Literature / Hitman

The Hitman franchise is one which has produced books based on the adventures of Agent 47. There have been two tie-in novels, The Enemy Within and Damnation, written (respectively) by William C. Dietz and Raymond Benson (best known for his James Bond works).

Hitman: Enemy Within is the first novel in the series. It was written by William C. Dietz and released on August 28, 2007, from Del Rey Books. The novel's plot is set between Hitman 2: Silent Assassin and Hitman: Blood Money and evolves around a rival murder-for-hire organization known as Puissance Treize (French for "Power Thirteen") which attempted to destroy 47's employer, the International Contract Agency.

Hitman: Damnation is the second novel in the series. It was released on October 30, 2012 in North America, and was later released in other countries as well. It was written by author Raymond Benson. It is a Prequel to Hitman: Absolution and follows Diana's decision to defect from the ICA as well the consequences this has for Agent 47.

Overachievers is a side-story for the series. It was released and written by the head of IOI; Michael Vogt. It follows an ICA's agent mission to make a spectacular kill to rival 47's penchant for glamourous and accidental kills. It goes...wrong, and the cleaners in the crime scene recount the events, and unfold what happened. The timeline for this story is ambiguous, but it's likely set before the events of Hitman (2016). It can be read for free here

There's not been any published novels since 2012, but a prequel Comic Book series; Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman, was made in 2017, which is one to the entire Hitman series (and also makes a point to reference Enemy Within).

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These novels provide the following trope examples:

Hitman: Enemy Within

He always fulfills his contract.

• Action Girl: Marla starts out as this but becomes a Faux Action Girl after 47 puts her on the run.
• Affably Evil: Aristotle seems like a very reasonable pleasant guy aside from having people killed on a regular basis and being on the Agency's board.
• All Bikers are Hells Angels: 47 pretends to be one of these to assassinate his target at the beginning of the book.
• All There in the Manual: The book provides a lot of detail about the nature of the ICA as well as its leadership.
• Artistic License – Economics: Subverted. The Agency is said to make roughly a billion dollars a year with roughly 50% of its wealth coming from contracts taken by 47. 47 is paid roughly $100,000 per hit. It turns out 47 is just dramatically underpaid for his contracts.
• Author Appeal: Much of the book describes 47's opinions on food in various nations.
• Batman Gambit: 47 pulls a number of these off to force Marla, Al-Fulani, and the traitor out of hiding
• Big Bad: Pierre Duoay is the (acting) head of Puissance Treize as well as the instigator of all the plots..
• The Bus Came Back: Father Vittorio returns after his absence following Silent Assassin.
• Canon Foreigner: The Agency Council, Marla, Puissance Treize, Mister Nu, and others.
• Chained to a Bed: Diana is subjected to this, nude, which results in unwanted oggling by Mister Nu. She has an excellent snarky response to it, though.
• Cool Boat: Diana has one of these as her base of operations.
• Consummate Professional: Agent 47 is at some of his most efficient here. Played With as he's constantly getting his cover blown by events beyond his control.
• The Corruptible: Aristotle Thorakis betrays the Agency for 500 million Euros (as a loan) in exchange for information about the ICA's various top-earning henchmen.
• The Dreaded: Agent 47 becomes this for Marla.
• Even Evil Has Standards: 47 and Marla are both disgusted with Al-Fulani.
• Evil Versus Evil: The ICA and Puissance Treize are both evil Nebulous Evil Organization assassin groups. We're just on 47's side because he's slightly better than the rest.
• Expy: Aristotle Thorakis is one for Aristotle Onassis. Except, well, Onassis wasn't head of a secret criminal organization of assassins.
• Flashback Cut: When the party is going in Morocco, 47 flashes back to when he killed 6 back at the asylum, and then escapes to the city, but is found by one of the orderlies who congratulates him on it. Not only is this the first mention of the hugely important character of Subject 6, who later reappears in the World of Assassination Trilogy, this specific flashback was later changed to be a false memory planted by Ort-Meyer into 47 to forget about 6. In actuality, 47 and 6 were actually trying to free the clones back at the Institute, and Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman, where those events were later detailed, 6 and 47 were practically inseparable brothers, not enemies in any way.
• Good Shepherd: Father Vittorio takes in the African orphans 47 rescues from Al-Fulani.
• Karma Houdini: Marla manages to get away from Agent 47 with their life despite their many crimes.
  • So do many of the pedophiles at the Orphanage.
  • Pierre Duoay also just has to go into hiding.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: 47 chooses to use a peanut allergy to kill Aristotle Thorakis.
• Nebulous Evil Organization: Puissance Treize is The Rival to the ICA. Which is also a Nebulous Evil Organization.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Aristotle Thorakis worries about betraying the ICA are solely because he's afraid he'll get caught rather than any loyalty to the group he's one of the board of.
• Orphanage of Fear: Al-Fulani runs one of these as part of his cover as a legitimate businessman.
• Pædo Hunt: Al-Fulani is a pedophile as well as a general sleazebag and terrorist.
• Pet the Dog: Agent 47 rescues a large number of slave children set to be sold to pedophiles, narrowly avoiding a Moral Event Horizon when he almost forgets to help them.
• Plot Allergy: The m.o. 47 settles on to complete the hit on Aristotle Thorakis. Knowing that the target and their personnel are well aware of their allergy to peanut and the Tampering with Food and Drink trope, he instead sprayed peanut oil on his mistress' customary salad at just the right time for Thorakis to ingest the allergen after kissing her on the lips. Minutes later, Thorakis died from an anaphylactic shock as they were just starting to make love.
• Private Military Contractor: Both the ICA and Pussiance Treize fulfill these roles for the governments of the world. Just with assassins rather than soldiers.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Mister Nu believes both Diana and 47 when they say Aristotle is the traitor.
• The Rival: Pussiance Treize is treated as this for the ICA.
• Sexual Extortion: Al-Fulani agrees to protect Marla but only if she agrees to sleep with him and engage in threesomes with his slaves. Which include teenage girls he's kidnapped. She reluctantly complies.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Marla disappears around four-fifths mark through the book. 47 decides against hunting for them because they aren't longer a complication for him, nor their head has a price tag on it.
• Worthy Opponent: Marla becomes this for 47. Marla is completely unaware of this as she considers 47 to be The Dreaded.
• Villain Protagonist: 47 is an amoral, brutal, and ruthless mercenary who only has a single Pet the Dog moment in the book.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Averted with Diana who appears several time in person as the suspected traitor who the ICA thinks is selling information to Puissance Treize.

