Vigilante (comics)
| Vigilante | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance |
(Saunders) Action Comics #42 (Nov. 1941) (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) (Powell) Vigilante vol. 2, #1 (November 2005) |
| Created by |
(Saunders) Mort Weisinger Mort Meskin (Chase) Marv Wolfman George Pérez |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Greg Saunders Adrian Chase Alan Welles Dave Winston Patricia Trayce Justin Powell |
| Team affiliations |
(Saunders) Seven Soldiers of Victory All-Star Squadron (Chase) Checkmate |
| Notable aliases |
(Saunders) Brilliant marksman Master of the lariat Superb hand-to-hand combatant Excellent horseman |
Vigilante is the name used by several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The original character was one of the first DC Comics characters adapted for live-action film, beating Superman by one year.
The original Vigilante was a western-themed hero who debuted in Action Comics #42 (Nov. 1941). Greg Sanders (the spelling was changed to "Greg Saunders" in the 1990s) grandfather was a Native American fighter, and his father was a sheriff in Wyoming. As a young man, Saunders 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 who killed him.
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 Stuff's grandfather for provoking a Tong war.
The majority of the Vigilante's solo adventures were against non-powered, costumed criminals. He was an excellent brawler, trick shooter, sharpshooter, horseman and motorcycle rider, and an expert with the lariat. These skills gave him advantage over his adversaries in his 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 committed crimes with a color motif. The Vigilante 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 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.
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