Sunday Splash Page #77

"The One Where Matter-Eater Lad Covers for Batman", in Batman Chronicles #4, by Garth Ennis (writer), John McCrea (artist), Glen Murakami (colorist), Ken Lopez (letterer)

I own one issue of Batman Chronicles and that's because - 

Audience: It's drawn by Norm Breyfogle.

Ha! Wrong, it's from the first Hitman trade, A Rage in Arkham!

Chronologically, I guess this is Tommy Monaghan's second appearance (Edit: I'm wrong, this would be after both of the times he appeared in Etrigan's ongoing series. Probably his first time appearing outside that book, though)., the first after his introduction in The Demon's Bloodlines tie-in, and his first run in with everybody's favorite grumpy, flying rodent themed vigilante. No, this isn't the time where Tommy's pukes on Batman's boots. That's their next encounter. Also that's not actually Monaghan holding the gun there. He's not that stupid.

This takes place during Contagion, which I have no idea where that is in the annual disasters that befell Gotham during the '90s. I know it's before No Man's Land, but that's only because No Man's Land was when Tommy and Natt fought a bunch of stupid vampires. Gotham's struck by a plague, Batsy's trying to find a cure, and in the middle of that stumbles on Tommy and another hired gun. The hired gun is after Tommy, Tommy's after a victim of military experimentation turned into a walking dirty bomb, code-named Thrax. 

(I don't think this is from the Injun Peak Research facility that created so many other problems for Tommy in his series, at least, it isn't named that yet and they say it's near Long Island, not Gotham.)

Tommy's looking to kill Thrax before the detonator inside him makes him spread even more diseases over Gotham, but you know how Batman is about killing, especially for money. And especially when Thrax' immunity to the diseases inside him means he might be the key to a cure to the current plague. Unfortunately for Batsy, it might be his book, but it's Ennis' story, so the Dark Knight isn't going to have it his way this time.

McCrea demonstrates two skills he put to good use in Hitman: Drawing regular guys who just look kind of dumb as hell, and freaky-looking monsters. Eckstein (the other killer) is a horse-toothed grinning imbecile, and Thrax is the misshapen creature with a big lower jaw and lots of narrow teeth jammed together, weirdly long neck, covered in more and more of these little boils or pox. Near the end his face has swollen so much, you can't even tell he has eyes. Tommy chucking that grenade at him was probably a blessing.