Vigilante (comics)

Vigilante is the name used by several fictional characters appearing in DC Comics. The original character was one of the first DC Comics characters adapted for live action film, beating Superman himself by one year.

Greg Saunders

Superherobox


caption=Art by Mort Meskin.
character_name=Vigilante
real_name=Greg Saunders
publisher=DC Comics
debut= "Action Comics" #42 (November 1941)
creators=Mort Weisinger
Mort Meskin
alliances=Seven Soldiers of Victory
All-Star Squadron
aliases=
powers=Master Marksman
Peak human physical condition
Experience in hand to hand combat |

The original Vigilante was a western-themed hero who debuted in "Action Comics" #42 (November 1941). The origin of the Vigilante was fairly straightforward, as was typical of 1940's mystery men. Greg Sanders's (the spelling was changed to "Saunders" in the 1990s) grandfather was an Indian fighter, and his father was a sheriff in Wyoming. As a young man, he moved east to New York City and became a country singer, radio's "Prairie Troubadour". Greg returned to his home after his father was killed, bringing to justice the gang of bandits that had killed the sheriff during a stagecoach hold-up. Afterwards he devoted his life to battling criminals in the same manner, taking the Western-themed identity of the Vigilante. One slight revision to this came a few months later, when it was explained that the stagecoach was used to transport gold from a mine, and that the bandits were actually Easterners, since the idea of a stagecoach heist in modern times was a little absurd.

The Vigilante, like many heroes of the era, acquired a sidekick to aid him in his crime fighting. Stuff the Chinatown Kid, was introduced in "Action Comics" #45. He assisted the Vigilante when a Japanese spy known as the Head framed his grandfather for provoking a Tong war. Stuff worked with the Vigilante until his apparent retirement.

For the most part, the Vigilante's solo adventures were pretty down-to-earth. He was an excellent brawler, trick shooter, sharpshooter, horseman and motorcycle rider, and an expert with the lariat, all skills that put him to great advantage over his adversaries in his entertaining, but often-mundane adventures, which centered primarily in New York City.

The Vigilante fought few foes that could be considered real "super-villains". His arch-foes were the Dummy, a brilliant weapons inventor and professional killer who resembled a ventriloquist's dummy in both size and facial features, and the Rainbow Man, who always committed crimes with some sort of a color motif. He also encountered The Rattler on several occasions, as well as The Fiddler and The Shade, though the latter two villains are not the same foes that battled the Golden Age Flash.

The Vigilante was also a member of the Seven Soldiers of Victory (also known as the Law's Legionnaires), one of the earliest super-hero teams (appearing in "Leading Comics"). In these adventures, his sidekick Stuff never appeared, being replaced by an old, somewhat crotchety man named Billy Gunn. The Vigilante was also one of the few super-hero features to survive the end of the "Golden Age" of super-hero comics, lasting as a solo feature until "Action Comics" #198 (1954), when he was permanently replaced by Tommy Tomorrow.

The Vigilante was revived in the seventies in the pages of Justice League of America, when the Seven Soldiers of Victory were brought back into active continuity. "World's Finest Comics" #214 had him teaming up with, and saving the life, of Superman. He also got a periodic feature in the pages of "Adventure Comics", drawn by both Mike Sekowsky and Gray Morrow, and also in "World's Finest Comics".

The short-lived series in World's Finest culminated in the Vigilante coming to Gotham City to meet his old partner Stuff, only to find his friend murdered by his old enemy, the Dummy. At the end of this series, our hero rode off with Stuff's son (who had been trained by Richard Dragon).

Vigilante continued to appear in the DCU until recently, having been established as running a dude ranch in Mesa City (the former home of Western hero Johnny Thunder).

In Grant Morrison's "Seven Soldiers" # 0, the Vigilante establishes a new Seven Soldiers of Victory to battle the monstrous spider of Miracle Mesa. He is apparently killed alongside the rest of the team, only to re-appear as a ghost in "Bulleteer" # 3 (also part of the Seven Soldiers series).

Note: Pre-Crisis, there were both an Earth-1 and an Earth-2 Vigilante. Both were Greg Saunders from their respective Earths. Earth-1's Vigilante was shown in the pages (and cover) of the JLA issue where the superteam moved to their classic headquarters on an orbiting satellite.In Detective Comics #493 it was revealed that Greg Saunders had a nephew, Michael Carter, who became a costumed crimefighter too, the Swashbuckler.

