets" that Earth is to be inducted into.  D.R and Quinch get a good seat to watch what happens when it gets to the part of the ceremony where Earth is projected on screen.

Quinch: "The shape of the continents in the northern hemisphere spelled out 'Dean Fusk is embezzling the canteen fund' in Centralian...while the southern hemisphere  read 'Mrs Fusk is a convicted shoplifter and their horribly ugly son is a known snitch'"

Naturally for this grave insult, Earth is blown up.  Dean Fusk falls apart after that and QUinch and D.R get back into college when they accused the Dean of having criminal tendencies and that he planted the stolen goods in Quinch's locker.  Quinch reflects that it was a summer well spent and with that it ends.

Earth goes Kaboom.

So eight pages that created a monster.  You can see why it was popular, it's silly and over-the-top and the characters come of as villainous but likeable.  No wonder it was popular enough to gain a spin-off series.

D.R & QUINCH: GO STRAIGHT - The strip begins with D.R and Quinch in court, the judge reads off a long list of charges including "forging sacred relics" and "transmuting base metal into gold." D.R. says they are sorry and "want to give up their irresponsible ways".  The Judge says if they perform an act of charity then he'll reduce their sentences by a century or so.

D.R then discovers where the Judge lives and that he has an empty house nextdoor. They then visit their friend Pulger, a maniac and unstable war veteran. Then they set up a charity for "the rehabilitation of dangerous ex-servicemen" and make the headqarters the house next door to the Judges.  Who is displeased by all the noise and violence that kicks off.  He says threatens D.R with burying them when sentencing comes around.  But D.R says their charity is a success and the Mayor will be visting.

Pulger the loony war vet.

The Mayor arrives and is very pleased with them taking care of ex-servicemen.  D.R. fulsomely praises the Judge and says it was all his idea.  Then the crazed Pulger having flashbacks attacks the Mayor's party along with the other ex-soldiers.  As D.R and Quinch relax in a luxury hotel spending the last of the charity grant money, we find out the Judge was held responsible for the massacre and that D.R and Quinch have escaped judgement.

D.R & QUINCH: GO GIRL CRAZY - THis strip is a nice little parody of the ending of Grease.  Quinch is horrified when one day he goes round to D.R's and discovers he's been acting well-behaved and normal.  That is because he is in love with a girl called Chrysoprasia. He also reveals he's joined her drama club and is playing the romantic lead in a play so he can't hang out with Quinch much anymore.

Quinch: "Could this be it? No more extortion, no more fraud, no more putting pirahna bees in rich kid's lockers? Could this be.. the end of D.R and Quinch?"
Of course not.  Quinch grabs Chrysoprasia and takes her back to their secret hideout and shows her a lot of home movies showing him and D.R up to all sorts of mischief.  He hopes that this will put her off D.R but it backfires as she turns from a sweet, innocent girl into "the kind of woman Waldo deserves" and her new name shall be "Crazy Chrissie".  She forces Quinch to go get her boozed up and armed and they crash into the theatre where D.R is performing on stage.

Quinch's plan creates Crazy Chrissie.

D.R is annoyed that she ruined his scene and when the cops arrive and demand to know who is responsible for all the mayhem, he places the blame squarely on her. As she is taken away D.R ponders how he could have fallen for her and decides it was being driven temporarily insane by chemicals in a vegan meal he had a month ago and the strip ends with D.R and Quinch off to seek revenge on the restaurant.

D.R & QUINCH: GET DRAFTED - This story begins with D.R apocalyptically hungover.  He opens a letter from the War Office and it is a draft notice for him and Quinch.  When they get down to the enlistment office, D.R is curious about what weapons they'll get:

D.R: "He showed us a vast quantity of dangerous weapons. Many of them were so utterly horrible that I had not dared to believe they could exist. I felt totally patriotic."

Things seem to be going well until they get to basic training and have to suffer under a nasty drill sergeant right out of Full Metal Jacket. They are sent to fight on a planet called Ghoyogi and D.R writes a letter to Quinch's rich mother asking if she can get them out of this situation.

War is hell.

D.R then accidentally subjects his own side to some friendly fire, and as a punishment, he and Quinch are locked up in the penal stockade with a "psycho".  Luckily he turns out to be Pulger from D.R and Quinch: Go Straight.  He has a convoluted plan to get out, involving him putting on a dress like Klinger in M*A*S*H and using a weapon he carved from soap.  He also has an escape tunnel and D.R says they should just use that instead (although Pulger is already in the dress).

Alan Davis's art really is wonderful on this series.

So they use it to get out, and Pulger admits he didn't dig the tunnel himself it's part of a network of tunnels dug by a native Ghoyogi species called "Snufflegruffs".  They bump into one who turns out to be large and aggressive.  Pulger stands and fights it while D.R and Quinch run away.  They find another exit and pop up in another cell.  This one belongs to Chrissie and she is not pleased to see D.R again. She starts beating the crap out of him saying she had to become a mercenary for the Ghoyogi to survive and got captured and placed in the penal stockade.

