“Daydreaming.

Night-dreaming now, on the darkside long before I know it. I shrug myself awake, go hypersonic over the Aleutians.

Go up.

Up here, where the air is razor-thin. Where men believe themselves invisible.

I take a last, sharp, frozen breath — and hold it.

The seas are sapphires, the fields and forests emeralds, the Himalayas gleam like diamonds. The strange blue world to which my father sent me.

If you knew how you are loved, not one of you would raise a hand in rage again.

In Gotham, in the cemetery at Saint Jack’s, the grave is but a marker, dull and mute. Offering no testimony.

Afterwards, repairs were finished quickly. The whole black business was forgotten, brushed away. I asked for one small corner to be left, a length of moonbase wall that threatened no one. I was smiled at, darkly, but indulged.

And it’s here that I come when I offer a prayer..

.. to the Lord for the soul of a killer.”

- Superman, for Tommy Monaghan in JLA/Hitman #2, written by the inimitable Garth Ennis. Love the Christian allegory, even though Ennis is nothing but openly disdainful of Christianity.

Read the pages from the comic here:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

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I daresay that Ennis’ Hitman series is my favourite of all time, closely seconded, if not tied, by his Punisher run (which has, lamentably, ended).  It’s laugh-out-loud hilarious, irreverent without being over-the-top (only because it’s on DC’s main imprint), and yet with its themes of brotherhood and friendship, even manages to be tender.

Writing like this by Ennis, rare as they might be, show his eloquent, almost poetic, side. Why is Ennis so brilliant? It’s because of his ability to weave humour, wit and cool together with his storytelling abilities – pacing, plot, character development – and make it accessible. No need to refer to Wikipedia, New Scientist or essays dissecting the infinitesmal layers contained in the subtext. And I mourn that Tommy is dead and can never be resurrected.