I always liked the look for the Adrian Chase Vigilante. It looked like something that a district attorney moonlighting as crime-buster would wear, as it completely concealed his identity while being utilitarian and imposing in appearance as well. There have been some redesigns on characters that have taken up the mantle after him, but for me the original costume is still the best.
These two first faced off in STF #1547...
If memory serves, Adrian's outfit was plagiar--ahem! I mean inspire by--a similar outfit first worn by JOHN TARGITT: MAN-STALKER in the fourth and final issue. One of the many short-lived books published in the mid-1970's by Atlas Comics (founded by Stan Lee's brother Larry).
ReplyDeleteAtlas comics was founded by former Marvel Comics publisher and Stan Lee's uncle by marriage, Martin Goodman. Larry Lieber started out as the editor of Atlas's black and white magazines. After their color comics editor Jeff Rovin resigned, Lieber became the editor of them as well.
ReplyDeleteSPOILERS! I'm still really disappointed that Vigilante was killed off so unceremoniously last season on Arrow. I thought he looked cool and could serve as an interesting foil to Oliver.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, terrific cover and amazing pairing as usual, Ross!
-RC
the cw need to have live action versions of manhunter and codename asassin
ReplyDeleteI always thought of the original Vigilante series as the smart Punisher.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about Vigilante, even for Arrow, is that anyone can be him. In the comic there were 2 or three people who took the identity when Adrian Chase dropped it the first time. After he committed suicide Deathstroke's partner became the next Vigilante until she took over his ex-wife's global agency. When the Vigilante returned in Nightwing he thought it was still Adrian because he did not know Adrian was dead. At the end of Vigilante's 2nd series the uniform was picked up for someone else to wear when the current wearer was thrown in prison.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid in inner city Brooklyn, NYC in the '80s, i did not have access to comic specialty shops, so I was always quite disappointed, nay furious, that i could not buy issues of Vigilante or Infinity Inc. Of course later as an adult attending grad school in Manhattan i had access to all the back issues at shops like Forbidden Planet. Still, the memory remains! Ha ha.
ReplyDeleteThese two really shouldn't and probably wouldn't be fighting each other considering their shared views on killing criminals. Nope, just like on my own blog, they'd be teaming-up and causing all sorts of trouble, especially in the media, for the superhero community, igniting a manhunt for those two.
ReplyDeleteNow Daredevil VS. The Vigilante or even Two-Face would be a better idea, considering the shared lawyer theme.
Dale, There's a DD/Two-Face cover on here as well as a couple of DD/Vigilante battles. I agree, they would make great match ups!
ReplyDelete@Batman-13: however you spin it, Larry Lieber was still Atlas' best spokesman.
ReplyDelete@First Anonymous: as Scott Cummins pointed out, anybody can wear that V-neck suit. So, perhaps, Adrian can be replaced by someone with even more experience at kicking cinematic/televisual butt. Like, say, Dolph Lundgren (the 1989 Punisher)!
ReplyDeleteI was down in the dumps when the Adrian Chase Vigilante came to an end, especially when you consider how successful his Punisher counterpart was over at Marvel.
ReplyDeleteVigilante was an awesome and very underrated character with a fantastic look. The first 11 issues of his series were particularly good.
ReplyDeleteI'd still like to see this Vigilante go up against his Atlas Comics counterpart from the Seventies: John "Man-Stalker" Targitt!
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