Oh hai Chrissie how u been?

Before she can beat him some more, Pulger pops up closely followed by the Snufflegruff who bursts through the stockade walls and allows them to escape.  Unfortunately they bump into a group of marines, then a group of Ghoyogi soldiers.  Caught in the middle, D.R asks why they don't all just get along.  This doesn't go down too well, but before they can get shot to pieces a huge spaceship appears and a huge creature comes out of it.  The soldiers all scatter in fear, but it's only Quinch's mum come to rescue them and D.R, Quinch, Pulger and Chrissie all depart with her.  D.R has some profound thoughts about what happened to them, but forgets them the next day and the strip ends.

D. R & QUINCH: GO TO HOLLYWOOD -  This story allows Moore and Davis to have fun including lots of nods and parodies of famous actors and so on. The strip begins with our protagonists meeting a tramp and giving him some money for coffee.  In gratitude he tells them he used to be a famous screenwriter in Hollywood ( a planet called Hollywood, not the deceased Earth's version) called Torquetto Jubbli.  He developed writes block and the studio head told him to leave, but gave him two tickets to come back if he had an idea.  Which he finally has done and he brandishes his script before falling down apparently dead.

D.R and Quinch make their mark.

D.R immediately grabs the script and they search his body for the tickets and set off for Hollywood.  Once there they start throwing their weight around in a restaurant to "get noticed" and this works, and ends up with famously hard to understand "Marlon" arriving and letting them know he'll work with them. The studio head is impressed they have a Torquetto script and asks them what it is about:

D.R: "Well, like I can't exactly reveal that to you right now...but the third word is probably oranges"

The script is almost totally unreadable, not that this prevents D.R from improvising a movie from it. Helped along by the fact Marlon reads the script and declares it a masterpiece. D.R mixes in oranges, flamingo's, nuns and dead fish together for a big set piece.  Unfortunately Marlon gets squashed under a big pile of oranges, though this inspires the name of the film as "Mind the Oranges, Marlon".

Things don't go quite right.

Being interviewed after the film wraps by a fantastic charicature of then UK film reviewer Barry Norman he notes that their film has become a cult success but has resulted in them being ostracised by Hollywood.  Then another critic, Clive James, reviews the film in a slightly pretensious way and D.R and Quinch leave Hollywood counting their money.  Back home the "dead" body of Torquetti is where they left him. Suddenly he revives and declares he is off to Hollywood with his script.  Too bad for him that the studio head has said he'll kill him if he sees him ever again.

D.R: "Hey, that's showbiz man."

D.R & QUINCH: GET BACK TO NATURE:  This final eight pager was written and drawn when tensions between Alan Davis and Moore were running high due to Moore blocking reprints of Captain Britain and the mess over Marvel/Miracleman was on-going.  So neither's heart seems to be in it any more.  D. R and Quinch are running a summer camp for kids called Camp Apocalypse.  They do such responsible things as throwing kids into poisonous plants to indentify them.  Kill birds for them to identify and introduce them to large vicious creatures by mistake.  When the parents arrive to collect them, the kids are running riot with guns and D.R and Quinch are making a quick getaway.  And that was that for the Moore/Davis D.R and Quinch.

Worst Summer Camp Ever.

D.R & Quinch is well worth seeking out despite Mr. Moore's objection to it.  Yes it's incredibly lightweight compared to his more "serious" works but it's not half-arsed like most of his Image work, at this point in his career even something like D.R & Quinch feels important in understanding Moore's development as a writer.  Also, unusual for sci-fi it doesn't feel dated and the fun references to pop culture are done in such a way that doesn't throw you out of the narrative if you don't get them.  Alan Davis' art is superb, that almost goes without saying.  It's probably best the strip ended when it did though, overstretching a joke can really kill it, so better leave folk wanting more than allowing the strip to wear out it's welcome. The Ballad Of Halo Jones is still his 2000AD masterpiece, but D.R & Quinch run a close second and is probably more accessible, so if you haven't read much of his UK comic work this is as good a place to start as any.  Do it!

Hitman Book 7: Closing Time (Hitman #51-60, Hitman/Lobo: That Stupid Bastich #1, JLA/Hitman #1-2 and a story from Superman 80-Page Giant #1) PART TWO

"A beer at Noonan's, sure.  Just add it to the lista things we'll never do again" - Tommy

And so Tommy Monaghan's story comes to an end, chronologically speaking anyway.  The eight part "Closing Time" arc is what I'm looking at today which sees Tommy's luck finally run out as superior firepower and sinister forces beyond his control all contrive to cause his death.  There was a later JLA/Hitman mini that came a few years after this and which I covered in part one of my look at this volume, though that was set before Tommy's demise.  But was Tommy supposed to die when he did?  It seems that Ennis wanted to do more with the character but DC cancelled it before he could.  He's quoted on Wikipedia as saying: "I miss Hitman a lot. Preacher finished when it was supposed to, so there are no regrets with it — but Hitman could have gone on a lot longer."  Which is a shame, but at least Ennis was able to wrap up Tommy's story with an epic finale which reaches back to the early issues for a villain and has Tommy go out in style, dying to save an innocent life and to save a friend from a gruesome fate.  And it's a death that became more and more inevitable as the series wore on, as Tommy circle of friends dwindled because of him.  Pat Noonan - Dead; Ringo Chen - Dead; Sean Noonan - Dead; Sixpack - Missing, presumed dead; All of Section 8 bar Bueno Excellente - Dead as Dead can be. To have Tommy pull off a Karma Houdini after all that would have just been wrong.  But will Natt the Hat and Tiegel get swept away as well?  Let's find out, shall we?