Hitman: Damnation

Death is coming.

• Adaptational Badass: Travis is a complete nincompoop in Absolution but comes close to being a Reasonable Authority Figure and quite talented Manipulative Bastard here.
• Adaptational Villainy: 47 is noticeably more cavalier about collateral damage here than in games, poisoning an innocent gardener to take his place.
• Arab Oil Sheikh: One of two groups, along with The Mafiya, supporting Wilkens covertly.
• Car Fu: During the final act of the book Agent 47 ends up using a school bus to chase down and then kill Charlie Wilkens
• Cuckold: It is theorized in the book that Dana's father was this to Charlie
• Compressed Vice: Agent 47 is addicted to painkillers precisely long enough to give him a character arc in the book.
• Deadpan Snarker: Near the end of the book Agent 47 can't help but internally comment about how "Charlie Wilkens is a survivor".
• Expy: Charlie Wilkens fast-food restaurant is pretty clearly meant to invoke Chick fil a.
• False Flag Operation: Charlie Wilkens uses these to gain a lot of support in his bid to become President. He even has his own hand-picked candidate killed so he can take her place on the ballot.
• Functional Addict: Agent 47 is still one of the best killers on the planet. Played with as it's clear he's far from being at the top of his game.
• The Mafiya: The other of Charlie Wilken's supporters.
• Out-of-Character Moment: YMMV. Killing an innocent woman during a mission. Also, developing his emotional attachment to Helena Mc Adams. Admittedly, the latter happened in both movies.
• Path of Inspiration: Averted. The Path of Will is basically just Unitarianism. It's just being misused by Charlie.
• Prequel: Is this for Hitman: Absolution.
• Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: The New Model Army is a pretty good model of these, aided by the Church of the Will.
• Recovered Addict: Helena Mc Adams was a prostitute and junkie before the Church of the Will healed her.
• Series Continuity Error: The Hitman mentions he doesn't believe in God and makes several statements which contradict Silent Assassin.
• Sinister Minister: Charlie Wilkens turns out to be one of these.
• Smug Snake: Charlie Wilkens would be a Magnificent Bastard if not for his monumentally stupid plan involving his assassination.
• Too Dumb to Live: Charlie Wilkens faking an assassination plot against him? Fine. Faking an assassination plot by actually hiring the deadliest assassin in the world and not telling him it's a fake? Too Dumb to Live doesn't begin to cover it.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Charlie Wilkens is one of the most beloved individuals in America but is secretly supporting a terrorist group.

