I Feel Like This Was Set-Up Backwards

More Hitman discussion!

While I've generally enjoyed the trades, I was a bit disappointed in Who Dares Wins. The majority of the trade is the story of 4 SAS members, tasked with seeking out and killing Tommy and Natt. Turns out that during Desert Storm, those two accidentally killed some British soldiers, then tried to cover it up. One of the dead soldiers is the son of a Brigadier General, and thus these Brits are ordered to go kill our heroes. Make an example of them, I suppose. Fine, no problems with what gets the story moving, high-ranking officers abusing their authority is a well-worn tool, but I like it well enough.

The problem is Tommy. Once the four blokes (the "Regiment") first attack, and Tommy and Natt realize what this is about, Tommy's about one second away from pissing himself the remainder of the story. I kept waiting for him to get himself together, but he never did. One of the SAS guys fired over his head, at one point, and rather than, you know, kill the guy, Tommy actually dropped his guns and started pleading, for fuck's sake.

OK, well these are SAS guys, super-tough, super-trained, maybe the best soldiers in the world. Could very well be. They're well-organized, singularly determined* and seem impervious to pain. So I can certainly see how Tommy and Natt could struggle against them, especially since they seem to realize that while shooting allies accidentally is bad, trying to cover it up was an even worse thing to do. So maybe they're struggling with doubts, wondering if maybe they ought to be killed.

But it's not so much that they're being outflanked, or that Tommy doesn't seem on his game. He really seems terrified of trying to deal with these guys. The problem is, Ennis had just finished a story where Tommy faced off with two demons from Hell, neither one of which likes him. Even though he managed to kill Mawzir, with an assist from Catwoman and Baytor, Etrigan's still kicking at the end. Not only that, he visits Monaghan and promises that someday, he's going to come for Tommy, and what he'll do won't be pleasant. Tommy's response is to stand there grinning, and respond 'I'll be waitin'.

But Calvin, you say, Tommy has the Ace of Winchesters, a gun designed to kill demons. Yes, yes very true, and Etrigan knows that too. He is the one who provided the gun to the orphaned son, after all. I'm gonna stop trying to rhyme now. All he need do is keep his distance and wait until Tommy doesn't have it on him. Nothing else in Monaghan's arsenal is likely to even slow Etrigan down, so the odds are poor he could stay alive long enough to retrieve. Surely Tommy has to realize that, but if so, he didn't show any sign of it. The Regiment is comprised of humans, who can be killed by ordinary bullets, which Tommy and Natt have in abundance. The won't make it easy to kill them, obviously, since that probably runs counter to training, but it's not as though hitting a clever, immensely powerful demon with a lever action rifle (whose capabilities the demon is well aware of) is a walk in the park, either.

I guess the point Ennis was making (and Natt lays it out at the end), besides the pointless nature of revenge, is that Tommy and Natt had been getting by on luck. The only survived the battle with the Mawzir because of a variety of fortunate occurrences. Tiegel showed up, giving them another ally who can be useful in a fight, Six-Pack arrived with Section Eight to occupy Mawzir's human pawns, and Baytor hitched a ride to Earth inside Etrigan's cape. Any of those (especially the last two) don't happen, Tommy dies. They can't always get lucky when they fight people better or more powerful than them. If their opponents plan things well enough, there aren't likely to be those fortuitous happenstances than turn things around, and then where are they? Screwed, that's where.

Still, you could have Tommy being supremely confident that he can handle this (after all, he just faced down a ten-armed, gun-wielding demon from Hell), he tries to do things in his typical manner, and proceeds to get whomped throughly, but he's uncharacteristically (at least based on what I've read of the series) subtle, and well, timid. His strength of will seems to flee every time he comes face to face with them. He's constantly running, trying to sneak attack, or trying to sucker other people in to taking the SAS boys out, all of which seems at odds with his more common response of just shooting people until they stop trying to kill him. It's not a bad idea, just not what I'd come to expect of him.

Maybe it's that I'd be more afraid of the fire-spitting demon of Hell myself.

* Even the one member that doesn't like the mission, Eddie, is determined to complete it as quickly as possible, mostly to protect his buddies.