Maggie Lorenzo

CLOSING TIME - The story begins with Maggie Lorenzo being chased by men with guns.  She's the woman from the Vampire two-parter in book six who lost her son, and now it seems Tommy has been looking out for her so she is running to him.  Meanwhile, Tommy is telling Natt about a dream he had.  He and Natt went to Noonan's and everyone was there, Pat, Ringo even his sister Frances and Sean looked at them and said:

Dream Sean: "Drinks onna house fellas. There ain't no closing time.  But you gotta leave you guns at the door."

They reach Noonan's and Baytor serves them drinks and Tommy recounts how earlier in the day he was at Tiegel's grandfathers funeral.  He went to go and check out who was at Sean's grave and while he's gone, Tiegel's sister, a cop in New York asks if Tiegel has considered giving Tommy up to the police to get her job back.  Sister COncepta is tending to Sean's grave.  She chides Tommy over his rampage of revenge at the church after Sean's death.

Tommy: "He was the greatest guy I ever knew in my whole life, Connie. He died trynna save me from those animals. I set things right the only way I knew how".

Sister Concepta

Connie says that there were children at the church who'll grow up thinking guns are the solution to every problem now. Then the conversation turns back to Sean:

Concepta: "He wasn't a great man.  Or a good man. Or some kind of saint. He did some decent things and he did some evil things... he was just a man and I loved him more than God Almighty".

Back in the present, Maggie arrives at Noonan's and gabbles out a story about seeing a twisted human creature rip out the throat of a man.  Then some government came and shot it in the head, but losing half it's brain didn't stop it.  They blasted it to bits then went to grab Maggie as she had witnessed it but she was already running.  Two government men then appear in Noonans and demand they hand her over. 

What Maggie saw

This goes poorly for them, and when the search their bodies the gang find out they are with the CIA.  One of the men's phone rings and Tommy picks it up, through the conversation he has there he finds that Truman, the villain of Book 3, who wanted Tommy to be on hand to assassinate superheroes, is behind all this.  Tommy tells him to back off and hangs up.  Truman contemplates Tommy as a loose end that needs tying up.

Then Kathryn McAllister appears.  She appeared very briefly in book 3 tricking Green Lantern into going after Tommy. She says she was working for Truman, but he's gone too far this time, wanting an innocent woman dead. The action then cuts to a man, blindfolded, shooting targets with pinpoint accuracy.  He is Marc Navarone, son of Johnny Navarone, the ace assassin Tommy managed to kill through luck in book two and he's working for Truman.

Back at Noonan's, McAllister tells Natt, Tommy and Maggie that Truman is using the DNA from the Bloodlines monsters to try and create his own superheroes.  And that the wild man Maggie saw was his first attempt.  He has an army of loyal agents and is ensconced in a secret location in Gotham.  She found all this out by hacking into the Pentagon files.  But she tripped an alarm and had to shoot her way out.  She will not let Truman kill Maggie, to her that's unacceptable.  Tommy asks what they can do, MaCallister sys the local cops will be no use, Truman has them in his pocket.  The FBI might be of help though. She asks Tommy to buy her lunch.

Kathryn McAllister

Over lunch McAllister says she is sick of her company work, that "killing for my country has somehow lost its sparkle." Then a brute appears with a gun saying they have to come away with him.  Tommy shoots him through the table.  Then the mans phone rings, it's Truman who tells him that the dead man has a video cassette in his pocket they should view.  So Tommy and McAllister go to Pat's old place and watch it.  It shows Marc Navarone in action and this freaks Tommy out.  Then the VCR begins to smoke and MaCallister realises the video had thermite in it.  She dives for the window taking Tommy with her.  They land on the fire eascape but the blast knocks MaCallister off.  Tommy pulls her up and they kiss passionately.

The action then jumps forwards to Tommy being attacked in a bar and a gunfight ensuing.  As he fights he thinks:

Tommy: "You know who I was? I was the kid in school who was smart, but never tried. Who was tough, but never fought.  Who survived because the big kids liked his jokes, an' the little kids were easier meat. I was in your class.  You remember me."

