The Assassin, on encountering evil villains who the world must be rid of, shoots them with a large gun. No messing about.
This will free up valuable space in comics for more advertising.
-- hippo, Jan 10 2001

The Punisher http://www.geocitie.../8580/punisher.html
Marvel Comics character who fits the description [Uncle Nutsy, Jan 10 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]

"Whipping Star" http://www.sffworld...s/whippingstar.html
I keep plugging this book, and it's sequel, "The Dosadi Experiment", for various reasons, usually it's unique political-legal perspective - another precursor to cyberpunk - but this time, for the books protaganist, Jorge X. Mckie, abatour extraordinary, whose job is to prevent Government from becoming too "efficient" and subsequently authoritarian, through selective assasination and sabotauge. A little more complicated than your reductionist hero/antihero, maybe. [Scott_D, Jan 10 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Maybe, but I visualise The Assassin as a Judge Dredd-type figure, only more efficient and without the compulsion to utter pithy remarks while blowing away villains.
-- hippo, Jan 10 2001


Would The Assassin have a detailed spec on which characteristics are deemed to be evil? After all, he wouldn't want to shoot the wrong villain by mistake. My vote for first entry in The Assassins book is politicians. Anyone who runs for office of any kind whatever should be immediately blown away. No messing. That should keep him busy for a bit. In fact there is so much evil in the world that there'll probably have to be several different The Assassins. Sort of a franchise.
-- DrBob, Jan 10 2001


I think his arch-enemy should be another superhero exactly like himself. I mean, they'd both be mass-murderers and therefore both on each other's hit lists.
-- baf, Jan 12 2001


Aristotle - you read Lovecraft?

This reminds me of the near-end of Austin Powers I - where Scott is spieling on about "just getting a gun and shooting them *bam!*..."
Anyone else get that?
-- Detly, Jan 13 2001


Detly: Yep! Funnily enough I nearly mentioned it myself.

Aristotle: Justice is Served! (as long as your SAN stands up to the pounding).
-- DrBob, Jan 13 2001


'Pum!' "Justice is served!" I remember him...Supposed to have a pair of cut-down .50 Brownings as pistols. No idea what his name was, but he died along with a lot of other low-rent 'superheroes' in a bar...

<Remembered from an old Dragon magazine when they had a Marvel RPG section. One issue had the 'Shootout at the Bar with No Name', where this guy walked in and wasted a metric buttload of them...>
-- StarChaser, Jan 14 2001


His name was scourge. He was later killed by another scourge, just after being caught. Don't you just LOVE quality writing.
-- morningstar, May 18 2001


You could have multiple Assassins too, as the whole 'just use a big gun' idea doesn't require the superhero to be involved in a freak accident involving radiation and a small insect.
-- gardnose, May 18 2001


Isn't the Punisher sorta like this? And the NYPD?
-- AfroAssault, Aug 14 2001


Anybody who's seen Scud, the disposable assassin at work knows that this is basically baked. Idea being: go to the machine when you're pissed, purchase assassin to do dirty work, assassin self-destructs after job is accomplished. it's more interesting, as each assassin can have its own personality, therefore, new comic every week.
-- Simonpf, Aug 15 2001


That would be interesting - related to this, I heard a thing on NPR a couple of years ago by a policeman who posed as a contract killer. The people who contacted him asking him to kill their wife/husband/loanshark/etc. sounded fascinating. I would have liked a lot more analysis of these people. How did they move from murderous thoughts to actually going and contacting a contract killer? Did they really think that this would solve their problems? Did they anticipate feeling guilty?
-- hippo, Aug 20 2001


will he have infinite shotgun?
-- shivi, Jun 20 2002



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