The Pro

Meet the most unlikely superhero in comics history: an unnamed, foul-mouthed working single mother whose powers arrive out of nowhere when the alien “Viewer” takes an interest in her life — and promptly falls over laughing. The Pro is the prestige-format one-shot where Garth Ennis, Amanda Conner, and inker-co-creator Jimmy Palmiotti torch the superhero genre with a rocket launcher and a grin. Published by Image Comics in July 2002, it remains one of the sharpest, most gloriously tasteless deconstructions of the capes-and-tights mythos ever drawn.

When the world’s heroes need a PR makeover, the League of Honor — a barely-disguised parody of the Justice League, complete with a Saint, a Knight & Squire, and a patriotic Lady — recruits the Pro to add some “street credibility.” What they get instead is a hero who has zero interest in their rules, their press conferences, or their painfully wholesome villains (like the Noun and the Adverb). Deadline’s report on the book’s film deal nailed the premise: a prostitute who wakes up one day with superhero powers and is asked to join the League of Honor “to help curb her anti-heroic behavior.” The book careens from the Pro using superspeed to make her own kind of living to a chillingly sincere finale where she flies a nuclear bomb into space — more to save her young son than anyone else.

Conner’s art is the secret weapon. Her expressive, warm cartooning makes the filth look almost innocent, and the contrast between her sunny pages and Ennis’s barbed script is what makes the satire land so perfectly. The book earned an Eisner Award nomination for Best Humor Publication at the 2003 Eisner Awards, and it’s become a touchstone for fans of Preacher, The Boys, and Ennis’s other genre-slaying work. Later editions add the bonus story “The Pro Vs. The Ho,” and the 2007 paperback sold out fast enough to warrant a reprint.

The book’s notoriety was cemented by its most famous dedication. After legendary artist Jim Steranko lambasted the press release as “psychotic, nihilistic garbage” produced by “cultural terrorists,” Ennis, Conner, and Palmiotti gleefully dedicated the comic “For Steranko.” Decades later, the joke’s still landing: in March 2017, Paramount Pictures optioned the film rights with Zoe McCarthy hired to write the screenplay, and a sequel short, “The Pro: Back in Business,” appeared in the 2022 Image! 30th Anniversary Anthology.

One shot, one perfect punchline that never lands like you expect. Perfect for fans of Preacher, The Boys, and anyone who thinks superheroes could use a dose of the real world — and Amanda Conner’s other creator-owned classic, Gatecrasher.