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Robin learns the depths of Chase's obsessions in NEW TEEN TITANS
#34 [1983]. |
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Pushed Too Far
Adrian Chase grew up a son of an affluent and prominent family. Nonetheless, Adrian was an overachiever and didn't settle for having things handed to him. After matriculating with honors and graduating law school he looked for a job that would get him into the courtroom and out of the country clubs.
With that in mind, Adrian sought and landed a job with a legal aid office on Manhattan's Lower East Side, resigning from his father's firm. It was there that Adrian met Doris Brinkley, a young paralegal, whom he would eventually marry. The couple married, and Adrian and Doris had two children, Adam (son) and Drew (daughter).
Seeing the control the mob had over the city of New York, the Manhattan District Attorney offered him a position on his staff. Adrian accepted with enthusiasm. Adrian's relentless pursuit of the city's criminal hierarchy won the tireless DA praise from the press and public but earned him many enemies in the underworld. Foremost among these was Anthony Scarapelli, head of one of New York's mob families against whom Adrian was gathering incriminating evidence.
With the help of Robin of the Teen Titans, Chase went so far as to flaunt the very laws they both upheld in order to harass Scarapelli into a confession. Frightened that the DA would indict him, Scarpelli ordered Adrian Chase killed. A bomb placed in Adrian's apartment exploded as planned, but instead of killing him, it was his wife and children who died.
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Chase is revealed as The Vigilante in NEW TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #2 [1983]. |
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| Chase dispenses hard justice as The Vigilante in NEW TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #2 [1983]. |
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Vigilante Justice
Anthony Scarapelli, who was responsible for the attack, was scheduled to be "disciplined" by his Mafia superior, Donna Omicidio. Despite a court order to the contrary, Robin began a campaign of harassment against the mob leader.
Though they had misgivings about his attitude and methods, the other Teen Titans agreed to help Robin prove Scarapelli's guilt, and they began raiding the sites of his various illegal enterprises. Panicked, Scarapelli called on the aid of the Monitor, who provided him with six super-powered assassins (Scorcher, Spear, Bazooka, Slasher, Tanker, and Cheshire).
The Titans intervened to prevent Scarapelli's Monitor-provided troops from wiping out Donna Omicidio and her men. Robin himself went to Scarapelli's home, where the mobster, about to flee the country, had been attacked by the mystery man from the warehouse fight. The costumed avenger, who called himself the Vigilante, proved to be Adrian Chase in a new identity.
When Robin confronted Chase, Scarapelli pulled a gun and shot both Robin and Vigilante a split-second before Chase returned fire. The police arrived to find Scarapelli dead, Robin wounded, and no sign of Scarapelli's assailant. Robin decided to remain silent regarding the Vigilante and his true identity.
A Tragic End
Vigilante took his fight to the streets of the city, widening his focus to include many criminals who habitually preyed on the weak and defenseless. Eventually, Adrian Chase began to question his motives and work as Vigilante and tried to give up his Vigilante career on several occasions only to be pulled back into his obsessive never-ending crusade.
Bruised by a year-long series of tragedies and guilt, Chase became plagued by his own personal demons. Adrian Chase eventually fell into a state of self-loathing and took his own life.
Adrian Chase takes his own life in VIGILANTE #50 [1988]. |
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Vigilante is skilled in the use of firearms and knives. He is in superb physical shape and practices several of the martial arts. Vigilante also possesses an advanced knowledge of certain Oriental meditative processes that allow him to overcome pain and facilitate tie healing of most non-fetal wounds and injuries.
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The Vigilante Legacy
Who is that masked man? Over the years, multiple DC characters have claimed the name, Vigilante.
Here's a quick-list of who's who.
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Vigilante
Alias: Gregory Sanders |
The original Vigilante was a Western hero who first debuted in Action Comics #42 in 1941. Nathaniel Sanders and his wife had three children: Rebecca, Gregory and Jeffrey. Jeffrey died of "the fever" and Nathaniel was killed by stagecoach bandits. Greg grew up to become the famous radio star known as "The Prairie Troubadour." But to avenge his father, Greg donned the costumed identity of the Vigilante.
