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Hitman by Garth Ennis and John McCrea Omnibus Vol. 2
- GenresComics
1144 pages, Hardcover
Published December 2, 2025
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12 people want to read
About the author
Garth Ennis
2,629 books3,180 followersEnnis began his comic-writing career in 1989 with the series Troubled Souls. Appearing in the short-lived but critically-acclaimed British anthology Crisis and illustrated by McCrea, it told the story of a young, apolitical Protestant man caught up by fate in the violence of the Irish 'Troubles'. It spawned a sequel, For a Few Troubles More, a broad Belfast-based comedy featuring two supporting characters from Troubled Souls, Dougie and Ivor, who would later get their own American comics series, Dicks, from Caliber in 1997, and several follow-ups from Avatar.
Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.
Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.
Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.
While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.
Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.
After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.
In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.
Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.
In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.
In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis
Another series for Crisis was True Faith, a religious satire inspired by his schooldays, this time drawn by Warren Pleece. Ennis shortly after began to write for Crisis' parent publication, 2000 AD. He quickly graduated on to the title's flagship character, Judge Dredd, taking over from original creator John Wagner for a period of several years.
Ennis' first work on an American comic came in 1991 when he took over DC Comics's horror title Hellblazer, which he wrote until 1994, and for which he currently holds the title for most issues written. Steve Dillon became the regular artist during the second half of Ennis's run.
Ennis' landmark work to date is the 66-issue epic Preacher, which he co-created with artist Steve Dillon. Running from 1995 to 2000, it was a tale of a preacher with supernatural powers, searching (literally) for God who has abandoned his creation.
While Preacher was running, Ennis began a series set in the DC universe called Hitman. Despite being lower profile than Preacher, Hitman ran for 60 issues (plus specials) from 1996 to 2001, veering wildly from violent action to humour to an examination of male friendship under fire.
Other comic projects Ennis wrote during this time period include Goddess, Bloody Mary, Unknown Soldier, and Pride & Joy, all for DC/Vertigo, as well as origin stories for The Darkness for Image Comics and Shadowman for Valiant Comics.
After the end of Hitman, Ennis was lured to Marvel Comics with the promise from Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada that he could write The Punisher as long as he cared to. Instead of largely comical tone of these issues, he decided to make a much more serious series, re-launched under Marvel's MAX imprint.
In 2001 he briefly returned to UK comics to write the epic Helter Skelter for Judge Dredd.
Other comics Ennis has written include War Story (with various artists) for DC; The Pro for Image Comics; The Authority for Wildstorm; Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Press, and 303, Chronicles of Wormwood (a six issue mini-series about the Antichrist), and a western comic book, Streets of Glory for Avatar Press.
In 2008 Ennis ended his five-year run on Punisher MAX to debut a new Marvel title, War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle.
In June 2008, at Wizard World, Philadelphia, Ennis announced several new projects, including a metaseries of war comics called Battlefields from Dynamite made up of mini-series including Night Witches, Dear Billy and Tankies, another Chronicles of Wormwood mini-series and Crossed both at Avatar, a six-issue miniseries about Butcher (from The Boys) and a Punisher project reuniting him with artist Steve Dillon (subsequently specified to be a weekly mini-series entitled Punisher: War Zone, to be released concurrently with the film of the same name).
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Ennis
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 18, 2026
(Zero spoiler review) 2.75/5
It's not often the words Garth Ennis and disappointment go together in the same sentence, but here we are. The first Hitman omnibus wasn't setting the world on fire by any stretch of the imagination. In my review for volume one, I pointed out that Tommy was basically the same protagonist Ennis has written in a number of his other popular series. But it was some occasionally great, more often than not rock solid 90's comics. Sadly for volume two, all those gorgeous hand crafted colours have been replaced with sterile, digital swill, and the problems just keep mounting from there.
The colours make the inks look too clean. The inks make the art look flat. And Ennis on more than one occasion, phones it in with some truly horrendous issues to keep the series chugging along. The One Million crossover and the multi issue dinosaur story (WTF?) being the most galling, but not the sole offenders.
The main series has it's moments, but the quality of the first book is all but absent here. Not to mention the series proper ends about two thirds of the way through and the final third is crossover's and disparate issues that I could give less than a fiddler's for. And despite the final few pages being rather well done by Ennis, the final arc was pretty weak and not the way this series should have gone out. I could forgive it's many faults if the art still looked like the earlier issues, but if I had known all this going in, I probably would have skipped this. 2.75/5
OmniBen.
It's not often the words Garth Ennis and disappointment go together in the same sentence, but here we are. The first Hitman omnibus wasn't setting the world on fire by any stretch of the imagination. In my review for volume one, I pointed out that Tommy was basically the same protagonist Ennis has written in a number of his other popular series. But it was some occasionally great, more often than not rock solid 90's comics. Sadly for volume two, all those gorgeous hand crafted colours have been replaced with sterile, digital swill, and the problems just keep mounting from there.
The colours make the inks look too clean. The inks make the art look flat. And Ennis on more than one occasion, phones it in with some truly horrendous issues to keep the series chugging along. The One Million crossover and the multi issue dinosaur story (WTF?) being the most galling, but not the sole offenders.
The main series has it's moments, but the quality of the first book is all but absent here. Not to mention the series proper ends about two thirds of the way through and the final third is crossover's and disparate issues that I could give less than a fiddler's for. And despite the final few pages being rather well done by Ennis, the final arc was pretty weak and not the way this series should have gone out. I could forgive it's many faults if the art still looked like the earlier issues, but if I had known all this going in, I probably would have skipped this. 2.75/5
OmniBen.
December 24, 2025
This is even better than the first omnibus. Ennis ends the series with a bang, using his arsenal: vampires, tragic farewells, gun-toting action, and the only possible finale for Hitman's adventures. I forgot to mention the famous issue with Superman, the only superheroe that got Ennis' respect. Plus: a series of crossovers (the one with Lobo is very mean-spirited) and the All-Star Section Eight spin-off. Among the best from the Irish scourge of superheroes.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews