Sinister Dexter

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Sinister Dexter is a comic series in the British comics anthology 2000 AD, created by Dan Abnett and David Millgate. It first appeared in 2000 AD Winter Special #7 (December, 1995).

Set in the near future, it features the exploits of gun sharks [hitmen] Finnigan "Finny" Sinister and Ramone "Ray" Dexter in the city of Downlode, sprawled across Central Europe. Occasional stories have taken place in other cities, or off planet.

Tropes used in Sinister Dexter include:
  • Abnormal Ammo: Sinister's Minigun is capable of firing normal and Hi-Ex rounds.
  • Awesome McCoolname: The main characters full names are Finnigan Rapunzel Sinister and Ramone Algonquin Winnibago Dexter respectively. Other awesome names include "Holy" Moses Tennenbaum, Kal Cutter, Miss Deeds, Satan Brink and others. Seems Abnett loves this trope.
  • Badass Normal: Sinister. Many characters are cyborgs or genetically enhanced. Even Dexter has a Headcase installed, allowing him to have Improbable Aiming Skills and watch tv at the same time. Finny simply relies on his trusty Hand Cannon.
  • Badass Spaniard: Dexter.
  • Cool Car: Dexter's Edsel (though, it's stated to be a modern replica).
  • Cool Shades: Finny's, which he never removes.
  • Cultural Cross-Reference: In "The Why-Shaped Cut," Polly Alloy dresses as Sailor Moon.
  • Executive Meddling: Parodied in one strip that is essentially a parody trailer for a Sinister Dexter movie. The movie appears to cast vactors (virtual actors) as the main characters. Finny and Ray are disgusted to find that Bruce Willis has been cast as Sinister and Eddie Murphy has been cast as Dexter (Each even using lines from Die Hard and Beverly Hills Cop as Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liners). While Finny expresses some joy at Scarlett Johansson being cast as Demi Octavo, they both walk out of the theatre once the trailer is over, expressing disgust at having sold the movie rights to their own life stories.
  • Guns Akimbo: Dexter's pair of Rugers.
  • Hitman with a Heart
  • Ho Yay: Lampshaded by Finny in one strip. He mentions the pair of them planning to retire to Aruba with "His-And-His yachts". Also parodied in one Nikolai Dante story.
  • Meaningful Name: In Latin the words sinister and dexter mean "on the left side" and "on the right side", respectively.
  • Mega City: Downlode. It's not quite clear how big the city is, but it certainly seems to sprawl from parts of Germany all the way into Eastern Europe.
  • Pretty in Mink: Carmen Hosanna
  • Punny Name: Almost everybody
    • Not just people, the entire world seems to run off of this. An example in one episode was an Italian restaurant with an American Civil War theme called Spaggestisburg.
  • Redheaded Hero: Sinister.
  • Too Dumb to Live: In Dunce Macabre, Kal reckons a man that they have just chased out into oncoming traffic is the dumbest mark that has ever had a price on his head. Finny and Ray proceed to tell him about some of the stupidest hits they ever performed, including a man who hid in a wardrobe (He was told he needed armour and thought they said "armoire"), a man who jumped out the window onto some live power cables and a man who filled in the form incorrectly and got himself killed and paid for it.
  • The Yakuza: The control Mangapore
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