He uses a grenade to terminally deal with his attacker and then the action shifts to Truman and his head researcher.  All they have managed to do is create mutated humans with an insatiable hunger.  They have to keep them tied down and gagged and the worst thing is behind all the murderous, hungry impulses, the men remember who they were and know what has happened to them. Truman tells his head researcher to take off their restraints and film the result.  The researcher tries to tell Truman they can't make superheroes this way. That they have effectively murdered one hundred military volunteers.  But Truman is adamant.  He wants his superheroes and the experiments will continue.

Failed attempts at making superheroes.

Back with Tommy, heis on his way to Tiegel's mulling over sleeping with MaCallister the previous night.  Tiegel is psyching herself up to "arrest" Tommy.  He arrives and tells her:

Tommy: "I'm bad for you.  I'm always gonna be bad for you.  I'm gonna let you down again, an' again, an' again, or I'm gonna get you hurt, or maybe even killed. So we oughta stop doin' this. We oughta decide to stay from each other an' stick to it for a change.  For both our sakes."

He then hands her one hundred grand to set her up in a new life in New York. She reluctantly accepts it.  When she asks why he is doing this he says Gotham is hell, she should leave and have a good life because she is "good people".  Then he departs.   Back at the motel, McAllister asks whether people like them are damned.  Tommy siad he saw something bad coming down the line and wanted to put things right. After sleeping together again, they repair to Noonan's to discuss the situation with Natt and Maggie.

Sexy time!

McAllister says Truman has a tighter grip on the police force than she expected. The CIA won't stop Truman because they don't want the massive loss of face it would incur. She is waiting for her FBI contact to sort out a safehouse for Maggie, until then all they can do is sit tight.  Natt decides to go home and catch some sleep and Tommy walks him out.  Natt chews him out for trusting the "government bitch", but before Tommy can say why he trusts her, they are cuaght in an explosion. Another person is trying to collect the bounty on Tommy and Natt's head, but before he can finish them off, a mysterious figure shoots him in the head.  He introduces himself to Tommy as his "guardian angel" and that "Sean Noonan sent me".  He then knocks Tommy out saying he'll save his life "whether he likes it or not."

When Tommy comes around, he is tied to a chair.  His captor introduces himself as Lieutenant Connolly and he owed Sean a fabour from way back.  Sean phoned him before he died asking him to look out for Tommy. When the police were warned away from the area around Noonan's he knew someone was coming for Tommy and decided to get to him first. Tommy pleads to be let go so he can protect Maggie.  Connolly says the favour was to look ou for Tommy alone and he leaves him.

Connolly.

Tommy then has a flashback to his childhood, playing with Pat and watching Sean win the bar in a game of poker.  Then it moves forwards to him in his late teens and his first kill.  He and Pat were buying a lot of dope and the seller demanded more cash.  When he attacked Pat and Tommy with a knife, Tommy shot him. Sean is mad at them for dealing dope and killing but he also says to Tommy that:

Sean: "You always stick by your friends. If it comes to it, you give your life for them.  It's just that tonight you took your first step that's only got one possible end, an' believe me I know."

Sean then tells Tommy to join the marines, and that it won't be like the film Full Metal Jacket.  The story then cuts to Tommy lined up with the other trainee marines being yelled at exactly like the film.  Back in the present, he and Connolly discuss the fact that those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it.  Then Connolly tells Tommy he's scum and leaves him alone again.

Natt who was knocked out in the explosion, comes around and McAllister says they have to go save Tommy. Natt then has a flashback to when he met Tommy in the marines.  Tommy gave him some advice on firing his gun more effectively.  Later two marines try to strongarm Tommy into paying a "tax".  When Tommy laughs in their faces, they attack him.  But Natt arrives and knocks them out.

Tommy and Natt in the Marine Corps.

They sit on a tank and have a chat.  Tommy is on a sniper course, while Natt is learning to drive a tank. Tommy invites Natt to come to Gotham and he'll show him around when they both get out of the marines. The story then jumps forward to the two protection racket guys confronting Natt in the showers.  They are armed and drunk and go to cut off Natt's balls when Tommy takes them both out with his sniper rifle.  Natt is full of gratitude and they cover up the scene by removing the bullets and casings, putting the bodies behind a tank then having Natt reverse over them in the morning.  The coroner finds that it was an accident, that the men got drunk and passed out behind the tank.  As Natt and Tommy declare their troubles over, Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait.

Back in the present, Natt finds Conolly's location in Sean's old address book.  he and McAllister leave Hacken guarding Maggie and go to rescue Tommy.  Natt flat out states he doesn't trust MaCallister, but she finds Tommy using night vision goggles.  They sneak into the deserted house next door but it's been booby trapped and Natt steps on a mine.  If he removes his foot it will go off. McAllister says this might teach Natt something about trust as she prepares to defuse the mine.

Truman won't listen to reason.

Meanwhile, Truman looks on as the mutant humans rip and tear each other to shreds. The doctor says Truman has basically built a death camp, Truman says he employed the doctor to give him superhumans and superhumans he will get.  Then he says he's set things up so that Marc Navarone will confront Tommy on the streets of Gotham the next night. McAllister works on defusing the mine and confesses to Natt that she is falling for Tommy:

McAllister: "I just have this feeling he and I might be each other's way out of this. It's never enough to promise yourself you'll retire.  You're taking this one last job. It's always such a lie. But promise someone else - someone who knows what it's like - promise each other you'll quit and God knows what will happen."