Appearances

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*Action Comics #42-198, 403 (reprint), 405 (reprint)
*Action Comics Souvenir Edition (1947)
*Adventure Comics #417, 422, 426, 428, 438-443 (as part of the Seven Soldiers of Victory feature)
*All-Funny Comics #16
*All-Star Squadron #1 (cameo), 29, 31(cameo), 50 (cameo), 56, 60 (cameo)
*Anthro #5 (text feature)
*The Brave and the Bold #81 (text feature)
*Crisis on Infinite Earths #5, 12 (cameos)
*DC Comics Presents #38 (cameo in "Whatever Happened to the Crimson Avenger?")
*DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #6
*Detective Comics #140, 496 (cameo)
*El Diablo #12
*Four Star Spectacular #4 (reprint)
*The Golden Age #1, 4 (cameos)
*The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told
*Impulse Annual #2
*Infinity, Inc. #11
*JLA Year One #11, 12 (cameos)
*JSA #49-51
*Justice League of America #78-79, 100-102, 144
*Leading Comics #1-15
*Legion of Super-Heroes V4 #45 (cameo as part of Mordru's undead army)
*Real Fact Comics #10
*Secret Origins V1 #4 (reprint)
*Secret Origins V2, #9 (cameo)
*The Spectre V1 #6 (text feature)
*Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #0, 1 (cameos), 9
*Super DC Giant S-15 (reprint)
*Superman and Batman: World's Finest (cameo)
*Vigilante: City Lights, Prairie Justice #1-4
*Wanted: The World's Most Dangerous Super-Villains #3 (reprint)
*Western Comics #2
*World's Finest Comics #214, 225 (reprint), 227 (reprint), 228 (reprint), 244-248
*The Young All-Stars #1, 3 (cameo), 4 (cameo), 5 (cameo), 25 (cameo), 27, Annual #1
*Seven Soldiers of Victory #0
*Bulleteer #2,3, 4

Other Vigilantes

Superherobox


caption=
character_name=Vigilante
real_name=- Adrian Chase
- Alan Welles
- Dave Winston
- Patricia Trayce
- Justin Powell
publisher=DC Comics
debut=(Chase)
"New Teen Titans Annual" #2 (1983)
(Welles)
(as Vigilante) "Vigilante" #20 (August 1985)
(Winston)
(as Vigilante) "Vigilante" #28 (April 1986)
(Trayce)
"Deathstroke the Terminator" #6 (April 1992)
(Jutin Powell)
"Vigilante vol. 2, #1 (November 2005)
creators=(Chase)
Marv Wolfman
George Pérez
alliances=(Chase)
Checkmate
aliases=
powers=|

Adrian Chase, Alan Welles, Dave Winston

The character was revived and updated in 1983's "New Teen Titans Annual" #2 by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez.

His identity this time was Adrian Chase, a New York district attorney whose family was killed by mobsters. This caused Chase to seek justice in his own way as the Vigilante. The character was one of the first amoral comic characters and influenced by the Punisher from Marvel Comics and The Executioner series of novels.

After his initial appearance he gained his own ongoing series initially written by Marv Wolfman but later included writers such as Alan Moore and Paul Kupperberg. In the early issues of Vigilante, it was shown that Adrian took pains to make sure he didn't kill his enemies (unlike the Punisher) - he would regularly use non-lethal weaponry to disable his opponents. However, in issue 37, Vigilante allowed a police officer to die as a direct result of his actions. Vigilante then became more violent and cared less about who was caught in the crossfire.

Throughout the series Chase was tormented over the justice of his actions and the pain it had brought to others. As early as the second issue of the series Chase flirted with abandoning his costumed identity after he savagely beat an ex-convict who turned out to be innocent. Eventually Chase abandoned his identity as Vigilante, believing that he could be both more effective and also happier as a judge. However, during his absence the identity of Vigilante was assumed, in succession, by two of his friends without his knowledge.

The first of these was fellow judge Alan Welles, who operated in a much more violent manner, even executing petty thieves. Chase eventually tracked down and killed this incarnation of Vigilante, without realizing it was his friend. The incident led to increased guilt on Chase's part and also increased scrutiny from a law enforcement task force headed by Harry Stein, as he attempted to cover up Alan Welles' role as Vigilante.

Shortly after this Dave Winston, Adrian Chase's bailiff assumed the Vigilante identity. Refusing to kill, Winston traded on the fierce reputation of Vigilante to intimidate information out of thugs. He was murdered by Peacemaker while attempting to stop the hijacking of a plane which Chase was on. In the wake of Winston's death, Chase once again assumed the role of Vigilante, feeling that it was the only way to protect those he loved. Seeking revenge on Peacemaker, the out of shape Chase was beaten in a fight and unmasked on live TV, thereby ending his secret identity and forcing him even further into the role of Vigilante.

As the series progressed Chase became ever more conflicted over his role as Vigilante, the violence he engaged in, and the harm he caused to those around him. He also became increasingly mentally unstable -- alternating between bouts of enraged violence, paranoia, and terrible remorse for his actions. Near the end, he even resorted to murdering innocent police officers who got in his way. His mounting guilt culminated in the final issue of his series (#50) where, after contemplating the course of his life, Chase committed suicide.