He also took on a sidekick, the youthful Daniel Leong from Chinatown, who fought crime as Stuff (Action Comics #45). Gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Seigel later killed Stuff, sending Vigilante on a mission of vengeance. The Vigilante was joined by Jimmy's younger brother, Victor, who also used the name Stuff and continued his brother's war on crime and injustice. Vigilante finally gained revenge on Seigel in a one-on-one confrontation.
Gregory Sanders had several gun-slinging adventures of his own, but also became a member of the Seven Soldiers of Victory (also known as Law's Legionnaires) in Leading Comics #1-14 (1941-1945).
Vigilante enjoyed a healthy 157-issue run as a back-up feature in Action Comics, but wasn't seen again until the 1970s in Justice League of America #78-79. Two years later, he appeared again in Justice League of America #100-102 with the Seven Soldiers of Victory. This story established that the Soldiers had been lost in time in the Old West since their last appearance in Leading Comics #14 way back in 1945. Having roamed the Old West from 1875 to 1895, Greg Sanders was rescued by the Justice League and Justice Society and brought back to the present.
Since then, Greg Sanders appeared in Adventure Comics and World's Finest Comics, and even a mini-series titled Vigilante: City Lights, Prairie Justice in 1995.
Greg himself mostly enjoyed his retired life, having earned monies through wise investments made over 40 years ago. Keeping him company is his patient wife, Helen, and his business advisor (and one-time sidekick), the now middle-aged Victor "Stuff" Leong. Greg Sanders was shown recently to also have survived into his old age, just long enough to reform a new team of Seven Soldiers of Victory who are mostly killed in their battle with a large monster insect.
Essential Reading:
Action Comics #42-197
Leading Comics #1-14
Justice League (first series) #78-79, 100-102, 144
Adventure Comics (first series) # 438-443
Vigilante: City Lights, Prairie Justice #1-4
El Diablo #12
Stars And S.T.R.I.P.E. #1
JSA (third series) #49-51
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Vigilante
Alias: Adrian Chase |
In the 1980s, the comic book medium began to evolve and mature. There was good and evil, but readers started to see the introduction of characters that would be a little more ambiguous. Marvel started the trend with characters like Wolverine and the Punisher. And DC soon followed suit with the all-new Vigilante: an urban commando who waged his own war on crime.
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Chase is revealed as The Vigilante in NEW TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #2 [1983]. |
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Tough District Attorney Adrian Chase first appeared in New Teen Titans #23 in 1982. Writer Marv Wolfman created a cop character who grew increasingly irritated by the alarming crime rate as well the revolving-door justice system. The situation starts to reach a breaking point in New Teen Titans #33-34, where Chase teams up with Robin to bring down Anthony Scarapelli, head of one of New York's mob families. Chase is able to arrest Scarapelli, but Robin is later horrified to learn Chase's illegal methods in his pursuit of the famed mob boss. In retaliation, Scarapelli plants a bomb in Chase's apartment, which killed his wife and two children when it exploded.
The story reaches its climax in New Teen Titans Annual #2, where Adrian Chase makes his debut as Vigilante. Scarapelli is about to be executed by the mob for making a mistake, but an unknown masked assassin finds him instead. Revealing himself as Adrian Chase, he announces his intentions to wage a war on crime as Vigilante. Robin witnesses the tense stand-off, which results in Chase killing Scarapelli. By this time, DC had already been planning a Vigilante ongoing series.
Marv Wolfman explains how he wanted to differentiate the Vigilante from The Punisher: " I think people simply assumed I was going to send the Vigilante off to kill everyone in creation who was ever served a parking summons or found littering. No way, folks! The Vigilante is obviously a protagonist whose methods are questionable, but he does not use his gun unless he has to. The character, his unique perspective of the law - having once been a District Attorney - and his method of operations make him different from virtually all the other characters of this type in pulp novels or in comics."
