The Hitmen and Us: Sinister Dexter – 2000 AD Encyclopedia Supplemental #2
9th February 2022
It’s just a week until the first definitive encyclopedia of 2000 AD hits shelves! This stunning hardcover promises to give Earthlets chapter and verse on forty-five years of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comics.
Written by Scott Montgomery and with jaw-dropping illustrations by some of the world’s top artists alongside detailed profiles on the stories and characters from the pages of this legendary comic, from the luckless Aaron A. Aardvark of Judge Dredd to the weaponised (but very polite) undead crusader Zombo.
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As the 2000 AD Encyclopedia edges ever closer to publication, author Scott Montgomery waxes (or should that be whackses?) lyrical on a trio of classic stories. This time it’s the turn of those gun-sharks-for-hire SINISTER DEXTER.
Created in 1995 by writer Dan Abnett and artist David Millgate, Sinister Dexter is one of 2000 AD’s longest-running series. Inspired by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson’s gangster characters in the then-recently-released Pulp Fiction, Finny Sinister and Ray Dexter are the finest assassins that money can buy. Operating out of the future Euro-sprawl of Downlode, this gun-toting duo never turn down a job – a cast-iron reputation for stone-cold professionalism is everything in this sleazy metropolis. Sinister is a hard-drinking, chain-smoking Irishman, while Dexter is a ripped hunk with an eye for the ladies.
Originally created as a possible one-off for the 1995 Winter Special, the series’ potential was spotted by new editor David Bishop who commissioned more episodes.
Sinister Dexter has deftly struck the perfect balance between hard-boiled crime drama, all guns blazing action and edgy comedy. Many of the laughs come from Abnett’s bantering dialogue and extraordinary talent for puns. Right from the start, supporting characters have chucklesome names like Floppy Dick, Nervous Rex and Rocky Rhodes – as well as some laugh-out-loud story titles (more of which later).
Here’s the Sinister Dexter entry:
Hard-drinking, chain-smoking Irishman Finnigan Sinister and Ramone Dexter, a fashion-conscious Spanish ladies’ man, are the finest gun-sharks in the future European sprawl of Downlode: hired killers with chalk outlines round their souls. Need a ‘removal’? Call the gun-lovin’ criminals.
They never turn down a contract, as this would ruin their professional reputation, but they do have a code of honour: making sure that cops or innocents are never caught in the cross#re. When a contract comes up on their boss, ‘HOLY’ MOSES TANNENBAUM, he tries to have them killed first. They make the hit and create a new force in Downlode’s underworld – Moses’s former wife, the headstrong DEMI OCTAVO, is now Queen-pin. After a vacation, Demi has a new job for them…teaching her younger sister Billi how to be a gun-shark.
Now the duo has to keep Billi in one piece and keep business running as smoothly as usual. When a turf war engulfs the city, led by Russian mob boss ‘The Czar’, this means becoming Demi’s personal guardians. Sinister and Dexter’s partnership comes to an end when they blame each other for failing to save Demi’s life on the day of her wedding to Prince Guapo. Artificial ‘syn’ killers hijacked the ceremony and murdered Demi, leaving the way clear for another mobster, Senor Apellido, to make his move for power. He goes after Billi but Sinister gets her to safety before disappearing, ending up off-world as a driver [see MALONE].
Eventually the pair is reunited as partners and they take down Appelido, who was revealed to be a clone of Tenenbaum. Sinister and Dexter train an apprentice gunshark, Kal Cutter but he goes to work for another mob boss, the mysterious Mover, who is in fact yet another version of the late Holy Moses. Finny and Ray travel to the planet Generica to whack Tanenbaum once again. !is version of the ganglord was from an alternate dimension and, to their amazement they found that killing him reset the continuum, meaning no one in Downlode knew who they were, apart from Billi, who is a successful hacker. Now a rogue A.I. is at large. Its nano-technology took control of Sinister and he killed Tracy Weld, a police offcer and the love of Ray’s life. Dexter is forced to kill his partner and go on the run with Finny’s ex-wife, Carrie Hosanna and Billi Octavo, and escape from the sprawl of Downlode.
When it came to chronicling the exploits of our bullet-monkey anti-heroes for the 2000 AD Encyclopedia, I knew it would be a little bit tricky. Thanks to the vagaries of the alphabet – and the ongoing deadlines which required fully completed, serialised Encylopedia sections every couple of months – I had to deliver the finished text for two SinDex spin-off series, set in different parts of the overall timeline, several months before tackling the main Sinister Dexter itself entry in the ‘S’ section.
Elsewhere l also had to provide separate, cross-referenced entries for a couple of significant supporting characters – the boys’ boss, kingpin ‘Holy’ Moses Tannenbaum and his wife, the eventual ‘queenpin’, Demi Octavo. Tricky? Yes but, luckily, your intrepid Encyclopedia compiler likes a challenge!
The spin-offs were Downlode Tales and Malone. The former was a lengthy arc where the duo’s partnership was split; seemingly for good. Finny and Ray blame themselves for failing to save the life of Demi, killed by synthetic assassins. The latter was a ‘stealth’ mini-serial with a big reveal about the eponymous title character, a mysterious and deadly off-world drifter. Eventually, the partners were reunited as a proper team once again.
Abnett’s hard-boiled plots are far from predictable and the series’ timeline is wonderfully chaotic – but still firmly rooted in a future-noir logic which has kept readers on their toes for years. In particular, Sinister and Dexter have faced down multiple versions of their nemesis, Tannenbaum – and this has caused a resetting of the continuum, meaning that they can go around unrecognised in Downlode.
Finny and Ray’s lives are constantly in real danger – they may be the best killers around but they are still far from invincible. More than a quarter of a century since the strip’s debut, the gun-sharks are still going strong. At the moment, in the ongoing epic Bulletopia story arc, Dexter is on the run from a nano-tech-enhanced AI version of Sinister – who had already tried to kill him – and Dexter was forced to whack his best friend to save his own life. Told you it was pretty complicated…
Kudos are due to author Dan Abnett and his extraordinary vision for this series. He has written every tale, close to two hundred and well over a thousand pages. An impressive array of top 2000 AD artists has illustrated them – and it looks like the bullets won’t stop flying anytime soon.
Finally, as previously mentioned, Sinister Dexter is notorious for its breath-taking array of humorous story titles. Here are my own Top Ten personal favourite puntastic titles from the ever-witty scribe:
- Wish Upon a Czar
- Waiting for God Knows
- Slay Per View
- Sumo Chanted Evening
- Glock Around the Clock
- Slow Train to Kal Cutter
- Dunce Macabre
- …and Death shall have no Dumb Minions
- Watch with Motherfunter
- Witless Protection: Last Rights
The 2000 AD Encyclopedia is out on 15 February and will be available from all good book and comic stores, as well as online retailers and 2000 AD’s webshop and app.