Before his death, he frequently battled Cannon and Saber and Electrocutioner.

Adrian makes an appearance in the Day of Judgement limited series, as one of the dead heroes in Purgatory. He and the others run interference, battling the guardians of the realm, so other living heroes can escape with the soul of Hal Jordan. As stated in issue #5 of the limited series, Adrian's rebellious battle against the guardians earns their 'cases' review by Heavenly.

Pat Trayce

The next Vigilante was Patricia Trayce, a rogue cop who teams up with Deathstroke the Terminator in the "Deathstroke the Terminator" series written by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. Trayce found the gear of the second Vigilante (Adrian Chase) and adapted the guise. She was also Deathstroke's lover. She first appeared in "Deathstroke the Terminator" #6. In "Deathstroke the Terminator" #11, Pat Trayce takes up the uniform of the Vigilante. She was trained by Deathstroke, and soon started to work alone

Justin Powell

Late in 2005, DC published a Vigilante limited series written by Bruce Jones. The identity of the title character is initially left mysterious, but apparently this is a new incarnation of the character.

His name was Justin "Jay" Sutter. When he encountered a murderer as a child, he created a second personality in his mind, The Vigilante. Jay at some point changed his name to Justin Scott Powell and would become the Vigilante subconsciously. While Powell was unaware of the Vigilante personality, the Vigilante knew about Powell. At the end of the mini, Powell was able to reconcile the two personalities.

This Vigilante was last seen, alongside Wild Dog and the current Crimson Avenger, on a rooftop in the great battle of Metropolis, raining bullets down on the Trigger Twins, the Madmen, the second Spellbinder, and others in "Infinite Crisis" #7.

New Vigilante

A Vigilante recently appeared in "Nightwing" #133-137, no further information as of yet is given as to whether he is a previous Vigilante or someone new although it has been confirmed that it is not Adrian Chase. According to Nightwing #137, a new 'Vigilante' title is to be released from December. Details are unknown other than that this will continue the story of the '321 days' arc. Note that Marv Wolfman has pointed out the '321 Days' arc was cut short by two issues due to a major crossover event which required the Nightwing title to continue it, so the final story as seen ended without any clear closure for any of the characters.This Vigilante also appears in "Gotham Underground", set after his initial encounter with Nightwing.

Other versions

In Kingdom Come, Alex Ross portrays the cowboy version of the Vigilante fighting alongside the rogue metahumans as a steampunk cyborg with a pinwheel/steam engine arm with a gatling gun on the end.

Other media

Television

The original Vigilante appeared in "Justice League Unlimited" voiced by Nathan Fillion (who played lead character Malcolm Reynolds in the sci-fi western "Firefly" and Sheriff Bill Pardy in the horror comedy "Slither"). In the traditional style cowboy hat and costume, usually alongside Shining Knight. He mentioned that he was imprisoned by the Thanagarians during the invasion during the episode "Hunter's Moon" and also appears in episodes like "Dark Heart" and "Task Force X" (where he was voiced by Michael Rosenbaum). He rides a motorcycle and appears to use a pair of revolvers that have special bullets with extra penetrating power. There is also suggestion that he, like his comic book counterpart, is a country singer, as he claims to play the guitar in the episode "Patriot Act".

Film

In 1947 Columbia Pictures released a 15-chapter serial loosely based on the original Greg Sanders character, called "The Vigilante". It starred Ralph Byrd in the title role but changed several aspects. In the serial, The Vigilante is a masked government agent undercover as a playboy actor starring in Westerns. His mission in the serial is to investigate the disappearance, and possible smuggling into America, of a string of rare blood red pearls. The costume has been slightly changed as well but The Vigilante still rides a motorcycle and wields a gun. This serial makes Vigilante one of the first DC Comics characters adapted to live action film (along with Congo Bill, the same year). Batman was adapted into a serial in 1943 and Hop Harrigan in 1946, but "Superman" was not made until 1948. The Fawcett Comics characters, Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher, which were later bought by DC, had serials in 1941 and 1942 respectively.

References

* [http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=vigilante DCU Guide: Vigilante (Greg Saunders)]
* [http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=vigilante2 DCU Guide: Vigilante (Adrian Chase)]
* [http://www.titanstower.com/source/whoswho/vigilante.html Titans Tower Profile: Vigilante II (Adrian Chase)]
* [http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=vigilante5 DCU Guide: Vigilante (Pat Trayce)]
* [http://members.aol.com/mg4273/westernc.htm#Western DC Western Comic Books profile: Vigilante (Greg Saunders)]
* [http://members.tripod.com/originalvigilante/swashbuckler.htm Bio of Swashbuckler, the Greg Saunders's nephew]