Overachievers

A Hitman Expanded Universe Story

• Bread Milk Eggs Squick: Soders suggests to Diana to use more conventional kill methods for contracts like a silenced pistol, fiber-wire, poison, and an exploding rubber duck. He then immediately lampshades this when Diana's response sparks confusion:
  Soders: "How about you return to basics for a while? Silenced pistol, fibre-wire, poison, exploding rubber duck...I dunno, you figure it out!"
  Diana: "Exploding what?"
  Soders: "I...don't even know why I said that. Forget it. Point is, just do something normal for a change. That clear?"
• Canon Welding: Despite being, in Hakan Abrak's own words "official fanfiction", is actually considered canon to the main series, and as such gets a surprise reference in Hitman 3, as Dolores, the handler for Agent Jaguar, is present in the Mendoza level, and she tells Diana and the player about this exact story from her perspective and the fallout (she was fired, and faked her own death to avoid petty retaliation from the ICA). She still despises how 47 and Diana show off with their elaborate kills too.
• Cleanup Crew: The ICA has their own division made up of this, and they appear to be dispatched whenever a particularly messy hit happens. Part of the story is even told from their perspective.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Diana mentions Soders once killed a Cuban spy by rigging his ejector seat, a reference to the tutorial of 2016, where 47 can do the same to Jasper Knight (or rather, an actor playing as him), as the tutorial mission was based on Soders' finest moment in his career as an ICA Agent.
  • Soders calls 47 "Agent Blank Slate" when chastising Diana, the nickname he uses to describe 47 when he's being inducted into the ICA in one of the tutorial cutscenes.
• Epic Fail: Jaguar's attempt at rigging up a 47-style trap to Make It Look Like an Accident caused so much havoc that it killed everyone at the Christmas party - including Jaguar himself - except for the target, completely botching the hit for himself (posthumously), Dolores and the ICA!
• Lower-Deck Episode: To Hitman (2016), and was written in the interim of that game while Hitman 2 was being made, and features a minimal cast of characters (it's mostly focused on Jaguar, the ICA cleaners, and Dolores), as well as Diana and Soders (with 47 also being mentioned).
• The Nicknamer: ICA Analysts call 47 "The Ghost" and "The Chessmaster". Jaguar calls 47 "Number One", while Soders favors "blank slate"; the name he gives 47 in 2016.
• No Kill like Overkill: The hit Jaguar plans out involves setting alcohol spewing out of barrels on fire while a tumbling Christmas tree burns him and the stage down. It fails because Jaguar climbed on the gas pipes to get up to the railings and let out some gas, which ignited the room when the flames touched the alcohol. It kills about 30 people, but not the target, as the stage acted as an impromptu blast shield.
• No Name Given: It's likely "Jaguar" is just an alias. Averted with Dolores, as her full name is "Dolores Powell".
• Noose Catch: In reaction to the explosion, Jaguar fell off the rafters and got hung by some electrical cables.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: We never learn Agent Jaguar's real name.
• Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: What Jaguar wants to happen, to prove to upper management his skills that he can be as good as 47. It goes very wrong, and he gets killed by falling and hanging himself with some wires. Even worse is that the only person at the event his booby trap doesn't kill is the target.
• To Be a Master: Jaguar. He wants to be at the top of the ICA's rankings, even thinking he can beat 47.

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