Marv Wolfman launched the Vigilante series with Keith Pollard on pencils. Some Teen Titans characters appeared during the course of the series. Cyborg appears in Vigilante #3 and Nightwing appears in a two-parter in Vigilante #20-21. Captain James Hall, who also appeared in the Teen Titans series, is featured as a supporting character throughout.
After Marv Wolfman left the title, Paul Kupperberg assumed the writing. The tone of the book began to change, as Chase himself became more obsessed. Adrian Chase's tragic end was perhaps preordained by the events of Vigilante #37, where Chase threw a policeman off a fire escape. After that event, Chase sank deeper into despair and self-loathing. In a shocking finale to the series, Adrian Chase took his own life with a bullet to his head in Vigilante #50 in 1988.
Editor Mike Gold explained the unconventional ending in that issue's letter column: "The conclusion to this issue's story was preordained, ever since Adrian threw that policeman off the fire escape back in #37. When we started working on Vigilante together. Paul Kupperberg and I have approached this run as a multi-part story. [...] I never talked with one who ever thought suicide was going to resolve anything. It would just make the issue moot. Inside each of us lurks a potential vigilante who wants to strike back at evil. Luckily, we keep that vigilante in check. Adrian Chase could not. His desire to commit suicide, his actually pulling the trigger, is understandable if not acceptable: he had become the evil he was fighting. Adrian Chase has paid the price of his actions, as he understood it."
Essential Reading:
New Teen Titans (first series) #23, 26-27, 33-34
New Teen Titans Annual (first series) #2
Vigilante #1-50
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Vigilante
Alias: Pat Trayce |
In the 1990s, grim and gritty characters became quite popular. This led to Deathstroke getting his own ongoing series in 1991. And soon, Marv Wolfman would introduce another all-new Vigilante.
Tough Detective Pat Trayce was introduced in the pages of Deathstroke #6 in 1991, which kicked off a four-part storyline guest-starring Batman. Trayce becomes frustrated with the city's revolving door justice system as mob assassin Jeremy Barker becomes a federally protected witness. When Trayce is framed for an attempt on his life, she dons the original Vigilante costume to clear her own name in Deathstroke #9. This marked the first appearance of Pat Trayce as Vigilante.
Pat Trayce leaves her job as a detective behind her and decides to become the new Vigilante full-time in Deathstroke #10-11. Slade initially refuses to train her, but eventually relents. The two soon become lovers, beginning an on-again/off-again tumultuous romantic relationship. With her new calling as Vigilante, Pat leaves her stepson Luis Jr. in the care of his aunt, Louisa. Pat Trayce returned in Deathstroke #21, and became a recurring character in the series, clashing with Slade while alternately enjoying the occasional physical dalliance with the famous mercenary.
Deathstroke #0 and #41 started a new direction for the title, began a bold storyline called Deathstroke: The Hunted, wherein Slade Wilson was framed for murder and hunted by various DC characters. Pat Trayce was hunted and captured by Slade's now-insane ex-wife, Addie Kane. The conflict (and the Hunted storyline) were ultimately resolved in Deathstroke #50 and Annual #4. By this time, Trayce had let go of the anger and vengeance that had driven her for so long.
Vigilante appeared next in Deathstroke #55, where it was revealed that Trayce had taken over Adeline Kane's Searchers Inc. company, and renamed it Vigilance. Pat claimed she went a little crazy, thinking she could take the law into her own hands, and vowed that Vigilance would be a company dedicated to helping people. She remained a supporting character in Deathstroke until its final issue, Deathstroke #60, in 1996.
Pat Trayce appeared next in the Hawk & Dove 1998 mini-series, where Vigilante and Vixen were called to track down Hawk & Dove at the behest of Checkmate. She also returned to assist Resurrection Man with a new incarnation of the Forgotten Heroes and aided the JSA during the "Our Worlds at War" galactic crisis.