She removes the mine's fuse and then she and Natt burst into Conolly's flat.  Natt and Connoly grapple, but McAllister puts an end to the fight.  They release Tommy and tie up Connolly. Tommy asks to speak to Connolly alone.  Connolly asks if this is the special thing Sean thought Tommy was destined to do, save a woman no one would ever miss.  But Tommy says she is due a chance like everyone else, and after this he will be hanging up his guns and that would be enough for Sean and Pat.

Tommy is set free.

Back with Truman and Marc Navarone.  Marc is practising on the dead bodies of three of the mutants.  Truman tells him he'll be facing Tommy the next night and Marc says he can't wait to kill him. Truman says he is also to take out Maggie and Tommy's friends as well.  At Noonan's, McAllister says her FBI contact has managed to arrange one helicopter to take them away and witness protection for Maggie only.  So she, Tommy and Natt will have to leave the conuntry.  Tommy says Truman is the problem, so why not use the tunnels under Gotham to take the fight to him and unleash a "ton of nine milimetre" on him and his cohorts.

There is another flashback, this time Connolly remembers how Sean saved his life when he was a cop new to Gotham and was captured by two men he saw burgling a jewelers.  They bought him to Sean to have him killed but when Sean refused, one of the men attacked him and Sean gunnes him down.  Then he released Connolly saying he owed him one. Connolly gets free and tries to get the police to protect Maggie and Tommy but he's told to attend the coming gun battle as an observer only.

Badass.

Tommy, Natt and MaCallister storm Truman's base and a huge gun battle ensues.  Marc Navarone climbs into the ceiling so he can surprise Tommy.   Tommy, Natt and McAllister find the doctor burning his notes, and they watch the video recording of the mutant men tearing each other apart in absolute horror.  The doctor babbles that he tried to tell Truman it wouldn't work, but Truman wants superheroes.  Then a horribly mutated "man" comes in, and Natt puts it out of it's misery.  Marc Navarone then pops out of the ceiling and holds a gun to Tommy's head.  But when he goes to fire it, he left the safety on.  Tommy guesses that Marc never actually ever pointed a gun at a man before and gently takes it from him and shoots him dead.

Tommy and friends retreat as Truman is long gone and escape through the tunnels.  When they get to the surface they decide that when Maggie is in witness protection they will all leave the country.  Tommy reads McAllister's mind at her request and finds out she is in love with him, then he and Natt go for one last drink at Noonan's.

The Gotham PD is so corrupt.

As Tommy and Natt drink and discuss the situation, Tiegel finishes packing up and departs Gotham, while Connolly stations himself on a roof opposite Noonan's, saying what is going to happen will happen there. Maggie who is pregnant, says she wants to call her kid Tommy, as thanks for all he's done for her.  Tommy says she shouldn't, it was a name given to him out of spite and it ended up in a mess of blood:

Tommy: "I never got out from under it either. All I've got to show for my twenty-eight years is a long dark trail of slaughter an' killin' an' my friends gettin' knocked off one by one. There ain't nothin' to celebrate or remember so don't OK?"

McAllister tools up and boards the helicopter, her FBI contact says Truman will have a small army waiting for them. Meanwhile Tommy and Natt chat some more.  Tommy regrets not telling Sean what he meant to him while he still could.  Natt says he thinks Sean knew. They don't think they've faced odds this bad before and Tommy says their luck was due to run out sometime. He then asks Natt why he is doing this.  Natt says he has Tommy's back as usual and that he also feels guilt about killing good people in the past. They get ready to leave and Hacken tries to come with them.  They knock him out then bid Baytor farewell.  When the door has closed Baytor says quietly "goodbye boys".

'Tis but a fleshwound!

They run for the helicopter under heavy fire.  A sniper bullet hits Tommy in his left hand taking off his fingers.  Natt gets shot in the chest but kills his attacker and keeps on going.  Tommy and Maggie reach the helicopter but Natt has fallen behind them.  He begs Tommy to kill him, terrified that he'll be experimented on.  Tommy makes a decison and runs back to Natt shooting Truman as he does so.

Connolly discards his police badge and walks away, saying "we are such small men".  And the book ends with a fatally injured Tommy and Natt dying together.

Natt asks Tommy to tell him about his dream again, and then they both pass on. The end.

This final arc is a real emotional rollercoaster.  For the first time, Tommy takes a long, hard look at his life and doesn't like what he sees.  But it's too late, far, far too late.  Tiegel, the only regular not to be an out and out killer gets the closest we can say is a happy ending.  While the ones most steeped in blood pay the ultimate price. In a way it's perfect that Tommy goes out doing a proactive heroic act rather than the reactive killings that have made up most of what has gone before.  As for the series as a whole, it's been interesting once again devoting time to a longer series, after the end of the "Closing Time" arc, Garth Ennis writes that this series really felt like a secret, and he'd always be pleased when people mentioned they liked it over his more well known works of Preacher and Hellblazer.  I think it's a fantastic series that managed to pull off wacky hijinks and shocking melancholy with equal aplomb and gave you a cast of characters that you really got to know over the course of the series. It's a shame it finished before Ennis felt he had said all he wanted to say, but it went out on a high and that's the main thing.

