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Vigilante (comics)
Vigilante IThe 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' (the spelling was changed to "Saunders" in the 1990's) 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 devoting 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. Stuff was the grandson of Lin Chou, leader of the White Lotus tong in New York's Chinatown. 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 appeared 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 I Appearances
Vigilante VThe last 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 Perez. Trayce found the original Vigilante, Adrian Chase's gear and adapted the guise. She was also Deathstroke's lover. She first appeared in Deathstroke, the Terminator #6. |
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