4. Hitman
DC ComicsOh, what a wonderful series Hitman was. Bombastic, brazen and thoroughly enjoyable, Hitman was possibly DCs most consistent title throughout the 1990s. The series follows the (mis)adventures of Tommy Monaghan, a small-time assassin that gains limited superpowers following DCs Bloodlines event. Instantly using his new found abilities for financial gain, Tommy becomes a hitman who takes care of super-people (or Meta Humans as DC tends to call them), as well as anybody else he can kill for money. With many 90s comics tending towards tragedy, violence, depression and super-serious event storylines, the Hitman series original run was like a cool, refreshing drink of water at the end of a long summers day. Gleefully tongue-in-cheek, outrageously rude (for a mainstream DC book, anyway) and chock full of pithy dialogue that felt more like a night out with your mates than a superhero story, Hitman was a real triumph. ...Not only that, but it got away with A LOT. Quite how Tommys antics consistently slipped under DCs radar is beyond us, but were very glad that they did. DC editorial just didnt seem to be aware the book existed, even as it tied in to any number of main continuity events. How else would they let the book get away with Tommy using his X-Ray vision on Catwoman, or getting an autograph from Superman right before he murdered someone? Garth Ennis furnished his hard-edged, everyman anti-heroes with a humour and camaraderie that instantly grounded and made believable any scenario they found themselves in (such as fighting zombified marine life in the Gotham City Aquarium, or battling a gang of vampires in the ruins of an old church). They each had well-rounded personalities, with personal knock-backs and sad spots that were just like those of real people. Even though they were, for the most part, drunkards and hired killers who lived in a world of flying super people and drank in a bar tended by a deranged demon, they truly felt as if they were genuine Human beings. Come to think of it, in this way, a lot of Hitman stories were like really f*cked up episodes of Cheers... Artist John McCrea drew this series in a chunky, Tonka Toy style that was cartoonish enough to aid the humour, but realistic enough to underscore the drama. Action scenes were (and are) his forte, but it was his subtle touches (stains and loose floorboards on the floor of the bar, for example), that made the locations in Hitman feel like real places and helped the characters to feel like actual people. To this day, Hitman, with its perfectly judged blend of action, humour and extreme violence, remains his best work. It is impossible to overstate just how much this series deepened DCs universe in the 1990s, or how sorely missed it is to this day.