Essential Reading:
Deathstroke #6-11, 21, 29-30, 34, 38-39, 0, 41-46, 55-60
Deathstroke Annual #1, 4
Hawk & Dove (mini-series) 1997
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Vigilante
Alias: Dr. Justin Powell |
While Pat Trayce continued adventuring, that didn't stop DC from introducing a fourth Vigilante. Originally announced as part of the “Superstorm” initiative on August of 2003, Vigilante was one of the three Wildstorm-produced titles associated with Superman that were due to launch around the time of Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee’s Superman run. Plans changed, and the title was later published as a
6-issue mini-series in 2005.
The character had no ties to the previous Vigilante characters, and explored the darker borders of comics. “The original Vigilante began as a western character way back in the day,” Jones told Newsarama. “His most recent incarnation was a kind of DC version of Marvel’s Punisher, but my take will be something else entirely."
Jones described the protagonist as not quite a hero... something that all the Vigilante characters had in common, “A very disturbed and very disturbing mind. This guy is hardly a hero, certainly not in the traditional sense," Jones explained. "I wouldn’t call him sadistic exactly… just exacting. He knows what he has to do and how to go about it; just not — in the beginning anyway — why he’s compelled to do it. That’s a learning process he shares with the reader. It’s pretty painful, maybe on both counts, but necessary, I felt.”
The series itself was a psychological thriller, where the true identity of the Vigilante was a mystery. Eventually, it was revealed that the Vigilante was Dr. Justin Powell. It appeared that Powell created a second personality, the Vigilante, due to the childhood trauma of witnessing a brutal murder. Powell would become the Vigilante subconsciously, protecting the city from psychotics with no regard for restraint or the law. Ironically, Dr. Powell believed in justice for the individual, including the psychotic souls whose whose abuse as children has led them to do terrible things. At the conclusion of the mini-series, Powell was able to reconcile both personalities.
This version of Vigilante is mostly a footnote. Outside of his mini-series, he didn't make an impact. His last known appearance was in the pages of Infinite Crisis #7.
Essential Reading:
Vigilante (mini-series) #1-6
Infinite Crisis (mini-series) #7
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Vigilante
Alias: Dorian Chase |
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His identity still shorouded in mystery, the all-new Vigilante makes a graveside confession to Adrian Chase in
NIGHTWING #136 [2007]. |
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Yet another all-new Vigilante was introduced in the pages of Nightwing #133 in 2007. In a story penned by Marv Wolfman, an entirely new Vigilante is hunting Dick Grayson's old friend, Metal Eddie, who had become leader of the 21 Tigers, an international gang of murderers.
The storyline continued through Nightwing #137, but the reader never learns Vigilante's true identity. The mysterious gunman is scene visiting the grave of Adrian Chase, and explains that he's not out to save the world, just himself. His connection to Chase was not yet made clear, creating an intentional mystery surrounding the character.
Vigilante creator Marv Wolfman shared some insights into the creation of this new Vigilante on his column at marvwolfman.com: "When I was asked to bring back Vig by DC honcho, Dan Didio, I spent a lot of time coming up with a new and surprising back story so he won't fit into the "My family was murdered and now I seek revenge" school of vigilante characters, everyone from Batman and Spider-Man to Punisher and even the last incarnation of Vigilante I wrote back in the 80s. This Vigilante's family didn't die. In fact he didn't have a family (wife or kids) to have died. [...] This Vigilante is a series of mysteries beyond the evil plots he's dealing with, and clues will be dropped along the way as to who he is."
Vigilante received an ongoing series of his own in 2008. His first name, Dorian, was revealed early in the series, but his background was still shrouded in mystery. Finally, in Vigilante #9, it is revealed that Dorian is the brother of original Vigilante, Adrian Chase. Vigilante #11 gives more clues to Dorian's backstory, as a hard-boiled reporter decides to track down the masked, gun-toting anti-hero. His trail catalogues Vigilante's journey from the back alleys of Europe to the streets of Gotham.
