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Geoff Johns and Greg Berlanti are Looking at Garth Ennis and John McCrea's Hitman for TV

From the Q&A session at the first panel of DC In DC, the event going on at the Newseum in Washington DC today. There will be plenty to talk about (especially President Diane Nelson getting down to Uptown Funk before the cameras were meant to be on) but just for now, Bleeding Cool correspondent Will Romine lets us know that after a questioner expressed keenness for the character of Tommy Monaghan, the Hitman from Garth Ennis and John McCrea's series from two decades ago, Geoff Johns said that yes, he and Greg Berlanti have been in discussion about a TV version of Hitman.

For those fuzzy on the details.

Hitman, running 61 issues and a few spinoffs, told the story of an ex-Marine Gulf War veteran turned contract killer from the Cauldron, a lower-class Irish district of Gotham City. Attacked by an alien, the bite unexpectedly grants him x-ray vision and moderate telepathy. A side effect is that his corneas and irises are solid black, indistinguishable from his pupils. The powers later come with limits, and Monaghan uses them selectively, both because of the difficulty of concentrating during an explosive firefight and the side effects of their extended use (which includes anything between a headache and a minor illness).

After gaining these powers, Monaghan decides to specialize in killing metahumans and supernatural threats, targets typically shunned by conventional contract killers as too dangerous or too expensive. Despite his powers, Monaghan relies most on his creativity, improvisational abilities, and impressive gunfighting skills to take down a majority of his targets. This speciality line of work gives him an edge over his competition, but also leads him to encountering a number of eclectic characters including demons, zombies, dinosaurs, gods, superheroes and supervillains, as well as more conventional, realistic characters such as CIA agents, the SAS and the Mafia.

The series is firmly entrenched in the DC Universe. Batman, The Joker, Green Lantern, Catwoman, Etrigan the Demon, and Superman all guest star at various points, and joking references are frequently made to then-current DC happenings (such as the long-haired Superman). The series also crossed over with many DC events, including Final Night, One Million, and No Man's Land. There was even a one-shot pairing Monaghan with Lobo, and Monaghan has made a few appearances outside the series (see below).

Although the character adopts the moniker "Hitman" in his first appearance, he only refers to himself by that name once in his own series, in the very first issue; the rest of the time, he is referred to by his given name (although he was sometimes called "Hitman" in guest appearances).

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