Hitman Book 7: Closing Time (Hitman #51-60, Hitman/Lobo: That Stupid Bastich #1, JLA/Hitman #1-2 and a story from Superman 80-Page Giant #1) PART ONE

"Well I.. I guess this is it." - Sixpack

Tommy Monaghan dies at the end of Hitman.  To be blunt it's no real spoiler or surprise once you've read this far.  He dies doing a heroic thing. He dies to save his best friend from a fate worse than death.  He dies because in many ways Ennis is a supremely moral writer who has often his amoral and immoral characters pay the ultimate price of their life decisions.  He dies in the eight page final arc, "Closing Time" and the JLA/Hitman story actually was written in 2006, five years after the main series came to a close.  However as the JLA story takes place chronologically (apart from it's coda) before the final arc, I've decided to cover it in this post along with all the other issues that aren't "Closing Time" leaving the final post in this look at the Hitman series to concentrate fully on Tommy's final tale.  The other two issues from the main series, tie up the loose ends of Sixpack and the lovably useless Section 8, while the Lobo story feels like a cathartic one for Ennis as he puts the immortal Czarnian through a hilarious humliation conga.  The JLA story appears to tell a tale Ennis was denied by the cancellation of the series, that Tommy was destined to do some special and important, and is set roughly during the Grant Morrison JLA era so has all the big guns still in it, including Superman.

HITMAN/LOBO: THAT STUPID BASTICH - I've looked at Lobo before in the two miniseries collection that established his character fully as a psychopathic alien killer.  I said then that it was a some what prescient parody of what would become the "Image" comics type of murderous anti-hero, but by the 2000, what had been a humourously over the top character lampooing the excesses of the genre had become emblematic of those excesses instead and I think Ennis found that distasteful as he generally likes to explore the effects violence has on his characters lives rather than just being violent for the sake of violence, so in this issue he's using Lobo to represent all that he finds irritating about the popularity of badass killers who never get to feel the repercussions of their bad behaviour.

In this story drawn by Doug Mahnke, the main man comes into Noonan's and starts behaving with his customarily boorish behaviour.  Tommy reads his mind which "wasn't a major undertaking" and to find out his strengths and weaknesses, then Lobo starts bullying Sixpack, so Tommy pours booze all over himself and addresses Lobo as "miss".  This makes Lobo slightly annoyed:

Lobo: "No one question's th' gender o' th'main man an' lives ta tell th' tale!  Whoever yah are, ya hume bastich - consider yerself fragged!"

Tommy blows Lobo's eyes out and leads him out of Noonan's using his alchohol smell to guide Lobo.  As Lobo chases him they cross paths with some gangsters who want to kill Tommy for the bounty still on his head.  A sniper fires at him but hits Lobo instead, making him madder still.  Tommy thinks he might have bitten off more than he can chew getting Lobo angry with him, so while he thinks of a way out of this he leads Lobo to the rest of the gangsters and while Lobo kills them all, he has an idea and phones Sixpack to get Section 8 on the case.

Lobo meets his match.

Tommy then leads Lobo into a building yard where Section 8 take it in turns to assault Lobo, finally Tommy temporarily knocks Lobo out with a wrecking ball and armed with a camera and Bueno Excellente in a wedding dress they set about filming blackmail material with Bueno "marrying" Lobo and er... consumating it as well.  Then for the final touch Dogwelder welds a dog to Lobo's bum.

Later Lobo comes around and rages back to Noonan's, but before he can kill Tommy, Tommy shows him the film and says if he hurts him or anyone involved he'll release copies to everyone in the galaxy.  Lobo reluctantly leaves and Tommy, Sean (this dates to just before Sean died in the main series) and Sixpack celebrate.  This is something of a last hurrah for Section 8, as they don't come out of their next entanglement with more powerful forces very well at all. And even though I quite like Lobo myself, it's still a pretty funny issue overall.

SUPERMAN 80 PAGE GIANT #1 - Before that we get an "imaginary story" published around the time of Superman's appearence in the main Hitman series, the Eisner award winning "Of Thee I Sing" covered in my look at book five. This short story imagines what would happen if Sixpack really had superpowers and what might happen when he and Superman go on patrol together.  Needless to say, hilarity ensues as Superman says they can't fight crime by attacking criminals before they do anything.

Superman: "Haven't you heard of due process? Of constitutional rights? The law?"

Sixpack: "Ain't that for the police?"

Superman: "Well yes, but we still have to observe the same protocols, we do work outside the law techinically speaking but that doesn't just give you the right to just.. just assault whoever you want."