In Vigilante #12, the final issue of the low-selling series, readers finally learn most of the details surrounding the new Vigilante's mysterious origins. The story begins almost 10 years ago, when Dorian stands trial for the murder of his wife, Marsha Bennett. An underling of mob boss Solomon Bennett, Dorian was manipulated into believing that Marsha was carrying another man's baby. Consumed with rage, Dorian shot and killed his wife, only to learn he had been set up. Consumed with guilt, Dorian served 5 years in jail for manslaughter, where he learned his own brother's activities as the first Vigilante led him to take his own life. Upon release from prison, Dorian became the new Vigilante as a way to atone for his own past, and used Adrian's weapon specialist, J.J. Davis, as his right-hand man.
As the series comes to a close, Vigilante rescues J.J. from Solomon Bennett's men, but must allow himself to be arrested by the FBI while J.J. goes underground. Vigilante is forced to admit his identity as Dorian Chase to the feds, who place him in Stryker's Island Maximum Security Prison, where he bides his time as he calculates his next move.
Essential Reading:
Nightwing #133-137
Vigilante #1-12
Marv Wolfman on The Vigilante
Adrian Chase's ongoing series was launched in 1983 and lasted 50 issues. Marv Wolfman was the writer when the series began, but Paul Kupperberg later assumed writing chores. The title ended with Vigilante #50 in 1988.
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A George Pérez sketch
of Vigilante from 1982. |
Marv Wolfman on the Vigilante concept: " I think people simply assumed I was going to send the Vigilante off to kill everyone in creation who was ever served a parking summons or found littering. No way, folks! The Vigilante is obviously a protagonist whose methods are questionable, but he does not use his gun unless he has to. The character, his unique perspective of the law - having once been a District Attorney - and his method of operations make him different from virtually all the other characters of this type in pulp novels or in comics. "
"We hope this difference will make him more interesting than those other one-note characters. I'm also working extra hard on my plotting of this book as is Keith Pollard on the art. We don't have super-hero action to save us. The fights must be fairly realistic and yet must be more than something TV or the movies can give you."
Vigilante Q & A with Marv Wolfman
from the Vigilante Letter Column
Question: Is THE VIGILANTE DC's answer to "Death Wish?"
Answer: Not at all. Vigilante is not after muggers, petty criminals or other assorted street typos. He goes after those already declared guilty in a court of law who are then released on technicalities having nothing to do with their innocence or guilt.
Question: Doesn't the Vigilante simply go around killing criminals?
Answer: Definitely not! In fact, he, personally, does not kill anyone in issues two to four (the only ones plotted so far).
Question. How could a political liberal write the adventures of an obvious right-wing extremist?
Answer: I get as angry at violent crime as does anyone. I get tired of seeing basic laws (the Golden Rule?) violated. Also, Vigilante is not a right-wing extremist. His politics have nothing to do with his decision to fight crime. Also, I dislike political labels whether left wing, right wing, liberal or conservative. Everyone is a little part of all the above.
Question: Doesn't The Vigilante offer a poor role model? He's a super-hero who kills.
Answer: The Vigilante isn't a role model. He's one man who has made a drastic and what will ultimately prove a fatal decision in how to conduct his life.
Question: But the very name Vigilante indicates he is going against the law. Should a comic book hero be presented as a law breaker?
Answer: Frankly. I don't know. My goals with THE VIGILANTE are to present well-plotted stories, solid characterization and an exciting and entertaining magazine. I've worked very hard on this book. Knowing the Vigilante is not your typical super-hero forced me to delve deeply into his psyche. Unlike many other heroes of this kind, Vigilante knows he is not above making mistakes. How he will deal with this should make THE VIGILANTE an interesting book to read.
Question: What age group is THE VIGILANTE intended for?
Answer: THE VIGILANTE is aimed at the more discriminating reader no matter his or her age.
Question.' Is THE VIGILANTE a mini, midi or maxi series?
Answer: We hope THE VIGILANTE will be a permanent comic with no end in sight. But that is up to the readers.
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