Hitman is a fictional character

Character (arts)

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 that appears in comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

s published by Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

.

Publication history

Burt Kanyon, also known as the Hitman, first appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man

The Spectacular Spider-Man

The Spectacular Spider-Man is the name of several comic books and one magazine series starring Marvel Comics' Spider-Man.The character's main series, The Amazing Spider-Man, was extremely successful, and Marvel felt the character could support more than one title. This led the company in 1968 to...

#4 (March 1977), and was created by Archie Goodwin

Archie Goodwin (comics)

Archie Goodwin was an American comic book writer, editor, and artist. He worked on a number of comic strips in addition to comic books, and is best known for his Warren and Marvel Comics work...

 and Sal Buscema

Sal Buscema

Silvio "Sal" Buscema is an American comic book artist, primarily for Marvel Comics, where he enjoyed a ten-year run as artist of The Incredible Hulk...

. The character subsequently appears in The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring the adventures of the fictional superhero Spider-Man. Being the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a monthly periodical and was published continuously until it was...

#174-175 (November–December 1977), in which he is killed. The character appears posthumously in the Punisher: Return to Big Nothing graphic novel (1989).

Fictional character biography

Burt Kenyon was a Vietnam veteran serving in the same company as Frank Castle, who would later become the Punisher

Punisher

The Punisher is a fictional character, an anti-hero appearing in comic books based in the . Created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita, Sr., and Ross Andru, the character made its first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 .The Punisher is a vigilante who employs murder,...

.

As the Hitman, Kenyon was a costumed mercenary assassin. He was hired by the Maggia

Maggia (comics)

The Maggia is a fictional international crime syndicate that has appeared in various comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The organization exists in Marvel's main shared universe, known as the Marvel Universe...

 as their version of the Punisher. The Vulture

Vulture (comics)

The Vulture is the name of six comic book supervillains in the Marvel Comics universe. The best known Vulture in the Marvel Universe is Adrian Toomes, an elderly enemy of Spider-Man created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in The Amazing Spider-Man #2 .-Golden Age Vulture:In Young Men #26, a scientist...

 had rejected the Maggia's offer before they hired the Hitman, so the Hitman was sent to humiliate the Vulture by killing Spider-Man

Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...

 before the Vulture could. The two villains fought over Spider-Man, allowing Spider-Man the chance to escape. The Hitman had placed tracers on both the Vulture and Spider-Man, and he continued to harass and attack them both. While Spider-Man feigned weakness, the Hitman coerced the Vulture into attacking Spider-Man, but Spider-Man turned so that the Hitman shot the Vulture's power pack instead of Spider-Man. The Hitman fled and Spider-Man gave the tracer to the Punisher to give him the opportunity to track the Hitman down.

The Hitman was hired by a terrorist group called the People's Liberation Front (PLF) to kidnap and kill J. Jonah Jameson

J. Jonah Jameson

John Jonah Jameson Junior is a supporting character of Spider-Man in the .Jameson is usually the publisher or editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle, a fictional New York newspaper and now serves as the mayor of New York City...

for editorials written about the group. While looking for the Hitman, the Punisher found himself battling the PLF. As the Hitman confronted Jameson in his office, he attracted the attention of the Punisher and Spider-Man. The Hitman escaped to the roof with Jameson as he fought Spider-Man, but Spider-Man followed him. Hitman managed to escape in his mini-copter despite the Punisher's efforts to shoot Hitman. One of Spider-Man's spider-tracers allowed them to track the Hitman to the Statue of Liberty, where the PLF planned to blow up the statue with Jameson inside. The Punisher and Spider-Man arrived to stop the PLF, and confronted the Hitman. Spider-Man managed to pull Jameson away from the Hitman, and the Punisher shot Hitman, who fell to his death.