Sixpack and Superman. A titanic team-up!

This falls on deaf ears as Sixpack starts trying to set a prison on fire in the name of preventative justice.  Superman then introduces him to a reformed Doomsday (infamously the creature that killed him in the 90's) and together they stop an old lady being mugged.  Superman then bids Sixpack farewell with the following words:

Superman: "It's been a long, strange night Sixpack.  Okay, one last time. You do not act without proof. You use no more force than neccesary. You give the fellow a chance to repent and do the right thing.  Then.. and only then..."

Sixpack: "... you're clear to go ahead and smash his face to a bloody pulp?"

Superman: "No Sixpack.  You'll be a hero".

Then Sixpack wakes up from his drunken dream on the floor of Noonan's and tries and fails to fly away. Which ends this fun little story of the worlds grubbiest "hero" meeting the Big Blue Boy Scout.

SUPER GUY - The next Hitman story taking place in the main series begins with Tommy and Natt chasing down a naked man.  The nude man reaches around and pulls a machine gun out of his arse and fires back at them. At Injun Peak research centre, Doctor Jacksons is discussing with Doctor Haddock why his lab assisstant took off all his clothes and jumped out of the window.  Haddock says he opened something called "The Tesseract" inside his assisstant, a way of creating infinite space inside one object.  Unfortunately this drove his assisstant insane.

EW.

Back with Tommy and Natt, the nude man is using guns and explosives pulled out of his bum to fend them off.  We then join Sixpack and Section 8 meeting down in the sewers.  Friendly Fire is depressed and tries to tell Sixpack like it is:

Friendly Fire: "We're not superheroes Sixpack!  We're a bunch of deranged bastards! The whole situation is completely and totally insane!"

Sixpack accuses him of defeatism, but Friendly Fire runs down a list of just how useless they are, including accusing Sixpack of alchoholism. He then sees how gutted Sixpack is and apologises but says he was just trying to get them to face reality.

Back with the scientists, Doctor Jackson studies Doctor Haddock's notes and finds something startling.  It seems Haddock signed a pact with some entities known as "The Many Angled Ones" and performed a Satanic ritual on his assisstant to activate the Tesseract. Jackson suddenly realises the nude man should not be killed, but is too late as Tommy manages to blow the assisstant away and suddenly weird toothy shapes appear in the sky.  Down in the sewer, Sixpack thinks this is a job for Section 8.

The Many Angled Ones.

The creatures say they are The Many Angled Ones who were bound to an earthly vessel.  When that vessel was killed they were freed. It is then that Section 8 attack.  They do poorly however and are all killed apart from Sixpack and Bueno Excellente. The scientists arrive to warn Tommy, but realise they are too late.  The Many Angled Ones reward Haddock for bringing them to earth by kiling him which they say is just a taste of what's going to happen to the planet now. Totally out of their depth Tommy and Natt try and blow the Many Angled Ones up.. somehow.  But in the resulting explosion and fire only Sixpack is left standing with a forcefield around him.

Sixpack says it's because he is a superhero. The Many Angled Ones laugh at him for being prepared to sacrifice himself even when the odds against him are so overwhelming. Sixpack says that's what superheroes do. The Many Angled Ones then offer him a deal:

Many Angled One: "Come back with us.  Enter our realm. Try your strength in a battle for your own soul. Win you salvation or damnation. Do this now and we shall spare this world."

Sixpack: "Done"

Farewell Sixpack

And he leaves with them.  Gradually his mates realise he won't be coming back and erect a statue in his memory so people won't forget the sacrifice he made.  But Ennis also shows us a man called Sidney Speck at an AA meeting in New York who might just be a reformed Sixpack, but it's left up to us to decide what his fate might have been.  Ennis is a very humane writer in many ways, giving Sixpack a heroic exit for what was really a one-note joke character for the series and a possible happy ending for him too.  I take the happy ending everytime.

ON THE DARKSIDE - The framing device of this story is Clark Kent telling a story to a journalist who has been trying for two years to get to the bottom of the link between Superman and a "Gotham thug".  Clark tells the journalist he is going to tell him a story he can't print because Superman needs to confess via him.  We then flashback to the era when Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash were all Justice League America members. There is a shuttle approaching their base on the moon that wants to touchdown there as it is in trouble.

The Justice League of America

Green Lantern flies out and scans it, then Batman tells him to get away from it, it's dangerous.  Batman then fills everyone in on the Bloodlines incident, the one where interstellar parasites ended up giving random people powers, including Tommy.  It appears that the Bloodlines virus is on the shuttle.  Batman goes to fetch Tommy so they can analyse a living Bloodlines survivor.  Sean, Natt and Ringo are all alive at this point and they are at Noonan's with Tommy, who steps out to take a call and is grabbed by Batman.

Batman: "Go for your guns.  I'll break your arm. If you even look like throwing up, I'll break both."

Tommy: "How about if I just hang here and wet my pants?"

Batman: "That would be fine."

