Section 8 (comics)
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Section 8 is a superhero team created by Garth Ennis and John McCrea which frequently appeared in the pages of Hitman. The team is based in The Cauldron, the Irish section of Gotham City and is led by Sixpack
[edit] Origin
The most likely source for the group's name is the section of the Army Code which permits discharge from the service due to insanity (Section 8); the reference is deeply appropriate due to the psychological maladjustments of the characters and Ennis's tendency toward using military references throughout his writing. Other theories suggest the name of the team is a reference to Section 8 (housing), a low-rent program supported by the US Federal Government to help the impoverished find affordable apartments. Since the team is "low rent" (little respected), the title is appropriate.
The team provided critical support for Hitman and his crew during the "Ace of Killers" storyline as well as Monaghan's encounter with the Czarnian mercenary anti-hero Lobo.
[edit] Members
- Sixpack: Team leader, whose special ability is grotesque drunkenness and beating villains with broken-off liquor bottles.
- The Defenestrator: A large, burly man in a denim jacket, black sunglasses, with black hair who obsessively carries around a window through which he forcefully throws criminals and the occasional unlucky policeman. Very much a parody of the various Terminators Arnold Schwarzenegger has played, especially the one from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
- Dog Welder: A thin, silent man in a welder's mask who spot welds dead canines to evildoers, resulting in extreme burns and general horror (created by Steve Dillon after Ennis, in a pub, dared him to find a dumber name than Green Lantern). Whether his name also derives from "spot welder" (spot being a common dog's name) is unclear. The question of how exactly one can weld a flesh and blood animal to a person is not answered by the series, and it is assumed that this is Dog Welder's metahuman power, making him one of three "true" metahumans on the team.
- Jean de Baton-Baton: A bizarrely gaunt walking French caricature who defeats enemies with "the power of Frenchness," as expressed by savage beatings with a baton and occasionally blinding others with rings of garlic and onions.
- Phlegm-Gem: A sickly, thin, bald man in a green suit and a purple domino mask who has the ability to produce and expel large volumes of phlegm, which blind, suffocate, or simply gross out evildoers. Possibly named after a throw-away comment by comedian Bill Hicks in Sane Man (Ennis is a big fan of Hicks).
- Friendly Fire: A large, hapless man in a red cowl, he would easily be the most powerful of Section 8's heroes if he were to shoot anything other than allies with the potent bolts of energy he fires from his hands. Is (justly) afraid of Bueno Excelente.
- Shakes: A thin, hairy vagrant who upsets people through stutters and an overall shaking palsy; frequent target of Friendly Fire.
- Bueno Excelente: An obese, sweaty, and bald Latino in an overcoat who, as team leader Sixpack describes, "defeats evil with the power of perversion." Generally, the only thing he says will be "Bueno", often preceded by a creepy chuckle. The name came to Ennis from watching a pornographic movie in Spain where one of the actors said nothing but "Bueno", and said "Bueno Excelente" upon reaching orgasm.