Batman then teleports him and Tommy back up to the JLA moonbase. He introduces himself to Flash and Wonder Woman, then sees Green Lantern and jovially asks him if he remembers their team-up.  Batman is disgusted at hearing about them working together, especially as Green Lantern knew Tommy was a hitman.

Green Lantern: "Dude, it's Gotham you know? Something terrible always happens to me when I go there... Someone spiked my drink, and I don't know what happened - all I remember is this voice going Bueno over and over..."

Oh Garth, what did poor Kyle Rayner do to deserve a night with Bueno Excellente?  You bad, bad man you. Anyway, Batman starts giving a lecture on morality, which is interrupted by Superman walking in and greeting Tommy warmly. Batman flatly tells Superman that Tommy is a killer and Tommy does at least have the good grace to look ashamed in the face of Superman's disappointment.

Superman learns the truth about Tommy

They start analysing Tommy's blood and find that the Bloodlines virus on the shuttle has evolved to become stronger.  Meanwhile Superman talks with Wonder Woman about the circumstances of his meeting with Tommy and how he still believes in what he told him despite Tommy's profession. In the restroom, Tommy takes an opportunity to write "Tommy was here" in felt tip on the wall.  Suddenly the shuttle comes crashing down and takes out most of the room Tommy is in exposing him to the vacuum of space.  Luckily Green Lantern comes and rescues him using his ring much to Tommy's relief.

Superman goes into the shuttle much to Batman's annoyance, then they lose contact with him.  They also find that their powers have somehow been switched off, including Green Lantern's ring.

Wonder Woman:  "If they do get in, we're going to need weapons".

Green Lantern: "Well that's the problem.  We're the weapons and we're not working".

The crew of the NASA probe come walking across the moons surface to the JLA headquarters. Tommy surruptiously gets his guns back while the others prepare to fight hand to hand.  The NASA crew remove their helmets to reveal parasites stuck to their faces and they have a container with more in for the JLA.  Tommy fires on them and they respond with a display of superpowers.  Batman is pissed at Tommy for attacking them as the hosts are still human.  The JLA then pile in and fight them.

Uh-oh...

Batman is quickly taken out and a parasite attached to his head.  Wonder Woman realises that Batman has explosives in his utility belt and they use them to escape with Batman to a safer part of the base.   They can't kill the parasite because if "one dies, two die" mumbles the possessed Batman.  Safe for now under Aquaman's tank they ponder the situation, ie, what's happened to Superman and the fact that if the US government get wind of what has happened they'll nuke the base.

Wonder Woman takes charge, she and Tommy will return to the control room, the others will guard Batman.  Climbing a ladder to get there, the possessed crew throw more alien parasites down at Wonder Woman and Tommy.  She grabs them all and jumps off the ladder telling Tommy to "keep fighting".   At the top, Tommy is faced by a possessed Superman.  But he manages to get through to him and Superman rips the parasite of his face. Superman though is left weak, cold and shivering so Tommy goes into battle the possessed crew alone.  He kills them, then tells one of the leftover parasites to leave Batman or he'll kill the rest of them.  They do so.

Tommy takes down the infected men.

The JLA and Tommy get their powers back and the Flash makes it to the communications screen to tell the goverment to call off the nukes. Batman decides to be a hardass about Tommy's actions, saying killing is not the JLA way.

Tommy: "I ain't no superhero...I'm just some schmuck from the Cauldron an' I did the only thing I could think to do!"

Batman cuffs him and leaves him with two members of Gotham PD, who let Tommy go in lieu of gambling debts. We then return to Clark in the present, and Clark says Tommy took a decision no superhero could make.

Clark: "That's how Tommy saved the JLA...I'm talking about sheer, unadulterated, moral courage."

He says Superman and Tommy never met again, although Superman always felt an injustice had been done and wondered if he could make it up somehow. The reporter says that when he was in Noonan's, Hacken had always said that Tommy said "Superman's Okay by me."

Later Clark is now Superman and he flies up to the moon.  The base was repaired after the shuttle crashed into it but one piece of rubble was left standing.  The section of wall where Tommy wrote, "Tommy was here" on it.  And it's here Superman always comes to "offer a prayer to the Lord for the soul of a killer."

Aw Garth stop plucking my heartstrings man.

And this was the last of Tommy's appearances in the DCU, giving him a fine send off and fulfilling the prophecy Pat had about Tommy being destined to do something special.  if I have one complaint it's the art.  When John McCrea tries to make his art less styalised if tends to come off as rather bland and lifeless compared to how energetic it usually is.  I had the same complaint about his work on The Boys.  But Ennis's script mostly treats the JLA with respect and the ending is just gorgeously melancholy.  Taking this story along with Sixpack's last stand in "Super Guy", the short story in the Superman Special and the humiliation of Lobo it does feel like Garth Ennis, for all his detractors would claim otherwise, really does get what lies at the heart of the appeal of the superhero concept, even if he isn't always enamoured of it in practice.   The fall of Tommy is the only story left now, so I hope you return in a couple of days and find out how it all ends.